The Venice Biennale has introduced the theme of its 2026 version, slated to run from Might 9 to November 22. Attuned with the late Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh’s imaginative and prescient, In Minor Keys will give attention to low harmonies, connective hums, and enduring cadences of tune and sound.
Earlier than her sudden demise earlier this month, Kouoh, who was tapped to curate the 61st Biennale, elucidated her concepts for the theme in a curatorial textual content. “Through a visual and meditative procession, the exhibition prompts all senses to interconnect and meander from one universe to the other, rendering visible the possibilities that reside in the in-between spaces and beyond the portals,” she wrote, citing the work of writers James Baldwin, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Toni Morrison as inspirations for the large modern artwork exhibition.
“This is an invitation to encounter these words in the immediate physical, meteorological, ambient, and karmic conditions in which they meet you,” Kouoh’s textual content continued. “To shift to a slower gear and tune in to the frequencies of the minor keys.”
The theme for the present pertains to the Venice Biennale’s predominant exhibition, which is put in within the central pavilion throughout the general public gardens and dockyards. It’s one among three predominant aspects of the present, which additionally options nationwide pavilions and a sequence of independently organized exhibitions referred to as collateral occasions.
Koyo Kouoh (picture by Marco Longari/AFP through Getty Photographs)
In Minor Keys will likely be carried out in line with Kouoh’s specs with the assist of her household and contributions from colleagues, together with an advisory crew consisting of London-based historian Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Berlin-based curator Marie Helene Pereira, movie programmer Rasha Salti, New York-based journalist Siddhartha Mitter, and assistant Rory Tsapayi.
Previously the chief director and chief curator of Zeitz Museum of Modern Artwork Africa in Cape City, South Africa, Kouoh was appointed as curator of the Venice Biennale in December. She would have been the primary African girl to be on the helm of the artwork present in its 130-year historical past. Between mid-October 2024 and early Might of this 12 months, Kouoh had labored rigorously to develop the framework for subsequent 12 months’s version, which organizers had slated to announce final week. They plan to launch different particulars, together with the listing of artists for the Worldwide Exhibition, the exhibition design, and the roster of collaborating nations in late February 2026.
In Minor Keys will observe final 12 months’s extremely attended version Foreigners In every single place, which was curated by Adriana Pedrosa, the inventive director of the São Paulo Museum of Artwork.
