The 61st edition of La Biennale di Venezia arrives in Venice under extraordinary circumstances. Titled In Minor Keys, the exhibition carries forward the curatorial vision of Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in May 2025 before the project’s completion. Rather than reworking the exhibition after her death, the Biennale chose to preserve and realize the framework she had already developed, a decision that gives this year’s edition a rare emotional and historical weight within the institution’s long history.
Founded in 1895, the Venice Biennale remains one of the most influential platforms for contemporary art in the world, transforming the city into a vast network of exhibitions, national pavilions, installations, and site-specific interventions. Over the decades, it has become a space where artistic experimentation and global cultural dialogue intersect, often reflecting the political, social, and emotional tensions of its time.
For the 2026 edition, Kouoh imagined an exhibition shaped not by rigid categories, but by atmosphere, rhythm, and emotional resonance. The title In Minor Keys references musical structures associated with introspection, melancholy, spirituality, and transformation. Across the Biennale, these ideas unfold through immersive environments and loosely connected motifs, from ritualistic spaces and processional sequences to meditative oases and artist-led “schools” that encourage slower, more sensory forms of engagement.
Spread across the historic venues of the Giardini della Biennale and the Arsenale di Venezia, as well as multiple sites throughout Venice, the exhibition brings together more than one hundred artists from around the world. Their works explore themes of memory, migration, spirituality, urban experience, collective rituals, and diasporic identity, often blurring the boundaries between installation, performance, sound, and architecture.
The spatial design of the exhibition was developed together with Wolff Architects, reflecting Kouoh’s long-standing interest in exhibition-making as a relational and embodied experience rather than a purely visual one. Instead of overwhelming visitors with spectacle, In Minor Keys invites moments of stillness, contemplation, and emotional attentiveness.
Beyond its artistic significance, this year’s Biennale also stands as a tribute to Kouoh’s curatorial legacy. By carrying her vision forward after her passing, the exhibition becomes not only a major international art event, but also an act of collective remembrance, one that positions care, resonance, and human connection at the center of contemporary artistic discourse.