Kite, Listener, 2018. Performance in Linz, Austria. Photo vog.photo
Counterpublic Triennial 2026 – Coyote Time
September 12 – December 12, 2026
Opening Week: September 9–13, 2026
Curators: Jordan Carter, Raphael Fonseca, Stefanie Hessler, Nora N. Khan, and Wanda Nanibush
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Counterpublic has announced the opening program for Coyote Time, the third edition of its citywide Triennial in St. Louis, bringing together artist talks, performances, tours, activations, and collective gatherings across the city from September 9–13, 2026.
Opening to the public on September 12, Coyote Time brings together nearly 50 commissioned works engaging with neighbourhoods, monuments, historic buildings, cultural institutions, and public spaces throughout St. Louis. Collectively curated by Jordan Carter, Raphael Fonseca, Stefanie Hessler, Nora N. Khan, and Wanda Nanibush, the Triennial considers uncertainty not simply as a condition of the present, but as a space from which new possibilities, relationships, and forms of collective action might emerge.
Building on Counterpublic’s commitment to connecting artistic practice with long-term civic engagement, the third edition addresses questions surrounding education, climate change, technology, immigration, and Native sovereignty, situating these concerns both within the particular histories of St. Louis and within wider global transformations. Developed in partnership with cultural institutions and community organisations across the city, the exhibition approaches public art as a means through which artists can engage with the present while imagining different near futures.
The opening programme extends this approach beyond the exhibition itself, activating the Triennial’s different sites through encounters between artists, audiences, institutions, and communities. Across five days, visitors will be invited to move through St. Louis and experience the exhibition through conversations, performances, shared meals, walking tours, and site-specific activations.
A Grand Opening Celebration will take place on Thursday, September 10, from 8–10pm at Powell Hall, bringing together the artists, curators, and collaborators behind the 2026 edition. The evening will include composer Nina Keith performing the score for artist Alice Bucknell’s Coyote Time together with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Programming continues on Friday, September 11, at the International Institute of St. Louis, one of the Triennial’s principal exhibition partners. From 3–7pm, the program will include artist and curator talks, a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new outdoor sculpture by Petrit Halilaj, and a shared meal developed by Rirkrit Tiravanija and collaborators in the Institute’s newly launched kitchen. Later that evening, Kite, together with local musicians, will perform the graphic score for Wíhaŋyablapi (of St. Louis), a major outdoor sculpture situated in Tower Grove Park.
On Saturday, September 12, the programme moves through several of the Triennial’s key sites. The morning begins in The Ville, where artists and curators including Sandra Brewster, Dail Chambers, Tony Cokes, Margaret Honda, Brianna Leatherbury, the People’s Art and Recreation Center, and Timmy Simonds will participate in a walking tour of commissions situated throughout the historically significant neighbourhood.
The afternoon continues at the National Building Arts Center and NON STNDRD, where Counterpublic has partnered with the two organisations to develop long-term projects addressing climate and regenerative approaches to the built environment. Located within an institution holding an extensive collection of architectural and built-environment artefacts, these projects connect questions of environmental transformation with histories embedded within architecture and material culture.
From the afternoon into the evening, activity shifts towards the Mississippi Riverfront, where artworks and programmes unfold through historic warehouses and public spaces surrounding the Gateway Arch. Performances by Natural Information Society and Won Ju Lim with St. Louis Dance Theater and Amy Granat, conversations with Glenn Ligon and Stephen Andrews, and activations by Alice Bucknell and Tromarama will extend the exhibition along the riverfront until 10pm.
Through this distributed opening program, Coyote Time reinforces Counterpublic’s approach to the city itself as an essential part of the exhibition. Rather than concentrating activity within a single venue, the Triennial creates connections between neighbourhoods, civic organisations, cultural institutions, historical sites, and public spaces, asking how contemporary art might participate in the social and material infrastructures of St. Louis.
The title Coyote Time derives from Alice Bucknell’s 2026 Triennial commission and refers to the moment in a video game when a character has stepped beyond the edge of a cliff but remains briefly suspended in midair, before the consequences of the leap become clear. Counterpublic adopts this moment of suspension as a metaphor for the present: a condition of uncertainty that can equally become an opportunity to experiment, take risks, and imagine what might come next.
Counterpublic 2026: Coyote Time will be on view across St. Louis from September 12 through December 12, 2026. Opening week programming runs from September 9–13, with all events free and open to the public.
