In Minor Keys to Guide the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026

Image from the press conference held on May 28 to present In Minor Keys. Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

61st Biennale di Venezia: In Minor Keys
15 May – 22 November 2026
Curator: Koyo Kouoh | Team: Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, Rory Tsapayi
Biennale di Venezia

On 28 May 2025, La Biennale di Venezia announced that the 61st International Art Exhibition, set to take place from 9 May to 22 November 2026, will proceed under the title In Minor Keys, in full accordance with the curatorial vision of the late Koyo Kouoh. The decision, made in agreement with Kouoh’s family, follows her untimely passing on 10 May 2025, and was presented publicly at Ca’ Giustiniani.

Kouoh, who passed away just days before the scheduled unveiling of her concept for the 2026 Biennale, had been working intensively on the project since accepting the role of Artistic Director of the Visual Arts Department in October 2024. Her appointment was made official by the Biennale’s Board of Directors on 5 November 2024 and announced publicly on 3 December 2024, at the conclusion of the 60th edition curated by Adriano Pedrosa.

During the months that followed, Kouoh developed a comprehensive and deeply considered framework for the 61st Exhibition. As the official press release details, she “defined its theoretical framework, selected the artists and the artworks, designated the authors of the catalogue, determined the graphic identity of the Exhibition and the architecture of the exhibition spaces, and established a dialogue with the artists invited to participate.”

The title of the exhibition, In Minor Keys, was submitted to the President of La Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, on 8 April 2025, along with the curatorial text. In that message, Kouoh wrote: “In October 2024, I was greatly honoured to be appointed curator of the 61st edition of Biennale Arte. It is with pleasure that I share today with you and your team the philosophical framework that will guide my curatorship of the exhibition.”

While further details about the exhibition—including the list of participating artists, exhibition design, graphic identity, and participating national pavilions—are to be revealed at the customary press conference in Venice on 25 February 2026, La Biennale has confirmed that Kouoh’s exhibition will be brought to life by the very team she selected and worked with until the end.

The team includes:

• Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo

• Marie Helene Pereira

• Rasha Salti

• Siddhartha Mitter

• Rory Tsapayi

Their involvement ensures continuity with Kouoh’s methodology and sensibility. As La Biennale affirms, the exhibition will be carried out “with the further purpose of preserving, enhancing and widely disseminating her ideas and the work she pursued with such dedication to the very end.”

In Minor Keys resists the pressure for art to produce answers or declarations. Instead, Kouoh’s vision embraces opacity and the poetics of relation: “The minor key… invites us to think about improvisation, interdependence, and vulnerability as modes of artistic labour. It suggests registers of sorrow and joy, strangeness and solace, and the capacity to hold contradiction without collapse.” You can find the full curatorial text of In Minor Keys here.

Further details—including the list of invited artists, graphic identity, exhibition design, and participating countries—will be announced in Venice on 25 February 2026.

La Biennale also announced a new institutional partnership with Bvlgari, which will serve as Exclusive Partner of the International Art Exhibition for the next three editions (2026, 2028, and 2030). This marks a renewed commitment by the Roman Maison to support contemporary art and cultural dialogue on a global stage.

At a moment of deep loss, the decision to carry forward Koyo Kouoh’s In Minor Keys affirms not only her vision, but also her belief in the enduring capacities of art to engage the emotional, the unresolved, and the interconnected. As she wrote in closing her curatorial statement: “To be in minor keys is to remember that not all stories need to crescendo; that the unresolved, the elliptical, the whispered, may offer their own kinds of clarity.”

Keep following news about the upcoming 61st Biennale di Venezia through their site and social media.