Solange Farkas Appointed Chair of the Jury for the 61st Venice Biennale
VideoBrasil Founding Director Solange Farkas. Credits ©Acervo Videobrasil/Ricardo Amado
Solange Farkas Appointed Chair of the Jury for the 61st Venice Biennale
La Biennale di Venezia has announced the composition of the international jury for its 61st Edition, appointing Solange Farkas as Chair of the Jury.
We are particularly proud to share this news, as Solange Farkas has been a long-standing member of the International Biennial Association’s Board, contributing over the years to the development of dialogue, exchange, and collaboration for the biennial community globally.
The upcoming edition, titled In Minor Keys, was conceived by Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh and will open to the public on May 9, 2026. Following Kouoh’s premature passing in 2025, the exhibition is being carried forward by her curatorial team—Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, and Rory Tsapayi—ensuring continuity in both its vision and development.
The international jury brings together a group of leading curators, writers, and scholars whose practices span multiple geographies and institutional contexts. Alongside Solange Farkas as President, the jury includes Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi.
Solange Farkas is the founder and artistic director of Associação Cultural Videobrasil, an institution that has played a pivotal role in fostering artistic exchange between the Global South and shaping discourses around contemporary art practices across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Her longstanding commitment to experimental practices, moving image, and transnational dialogue positions her as a key figure within the international art landscape.
The jury will be responsible for awarding the official prizes of the Biennale, with the ceremony scheduled to take place in Venice on the evening of the exhibition’s opening, May 9.
The curatorial framework of In Minor Keys proposes a shift in both tempo and attention, inviting audiences to engage with quieter, often overlooked forms of artistic expression and resilience. As Koyo Kouoh described:
“In Minor Keys is an invitation to ‘shift to a slower gear and tune in to the frequencies of the minor keys. Because, though often lost in the anxious cacophony of the present chaos raging through the world, the music continues. The songs of those producing beauty in spite of tragedy, the tunes of the fugitives recovering from the ruins, the harmonies of those repairing wounds and worlds’.”
