It will be titled In Minor Keys (“In Minor Key”), the Venice Biennale’s 2026 international exhibition, which will run from May 9 to Nov. 22, 2026. Curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, who passed away only a few days ago, it was unveiled this morning in Venice by the curatorial team that joined Kouoh in her first months of work, consisting of Rasha Salti, Marie Hélène Pereira, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, and Siddharta Mitter. In Minor Keys, Salti explained with a quote from James Baldwin in 1972, is meant to be “an invitation to welcome these words into the immediate physical, meteorological, environmental and karmic conditions in which they meet you.”
The minor key in music alludes to both the structure of a song and its emotional effects: it is, Salti further explained, "a rich idea, so rich that it quickly overflows from its technical definition and spills over into metaphor. It evokes moods, the blues, the lament, the allegory, the whisper. Minor tones reject orchestral magniloquence and goose-stepping military marches and come to life in hushed tones. Minor tones, that is, lower frequencies, hums, poetry, all portals to elsewhere. Minor tones require listening that rests on emotions and sustains them in turn.
It will, therefore, be an exhibition tuned to minor tones, Pereira stressed. “An exhibition that invites us to listen to the persistent signals of Earth and life, to connect to the frequencies of the soul.” Minor tones “encapsulate the cadences, melodies and silences of resonant worlds that come together and create together a polyphonic assembly of art that gathers and communicates in convivial connectivity, aiming to overcome the emptiness of alienation and the crackle of conflict.”
The 61st Art Biennale will be based on the belief that artists are vital interpreters of the social condition and catalysts of new relationships and possibilities. Accordingly, the composition of the exhibition consists of artistic practices that open portals, that are able to refresh and nurture, that stimulate relationships and relations, and that promote concepts and forms through networks and schools, understood freely and informally. The desired effect will mix cohesion and dissonance in the manner of a free jazz ensemble. The Biennial will be, Pereira further said, an “ensemble festival with a common premise: that free poetics and people create beauty together.” Through relationship, sharing and transcendence, artists and practices that work in this spirit, such as jazz, will traverse methods, scales, senses and forms, offering visitors an exhibition and experience that is more sensory than didactic, renewing rather than exhausting and reinforcing for future work.
The 61st Art Biennale’s international exhibition is not intended to be, said Beckhurst Feijoo, “either a litany of commentary on world events, or an inattention to or escape from complex and intersecting crises. Rather, it proposes a radical reconnection with art’s natural habitat and its role in society. That is, the emotional, the visual, the sensory, the affective, the subjective. In minor tones are sequences of exhilarating journeys that address the sensory and the affective, inviting visitors to wonder, ponder, dream, enjoy, reflect and communicate in realms where time is neither corporate property nor at the mercy of inexorably accelerated productivity.”
“Rejecting the horror show, the time has come to listen to the minor tones, to tune in undertones to the whispers, to the lower frequencies, to find the oases, the islands where the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded,” said Siddhartha Mitter. "The exhibition postulates that such radical changes are taking place. In fact, they have always been taking place in the minor tones. And the artists the exhibition will bring together are deeply committed to achieving them. Artists are channels to and between minor keys, and listening to, rather than speaking for, them is at the heart of the curatorial concept. The exhibition In Minor Keys presents itself as a collective score composed together with artists who have constructed universes of imagination. Artists who work at the boundaries of form and whose practices can be thought of as intricate melodies to be heard both collectively and individually. These are artists whose practices seamlessly insinuate themselves into society. Artists who embrace everyday life as part of a logical and aesthetically coherent relationship between the parts. Artists who are extremely generous and hospitable to life."
The new partnership with Bulgari, which will collaborate with the Venice Biennale for the next three years, was also presented during the press conference. Matteo Morbidi, director Heritage&Philanthropy at Bulgari, said, “We are proud to embark on this path with the Venice Biennale, of which the Maison Bulgari will be exclusive partner for the next three editions of the Biennale arte. First of all, I would like to thank the Venice Biennale for this extraordinary opportunity for collaboration. One of the institutions, as the president said, that for more than 130 years has given voice to the most visionary and representative artistic expressions of our time. A unique and innovative platform that offers a space for confrontation between cultures, identities and perspectives. A context that represents a natural meeting point for our maison. A place where beauty, identity and culture come together in a universal and timeless dialogue. For Bulgari, this collaboration means reaffirming a deep conviction: that art is a living heritage a living heritage to be sustained today and handed down to the cultures of tomorrow with care and dedication. Preserving and promoting and passing on art and creativity is not only a commitment for us, it is a founding value that has been part of Bulgari’s DNA since its origins.”
Full details of the project, including the list of artists invited to the International Exhibition, the graphic identity, the layout, and the list of international participations, will be announced during the presentation of the exhibition, which will be held in Venice on Wednesday, February 25, 2026 .
Some verses by Koyo Kouoh, written in 2022, were also read at the end of the press conference: “I am tired. People are tired. We are all tired. The world is tired. Even art itself is tired. Perhaps the time has come. We need something else. We need to heal. We need to laugh. We need to be with beauty and lots of it. We need to play. We need to be with poetry. We need to be with love again. We need to dance. We need to make and give food. We need to rest and restore. We need to breathe. We need the radicality of joy. The time has come” (“I am tired. People are tired. We are all tired. The world is tired. Even art itself is tired. Maybe the time has come. We need something else. We need to heal. We need to laugh. We need to be with beauty, and in abundance. We need to play. We need to be with poetry. We need to be with love again. We need to dance. We need to create and donate food. We need to rest and regenerate. We need to breathe. We need the radicalness of joy. The time has come.”).
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| The Venice Biennale of 2026 will be called "In Minor Keys": it will be a jazz biennale devoted to listening |
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