The world’s biggest artistic event opens its doors on May 9, and runs until November 22, 2026, but without a jury, who have resigned due to the current controversial conflicts. As a result, the Gold and Silver Lions will be awarded on November 22, 2026, following a public vote.
The legacy of Koyo Kouoh
This year’s 99 national pavilions promise an artistic richness imbued with sacredness and spirituality. This year’s edition was entirely orchestrated by Koyo Kouoh, the Cameroonian curator and leading figure in contemporary art, who passed away in 2025. Her teams mobilized to stage her vision for the major exhibition, “In Minor Keys – Fréquences Mineures”.
In a vast encyclopedia, Kouoh invited 111 artists to seek inspiration deep within themselves, in their roots, upbringing and traditions. The result is spaces for meditation, multi-sensory installations and stories imbued with modesty. She has succeeded in bringing together artistic participations that are far apart, both in their practice and in their geographical origins. The result is a multi-cultural cartography of art.
Fragility and sensitivity, silence and modesty, invisibility and feeling, give all their character to this edition, which will be discovered like a map of the world.
Plural art for the 99 national pavilions
Moroccan artist Amina Agueznay has designed a vast, poetic textile installation for the Moroccan pavilion, her first participation in the Biennale, and the raffia work, woven over a surface area of 300 m2celebrates the ancestral practices of Moroccan craftsmen.
24 artists animate the Vatican sound trail entitled “The ear is the eye of the soul”. The work pays homage to Saint Hildegard, a German Benedictine abbess who was also an excellent musician. Visitors will stroll through a garden where they can listen, through headphones, to works created by the Soundwalk Collective music group.
Lebanese artist Nabil Nahas presents 26 panels running across the four walls of the Lebanese pavilion. The work, without beginning or end, reveals discordance, but the finesse of his work suggests a certain continuity(photo below).
French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada represents France. Her multi-disciplinary installation, marked with indigo and henna, conveys her own reality as well as an offbeat vision of colonialism and pan-Africanism.
Sara Flores, whose real native name is Soi Biri, represents Peru through a work in the colors of the Ucayali River. The silences of the Amazon rainforest will resonate with the souls of the Amazonian people to re-enchant the world.
Art must be a battle for the beauty of the world, the culture of humanity and the intelligence of the heart. This is the benevolent message sent by the 61st Venice Biennale. Now more than ever.
May 9 to November 26, 2026
61st Venice Biennale – Giardini della Biennale and Arsenale – Venice
