The Venice Biennale has announced that the 2026 international art exhibition will be held in honour of the late curator Koyo Kouoh, who died suddenly on 10 May.
With the full support of Kouoh’s family, Venice Biennale will carry out her curatorial vision and continue with her title for the 61st edition, In Minor Keys.
Kouoh was selected to helm the 2026 Venice Biennale in October 2024, and had worked to develop the curatorial project between mid-October 2024 and early May 2025. In this process, she had defined its theoretical framework, selected artists and artworks, designated the catalogue authors, and determined the graphic identity of the exhibition and the architecture of the exhibition spaces. She has also established dialogues with the artists she’d invited to participate.
Kouoh’s exhibition title and curatorial vision was originally supposed to be revealed on 20 May, but was postponed due to her untimely death.
In Kuoh’s curatorial statement, she described In Minor Keys as ‘a polyphonous assembly of art, convening and communing in convivial collectivity, beaming across the void of alienation and the crackle of conflict’.
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A team of professionals selected and directly involved by Kouoh will contribute towards realising In Minor Keys, including advisors Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira and Rasha Salti, the editor-in-chief of the Venice Biennale catalogue, Siddhartha Mitter, and assistant Rory Tsapayi.
Venice Biennale 2026 will take place from 9 May to 22 November 2026. Further details will be announced on 25 February 2026.
