Koyo Kouoh's Biennial in Minor Tones

The traditional press conference announcing the theme of the next Venice Art Biennale, the 61st edition, which will take place from 9 May to 22 November 2026, began in memory of Koyo Kouoh, curator of the International Exhibition, who died prematurely on 10 May. The first words and images of the conference came from an archive video, in which Koyo Kouoh herself introduced herself as artistic director of the next Biennale and wished to see everyone in Venice in May 2026. The emotion in the Sala delle Colonne at Ca' Giustiniane of the head of the architecture and visual arts press office Cristiana Costanzo is palpable. The press appointment was supposed to take place on 20 May, but was postponed for a week after the sad news of her sudden death.

Koyo Kouoh, Photo credit Mirjam Kluka

As many already thought, Koyo Kouoh's project for the Biennale, already well structured, will be carried out by his team and the Biennale. "With the full support of Koyo Kouoh's family, the Biennale has decided to realise his exhibition," said Costanzo. "It will do so in order to preserve, enhance and disseminate his ideas and work, carried out with dedication until the very end." Costanzo traced the stages of the nomination up to the current presentation: "On 17 October 2024 Koyo Kouoh gave her willingness to President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco to take on the position; on 5 November she was officially appointed by the Board of Directors; on 3 December there was the announcement to the press; between October last year and early May this year Koyo Kouoh worked on the definition of the theoretical text, selecting artists, works, authors for the catalogue, determining the graphic identity and architecture of the spaces and dialoguing with the artists. Everything you will see and hear today is the result of his work, which was forwarded to President Buttafuoco on 8 April'.

Koyo Kouoh, photo Antoine Tempé

The philosophical text was read by the voices of Koyo Kouoh's professional figures: advisors Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira and Rasha Salti; editor-in-chief Siddhartha Mitter; and assistant Rory Tsapayi. 'In Minor Keys' is the title of the exhibition. "Take a deep breath," so begins the text, "exhale, relax your shoulders and close your eyes. It is an invitation to take in these words in the physical, meteorological, environmental and karmic conditions in which they meet you, to slow your pace and tune into the frequencies of the minor keys, because although they are often drowned out by the anxiogenic cacophony of the chaos raging in the world, the music goes on." A restrained, subdued exhibition, all the more moving in light of the curator's passing. An exhibition that invites us to listen to the persistent signals of the earth and life in connection with the frequencies of the soul. "If in music minor tones are often associated with strangeness, melancholy and pain," the text continues, "here they are also manifested in their joy, consolation, hope and transcendence. In minor tones, sound and sensation are rooted, holding the cadences, melodies and silences of resonant worlds that gather and merge into a polyphonic assembly of art, uniting and communicating in a convivial collectivity, radiating light through the emptiness of alienation and the crackle of conflict."

The Koyo Kouoh Biennial is based on the idea that artists are interpreters of the social and psychic condition, as well as catalysts of new relationships and possibilities. The selected artistic practices "open portals, renew and nurture, stimulate rapport and relationship, and promote the advancement of concept and form through freely and informally understood networks and schools." A choral exhibition, which is based on sharing and relationship, associated with jazz music, which is capable of fusing methods, scales, relies on improvisation and the ability to indulge the unpredictable, to offer the viewer a sensory, non-didactic experience, which renews rather than exhausts, to face the path ahead. Therefore, not a litany of commentaries on world events, nor an act of inattention or escape from complex crises, but a proposal for a radical reconnection with the natural habitat and the original role of art in society, the emotional, visual, sensorial, affective and subjective one. "Rejecting the horror show, the time has come to listen to the minor tones, to tune in to the whispers and lower frequencies, to discover the oases, the islands, where the dignity of all living beings is protected. The exhibition argues that such radical changes are taking place, indeed have always been taking place in the minor tones, and the artists, poets, performers, and filmmakers that the exhibition will bring together are deeply committed to bringing them about."

The president of the Biennale Pietrangelo Buttafuoco began his speech by recalling the moment when he invited Koyo Kouoh to take charge of the next Biennale. She, before answering, asked for a glass of water and, under the constraint of confidentiality and not to leak anything beyond the walls of that room, asked if she could still tell her mother. "In that request lies the romance of a life," Buttafuoco said, "her being deeply rooted in a history made up of feelings, the practice of beauty and, therefore, artistic practice. In her absence, the curator is there to suggest a road, and it is a precise road, the road towards the future."
After the homage to Koyo Kouoh, Buttafuoco's speech ended with the announcement of a new partnership with Bulgari, which from 2026 will be exclusive partner for the next three editions, followed by the greeting of Matteo Morbidi, Heritage and Philanthropy Director of the Maison. Main sponsor of the Biennale Arte 2026 remains illycaffè, while sponsor is Vela - Venezia Unica.