by the editorial staff
Yesterday, February 25, 2026, in Venice, Ca’ Giustinian, the official presentation of the 2026 Art Biennale entitled In Minor Keys, which will open to the public from May 9 to November 22. Following the sudden death on May 10, 2025, of Koyo Kouoh, the Cameroonian-Swiss curator appointed to direct the event, the task of presenting its contents fell to her collaborators: advisors Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, editor-in-chief Siddhartha Mitter, and research assistant Rory Tsapayi. The floor was then given to Matteo Morbidi, representative of exclusive partner Bulgari, and Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of the Biennale. The guidelines are those already followed by curators such as Okwui Enwenzor (2015), Adriano Pedrosa (2024), and Lesley Lokko (Architecture Biennale 2023): globalism, decolonization, the redemption of non-Western cultures, equal dignity among all codes and forms of expression, a flea market-like aesthetics. The common ancestor is the 1989 Paris exhibition Les magiciens de la terre. In Minor Keys will feature 111 participants, including artists, collectives, and organizations, with a predominance of Africans and Central and South Americans (many of whom were born and/or reside in Europe and the US), many Americans, a few Middle Easterners, and very few others. No Chinese, Indians, Iranians, Israelis, no Italians, no one from Eastern Europe, Russia, or Ukraine. No space for questions from journalists. It feels like slaloming through the myriad diplomatic uncertainties of today’s world.
Homepage: an image from the official presentation (photo credits Andrea Avezzù/la Biennale di Venezia).