The 61st Venice Biennale has opened under the theme In Minor Keys, realizing the vision of curator Koyo Kouoh, the celebrated chief curator of Cape Town's Zeitz MOCAA, who died in 2025 before the exhibition she conceived could be staged.
Running from 9 May to 22 November 2026, the world's most influential contemporary art exhibition draws participants from 99 countries. Kouoh would have been the first African woman to curate the main show; after her sudden death, La Biennale moved forward entirely within her conceptual framework, with the full support of her family and her appointed team. The decision to preserve her vision intact, rather than appoint a replacement curator with a new concept, is itself almost unprecedented in the Biennale's long history.
What 'In Minor Keys' means
Rather than chasing spectacle, Kouoh's theme deliberately dials down the dramatic, choosing to celebrate the quieter undercurrents that shape daily life, from individual moods to the slow rhythms of the planet. It is a notably gentle premise for an exhibition often defined by bold political statements and headline-grabbing installations.
- A focus on subtlety, intimacy and the overlooked over grand statements.
- An emphasis on global voices, particularly from Africa and its diaspora.
- Works that reward close, sustained attention rather than instant impact.
- A musical metaphor that runs through the staging, pacing and mood of the show.
The title borrows from music, where minor keys carry connotations of melancholy, reflection and emotional complexity. Applied to a sprawling international exhibition, it asks visitors to slow down and attend to nuance at a moment when much of the world feels loud and accelerated.
Carrying a vision forward
The theme was presented at a press conference on 27 May 2025, just weeks after Kouoh's death stunned the art world. Her core team, including advisors Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira and Rasha Salti, editor-in-chief Siddhartha Mitter and research assistant Rory Tsapayi, completed the curatorial work she had meticulously shaped in the final months of her life. Their task was both practical and deeply personal: to honour a colleague while delivering one of the art world's most demanding productions.
A poignant edition
The result is one of the most emotionally charged Biennales in recent memory, doubling as both a major contemporary survey and a tribute to one of the field's most admired figures. National pavilions across the Giardini and Arsenale respond to her framework, while the central exhibition foregrounds the artists and ideas she championed throughout her career, including a strong representation of African and diasporic practitioners she long advocated for.
For visitors descending on Venice through the autumn, In Minor Keys offers a quieter, more reflective counterpoint to the usual Biennale noise, and a lasting testament to the curator who imagined it. Many will come not only to see the art but to pay respects to a figure whose influence on global contemporary art is likely to be felt for decades to come.