Venice Biennale 2026 announces curator Koyo Kouoh’s theme “In Minor Keys.”

The Venice Biennale has announced its theme for 2026: “In Minor Keys.” The announcement was made on May 27th by the leaders of the Venice Biennale, including Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the organization’s president. Last year, Koyo Kouoh was announced as the curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale. Tragically, she passed away earlier this month at the age of 57. The Biennale, however, will continue with the theme she created for next year’s edition, which will proceed on its original schedule.

Kouoh’s curatorial team shared her vision for the exhibition, which will open on May 9, 2026. “In Minor Keys” will focus on the ideas evoked by its musical metaphor. Music performed in minor keys is often associated with a strange or melancholic atmosphere. The curatorial team also referenced jazz as an inspiration, noting its unpredictable nature as an inspiration for next year’s show.

The announcement made it clear that the Venice Biennale 2026 would follow the blueprint laid out by Koyo Kouoh. “Koyo is absent, but present from elsewhere,” said Buttofuco in his speech. “We are realizing her exhibition as she designed it.” According to the exhibition’s leaders, Kouoh had already begun working on commissions and artist selection before she passed away.

“‘In minor keys’ are sequences of exhilarating journeys that address the sensate and the affective, inviting visitors to marvel, meditate, dream, revel, reflect, and commune in realms where time is not corporate property nor at the mercy of relentlessly accelerated productivity,” said Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, one of Kouoh’s curatorial advisors. Several writers whose work would inform the next Biennale—such as James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Édouard Glissant—were cited.

The previous edition of the Venice Biennale was in 2024, when its main exhibition, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, was entitled “Foreigners Everywhere.” The Biennale, one of the most significant art exhibitions in the world, is known as a summary of the moment in contemporary art. Many countries present exhibitions in national pavilions in tandem with the main exhibition, though these are not affiliated with the curatorial theme.

The artist list for “In Minor Keys” will be announced next year. However, several national pavilions have already announced their chosen artists for 2026: Yto Barrada will represent France, while Lubaina Himid has been selected for the United Kingdom, Abbas Akhavan for Canada, and Maja Malou Lyse for Denmark. The Biennale also announced that it would be sponsored, for the next three years, by Italian fashion brand Bulgari.

The announcement ceremony closed with a poem written by Kouoh herself: “We are all tired. The world is tired, even art itself is tired,” she wrote, in a verse dated 2020. “We need the radicality of joy. The time has come.”