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In Minor Keys – 61st International Art Exhibition
Koyo Kouoh's Biennale Arte 2026, completed by her team after her 2025 death: 110 artists across the Giardini, Arsenale and Venice, tuned to earth, life and quiet signals.
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In one room at the Arsenale everything is red: the walls, the lines of text on them, the light. In the middle, lit green, sits a small metal cube of rare minerals. That's Alfredo Jaar's The End of the World.
Koyo Kouoh conceived the show and its title before she died in May 2025, and her team finished it with 110 artists. You start at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini, walking in past Otobong Nkanga's brick-wrapped columns and bee hotels, then cross ten minutes on foot to the Arsenale, where the long Corderie turns the show into a procession under indigo banners.
Critics split. The Art Newspaper gave the works four stars and the show three, and Apollo's Hettie Judah wrote that the two venues have never "felt so crammed". Wallpaper found it "truly international". The Biennale suggests about three hours per venue. A €30 ticket gives one entry to each, on different days if you like; it's open 10am to 6pm, closed Mondays.
Editor's pick
Koyo Kouoh's 61st International Art Exhibition, completed by her team after her death in 2025: 110 artists across the Giardini, the Arsenale and the city.
Look for
Alfredo Jaar's red room
Look for The End of the World in the Arsenale: crimson light and text-lined walls around a small green-lit cube holding rare minerals.
Nick Cave's bronze hybrid by the water
At the Arsenale, Amalgam (Origin) is a monochrome bronze figure, part human, part animal and plant, overlooking the harbour with 50 species of bird in its chest.
The Amistad Takeover suit
In the Central Pavilion, Big Chief Demond Melancon's vast orange-feathered ceremonial suit carries beadwork showing a revolt of enslaved people.
Otobong Nkanga's entrance
The Central Pavilion opens with brick-wrapped columns, glass terraria, clay pots and wooden bee hotels in Soft Offerings to Silenced Voices.
Kouoh beside Toni Morrison
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons paints the late curator and Toni Morrison as bird-hybrid figures among large magnolias, in the Central Pavilion.
Good for
- First-Timers
- Out-Of-Town Guests
About 360 min
Skip if
You want quiet, focused looking: critics found both venues crammed and the layout hard to follow.
With kids
Under-7s go free, and children from 7 pay the €16 under-26 rate. Family guided tours for adults and children cost €10.50 per person.
Also at La Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
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Image credits
9
- In Minor Keys – 61st International Art ExhibitionCourtesy of La Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
- Alfred Eisenstaedt. La fotografia era nell'ariaCourtesy of Museo Storico Navale
- EMPORION – Andrea ValleriCourtesy of Museo Storico Navale
- Amoako BoafoCourtesy of Museo di Palazzo Grimani
- La Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)AlMare / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
- Museo Storico NavaleGiovanni Dall'Orto / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5 IT
- Ocean Space (Chiesa di San Lorenzo)Didier Descouens / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)Didier Descouens / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museo di Palazzo GrimaniSailko / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0