To construct her Biennale, Koyo Kouoh (1967-2025) borrowed a term from the musical lexicon: In Minor Keys, that is, the key based on a minor scale, which is generally recognised as conveying a deep and reflective tone, in contrast to the exuberance of the major scale. Applying the same mechanism to the international curatorial landscape means identifying a selection of artists who, for the most part, lie outside the mainstream channels of the art system, and who instead bear witness to ‘other’ forms of research – original and capable, in their collective voice, of narrating the reality that surrounds us.
It is along these lines that the curatorial team working alongside Koyo Kouoh – advisers Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira and Rasha Salti; editor-in-chief Siddhartha Mitter; and research assistant Rory Tsapayi – has steadfastly maintained the ‘thread’ of an ‘uninterrupted’ discourse, as the President of the Venice Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, pointed out in the wake of the curator’s untimely death last May.
Such an event has only one historical precedent: in December 1981, Luigi Carluccio died six months before the opening of the 40th International Art Exhibition. In that instance too, the Biennale carried forward the programme established by the curator, albeit in a context that was vastly different: whereas back then the fortunes of art were played out along the Europe–New York axis, today the artistic landscape is more global than ever, with multiple scenarios and diverse capitals, and perhaps only such a comprehensive narrative can provide a realistic snapshot of the state of art.
In Minor Keys is the result of years of research, exchanges and collaborations with artists of various backgrounds and generations, of reading and listening, with Dakar as a privileged vantage point. It was here, in 2008, that Kouoh founded the RAW Material Company, a centre for art and knowledge, aware that in the heart of Africa, culture is a tangible form of liberation. Hence the decision to dedicate a reflection in this Biennale to the theme of the ‘school’, as a place of sharing and collaborative practice that intertwines art and social responsibility.
It was also in Dakar, in the shade of a mango tree, that in April 2025 Koyo Kouoh presented the project to her working group, teaching them first and foremost the value of the surrounding environment, of discovery, of reading and listening, even as curatorial practices.
The key words of this Biennale are whisper, soul, organic, poetry, other and elsewhere… to return to us. It is an exhibition conceived with a strong sensory engagement that begins precisely with a musical metaphor, because sound cuts across every culture and latitude, ‘speaking’ to every living being by touching the deepest chords of existence.
It is a Biennale that will feature ‘stumbling blocks’ – crucial pauses for reflection along the exhibition route – beginning with the Central Pavilion, which pays tribute to two key figures in Koyo Kouoh’s career: Issa Samb (1945-2017), co-founder of the revolutionary collective Laboratoire Agit’Art in Dakar, and Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015), an artist and spokesperson for unresolved historical memories through a wholly unconventional sense of monumentality, whose legacy remains as relevant as ever.
With rare exceptions, the 61st Biennale is an exhibition of living artists, reflecting a curator who has not focused on rediscovering figures forgotten by an unjust, colonialist-style art history, but has taken a risk by featuring many mid-career artists, under the aegis of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), a brilliant juggler and, indeed, a talent scout.
Of the 111 artists on display, including six collectives, there are certainly names already established within the system of major international galleries: Kader Attia, Alvaro Barrington, Torkwase Dyson, Carsten Höller, Wangechi Mutu, Otobong Nkanga, Walid Raad, and even two celebrities such as Laurie Anderson and Nick Cave. For the most part, however, these are artists who, although now established in the nerve centres of the art world, carry with them the baggage of having been born elsewhere, which enriches their work.
It is an exhibition that remains fully true to Koyo Kouoh’s programme, not least through its clear reference to her passion for poetry – which served as “a guiding light in the curatorial process of this exhibition” – and to certain works of literature such as Beloved by Toni Morrison (1931–2019) and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014), capable of drawing the reader into a journey across worlds and through time, creating a sort of magical realism.
It is these worlds that the exhibition also reveals by highlighting the importance of the garden, understood as an oasis in which to rediscover awareness, an appreciation of the value of greenery, its effect on our lives, and its regenerative power. A force made visible also by the graphic design – entrusted by Kouoh herself to Clarissa Herbst and Alex Sonderegger – inspired by komorebi, a Japanese term denoting the effect of light filtering through foliage, generating a sense of relief and peace.
Peace, sharing, respect… are other guiding principles of In Minor Keys, and pressing concerns of the world we live in: it is a Biennale that thus aims to be a journey of growth, to cross thresholds, to shift the focus of art to the edges of the world, in an exhibition that resonates with all humanity and sows the seeds for a new Humanism.
All images: courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
Title image: Ph Marco Cappelletti, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia-MiC