Koyo Kouoh's Posthumous Venice Biennale Critiqued as Lifeless 'Biennial Art'

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled 'In Minor Keys' and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025), opened in 2026 in the Giardini and Arsenale. The exhibition centers on mourning, colonial history, and resistance, featuring works by Éric Baudelaire, Maria Magdalena Campos Pons, Mohammed Z. Rahman, Sohrab Hura, Rose Salane, and Alfredo Jaar. Baudelaire's video installation 'Death Passed My Way and Stuck This Flower in My Mouth' (2021) references a Luigi Pirandello play and is set in a Dutch flower auction warehouse, evoking the transatlantic slave trade. Campos Pons's mural depicts Kouoh beside Toni Morrison, whose novel 'Beloved' informed the curatorial vision. Rahman's works include matchboxes with heartbreak symbols and a crate painted as condoms. Hura's portrait of a deceased grandmother is part of his series 'Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed' (2022–). Salane's 'Panorama 94' (2019) displays jewelry with psychic readings. Jaar's 'The End of the World' (2023–24) features red walls describing conflict minerals used in weapons. Protests occurred during the vernissage: Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) demonstrated at the Israeli Pavilion against the Gaza genocide, and Pussy Riot protested at the Russian Pavilion against the Ukraine invasion. The review criticizes the exhibition as 'quintessential biennial art'—visually seductive but politically toothless, calling it a 'posthumous exhibition' mourning the biennale institution itself.