Koyo Kouoh's Posthumous Venice Biennale 'In Minor Keys' Realized by Her Team

The 61st Venice Biennale's international exhibition, 'In Minor Keys,' was completed after the death of artistic director Koyo Kouoh in May 2025. A team of five collaborators—Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, and Rory Tsapayi—executed her vision. The exhibition, running from May 9 to November 22, 2026, features 111 artists, duos, and collectives, plus artist-led organizations. Kouoh's text, delivered on April 8, 2025, emphasizes slowing down, rest, and minor keys as resistance. The show is structured around 'undercurrent priorities': Shrines, Processional Assemblies, Enchantment, Oases, and Schools. Lodestar artists Issa Samb and Beverly Buchanan anchor the exhibition. Wolff Architects designed the scenography with indigo banners. Literary influences include Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' and Gabriel García Márquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.' A procession of poets in the Giardini memorializes Kouoh's 1999 Poetry Caravan from Dakar to Timbuktu.