Patti Smith, Brian Eno and FKA Twigs will represent the Vatican at the 2026 Venice Biennale
The Holy See pavilion will celebrate nearly a millennium of sonic possibilities through specially commissioned compositions, artworks and installations. Here’s who’s participating
Pope Leo XIV may be feuding with a certain world leader this week, but his taste remains divine, as the Vatican’s pavilion at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale will show.
Today the Holy See – the governing body that represents Vatican City and the Catholic church – announced the 24 artists that will be participating in this year’s Biennale presentation, an all-star roster that includes musicians like Brian Eno, FKA Twigs, Dev Hynes, Patti Smith and many more.
The exhibition, titled ‘The Ear is the Eye of the Soul,’ honours the 12th-century Saint Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess, who in addition to authoring scientific works and experiencing heavenly visions, was a prolific musician.
According to a press release from the Holy See, the theme responds to Koyo Kouoh’s broader Biennale theme, ‘In Minor Keys,’ and will offer up a ‘sonic prayer’ for visitors to quietly contemplate. Holy See Commissioner Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça enlisted curators Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers to assemble the group of creatives.
The showing will take place across two venues in Venice, The Mystical Garden in the Cannaregio neighbourhood, and the Complex of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Castello. In the garden, visitors will be able to listen to specially-commissioned compositions via headphones as they wander through the secluded garden’s vegetable plots and arbours, first planted by Catholic Carmelites in the 17th-century. The works were created in collaboration with the Berlin and New York-based experimental music group Soundwalk Collective, which has also created a site-specific instrument that creates music by ‘listening’ to the verdant space.
The curators conceived the Complex of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, meanwhile, as a ‘contemporary scriptorium’ and archive, where visitors will be able to view the last work of filmmaker Alexander Kluge, who died earlier this year; books by Portuguese painter Ilda David; an installation by Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao; and a library of texts by Saint Hildegard herself.
It’s all designed to encourage Biennale-goers to savour a moment of solitude amid a busy festival and an ever-chaotic world. To quote Pope Leo: ‘Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative. Beauty is not just a means of escape; it is above all an invocation.’
Read the full list of participants below.
- Alexander Kluge
- Benedictine Nuns of the Abbey of St. Hildegard Eibingen
- Bhanu Kapil
- Brian Eno
- Carminho
- Caterina Barbieri
- Devonté Hynes
- FKA Twigs
- Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst
- Ilda David
- Jim Jarmusch
- Kali Malone
- Kazu Makino
- Laraaji
- Meredith Monk
- Moor Mother
- Otobong Nkanga
- Patti Smith
- Precious Okoyomon
- Raúl Zurita
- Soundwalk Collective
- Suzanne Ciani
- Tatiana Bilbao
- Terry Riley
