‘In Minor Keys’: discover the themes that define the 61st Venice Biennale exhibition

There has been much anticipation for the 61st Venice Biennale’s main exhibition, curated by Koyo Kouoh, since it was announced in 2024. When Kouoh passed away quite suddenly in 2025, she had selected the title, ‘In Minor Keys’, the artists, the work and the theoretical framework, as well as the architecture of the venue. It was left to a designated team of seven to realise her vision for the biennale.

The resulting exhibition is, perhaps unavoidably, steeped in mourning, but in light of the framework Kuouh laid out, the grief that radiates through many of the artworks is counterbalanced by a gentle meditative thread that runs throughout the show.

‘In Minor Keys’, the 61st Venice Biennale main exhibition

The exhibition features 110 artists, including the high-profile – like the great Wangechi Mutu, based between Nairobi and Brooklyn – and the up-and-coming – such as Ranti Bam, based between London and Lagos – whose sculptures are made by crushing thick clay with her body to mould it.

There is also work from American artist Nick Cave, who uses beauty and dance to question and heal. We see work, too, by Chilean artist Alfredo Jarr, in which he questions our toxic relationship to rare earth minerals. There are many names we know and some we don’t, making this show a pleasant learning experience for artists and practices unfamiliar.

The exhibition is preluded by statement that asks us to take a moment and breathe, and then to contemplate 'the songs of those creating beauty in the face of tragedy' before opening with the poem If I Must Die by the late Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, which acts as a reference to both the time of war we are living through and the choice to continue the exhibition after Kouoh’s passing. This does not fall lightly, given the fact that the biennale’s jury, which decides the famous Golden Lion and other awards, resigned after legal action was taken by the artist representing Israel in the wake of the jury’s stating that it would not be considering artists representing countries led by people who have been convicted in the International Criminal Court. There are only two pavilions this affects, Russia and Israel, and today (7 May) there have been large protests at both.

‘In Minor Keys’ goes on to open with an installation by Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi, Khalil, meaning ‘friend’ in Arabic. The circular work uses film, scent and sound to explore the Sufi belief about the inner and outer self and the divine. Intended as a meeting point to encourage conversation in a healing space, the undulating forms shift through the abstract and the figurative. It sets a contemplative tone and a slower pace for considering the exhibition. It is followed by a series of films by the South African artist Berni Searle – whose works bookend the exhibition – dealing with grief and mourning.

Smaller countries and minority perspectives are also considered in the exhibition. Art from the Caribbean rarely takes centre stage, but there are many works by artists working in Central and South America and the Caribbean islands. Florence Lazar’s work It’s All Thanks to Bad Weather, 2024, uses film to look at the moment a hurricane unearthed a necropolis of Amerindian and African bodies, highlighting past colonial crimes in the present day. We hear from a man who talks us through these events and gives us his perspective, highlighting another theme of the exhibition – where it confronts us with unwieldy and heavy subjects, it is often through the lens of human experience, be that through film or photography.

The series Observatorio de lagunas (Lacuna Observatory) by Sofía Gallisá Muriente uses film, photography and found footage to fill in missing gaps in Puerto Rican history. She interprets the images she collects in many ways, from blowing up film stills into large-scale images to processing images to create short films and installations.

American photographer Carrie Schneider’s work is also installed in a unique way, with huge rolls of images stacked on top of one another to the ceiling. The images include those she has taken with a room-sized camera she made, alongside vitrines of framed work. She experiments with how to take and display photos rather than being wedded to one single practice.

American artist Cauleen Smith is presenting The Wanda Coleman Songbook, a meditation on Los Angeles that turns observations of everyday life in the city into an immersive video installation, and also showcases books, records and music by the poet.

A beautiful film and installation work by South Korean artist Yo-E Ryou, Breath Orchestra, a two-channel video work made with divers who can descend up to ten metres without oxygen. The score is composed of four specific breaths used to complete the dives and accompanies a film depicting young women on a rough sea.

Nature is addressed in the exhibition, from the depths of the sea and up to space; humans’ connections to the land, and what is happening to that land, recur throughout.

There are many works that look at resistance, through empathy, research and dialogue, through collaboration and collective action and through art – from Avi Mograbi’s dialogue on the history of the Middle East to the collectives changing the art eco-system in Ghana and Nigeria, through Yinka Shonibare’s GAS Foundation and the trailblazing BLAXtarlines.

In response to the premise laid out at the start of the show, the works within it could be seen as a blueprint for coping with the barbarism of the modern day. Poems and writing hang from the ceiling and monumental fabric works and large sculpture and installation break up the gargantuan exhibition space.

Listening as a practice is also explored, through Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening and Laurie Anderson’s immersive protest work that looks at counterculture as resistance. Michael Joo’s work also calls us to listen, through suspended fossil-like forms. An extension of the presentation in The Giardini alongside the national pavilions is a bucolic celebration of the garden in its many forms, a joyous end to a thoughtful exhibition.

Kuouo’s posthumous exhibition follows a career in which she brought art from outside the West to the fore through support, exhibitions and in her work at the Cape Town art museum Zeitz MOCAA. Elements of the premise feel unresolved, but perhaps this was inevitable given the circumstances.

This exhibition feels truly international, featuring work from places rarely platformed in Europe. It feels like a call to push forward into a new era and new modes of thinking for whatever the world throws at us next.

labiennale.org