The 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, widely recognized as the world’s largest and oldest art organization, opened under the profound shadow of intense political disputations. The sheer density experienced during the preview days reserved for the press and accredited guests, marked by undulating queues extending under persistent rainfall, alongside debates and protests mirroring contemporary geopolitical frictions, wasted no time in generating its own idiosyncratic agenda. Formulating its overarching conceptual framework under the stewardship of curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in 2025, this iteration featured the works of 110 artists and collectives, predominantly composed of women and African artists, unified under the title In Minor Keys, a nomenclature signifying a polyphonic musical metaphor. As explicitly delineated in the preliminary curatorial texts, Kouoh undoubtedly envisaged that a pluralistic manifestation possessing minor tones would culminate in a loose, dispersed constellation of formalizations, progressing through discordant relations. Alternatively, she conceptualized or envisioned a cohesion nourished by psychological crises, complex and perpetually intersecting; an entity that is harsh and fragmented, yet interconnected in equal measure by a profound emotionality.

 

In terms of its overarching presentation, the Biennale projects a distinct appearance that aligns with Kouoh’s prognostications. Within the Arsenale (Corderie), where the international exhibition is situated, one can acutely discern a continuous flux that leaves the spectator breathless, transpiring within a compressed arrangement that adheres to a disciplined, collective gaze. Consequent to the thematic context, the assertion that the artworks are balanced by a mournful, sorrowful, gentle, and meditative ambiance inherently remains a characterization confined primarily to the curatorial texts. For this reason, it is somewhat arduous to perceive Kouoh’s emphasis on the sensitive, the divergent, and the original—on the minute nuances emerging in minor keys or on meaningful lived experiences—amidst the gargantuan installations here, many of which escalate into excesses through textile-based weaving, knitting, and collage methodologies. Everything appears aligned within a density that is juxtaposed, and indeed, intertwined. Within these arrangements, which predominantly accompany discourses on identity, provenance, alterity, and representation, there exists a grand chaos writhing in search of consensus, driven by an obstinate insistence on geographical positioning and an excess of references to localized cultures. It must be further noted that the informational density engendered by this condition renders the tracking of individual artists virtually impossible after a certain point, occasionally eroding the critical comprehension of the exhibited works’ characteristic qualities.

exotic imagination, divergent representational strategies, and material preferences,

 

 

In conclusion, it is perhaps most accurate to evaluate this environment -which so radically negates Western representational strategies and experimental exhibition principles through avant-garde propositions, directly foregrounding the fluid representation of reality and artist performances- as a monumental and magnificent convergence of new modes of thought and production directed toward universal anxieties, crises, and future expectations emerging and exerting influence across diverse geographies of the world.