Sierra Leone’s Biennale debut

Sierra Leone will stage its first national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, joining the exhibition’s official country lineup for the first time. (labiennale.org) La Biennale di Venezia said on March 4 that 100 national participations and 31 collateral events will accompany the 61st International Art Exhibition, with Sierra Leone listed among seven first-time countries. The show opens to the public on May 9, 2026, and runs through November 22, with preview days in early May. (labiennale.org; labiennale.org) The Sierra Leone pavilion is titled “Worlds of Today,” according to My Art Guides, which describes it as a debut national presentation built around listening, research, care, memory and social transformation. ArtRabbit lists the venue as Liceo Artistico Guggenheim in Venice and names Sandro Orlandi Stagl and Willy Montini as curators. (myartguides.com; artrabbit.com) ArtRabbit also identifies H. E. Fatima Maada Bio as commissioner of the pavilion, linking the project to Sierra Leone’s state representation rather than an unofficial satellite exhibition. La Biennale’s rules require a government authority to submit participation if a country does not own a permanent pavilion in the Giardini. (artrabbit.com; labiennale.org) That matters in Venice because national pavilions are the Biennale’s diplomatic core: countries either use a permanent pavilion or secure another site in the city for an official presentation. Sierra Leone is entering that structure in the same year as Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Nauru, Qatar, Somalia and Vietnam make their first appearances. (labiennale.org) The 2026 edition is also shaped by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, whose exhibition title, “In Minor Keys,” was carried forward by La Biennale after her death on May 10, 2025. The institution said Kouoh developed the project between October 2024 and early May 2025, and that the exhibition would proceed as she conceived it. (artafricamagazine.org; labiennale.org) Sierra Leone’s debut sits inside a wider expansion of African state participation in Venice in 2026. AfricanSColumn counted 12 African national pavilions for this edition, including four first-time African participants: Sierra Leone, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea and Somalia. (africanscolumn.com; labiennale.org) Venice has long mixed countries with permanent Giardini buildings and countries showing in borrowed palazzos, schools and other venues across the city. Sierra Leone’s pavilion will not change that geography, but it will put the country into the Biennale’s official map when the 61st edition opens on May 9. (labiennale.org; artrabbit.com)