Venice Biennale opens May 9

The Venice Biennale is the biggest regular gathering in contemporary art — part exhibition, part national showcase, part status contest. This year’s edition opened to the public on Saturday, May 9, and on paper it looks familiar: national pavilions, giant installations, long lines, packed vaporetto stops, and a main exhibition spread across the Giardini, the Arsenale, Forte Marghera, and venues around the city. But the real story is that the 2026 Biennale arrived carrying a lot more political and emotional weight than usual. Koyo Kouoh, the exhibition’s curator, died before opening, and the international jury resigned days before the show began. ### What actually opened on May 9? The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opened with Kouoh’s exhibition, In Minor Keys, and it will run through November 22. The public dates and venues are concrete — May 9 to November 22, with the core show at the Giardini, Arsenale, and Forte Marghera, plus projects elsewhere in Venice. That matters because the Biennale is not one museum show. It is a city-sized event that turns Venice into a temporary map of competing national statements and curatorial arguments. (labiennale.org) ### Why does the curator matter so much? At the Biennale, the curator is not just picking artworks. The curator sets the thesis that gives the whole edition its tone. Kouoh was appointed to shape the 2026 show, and In Minor Keys is explicitly presented as her exhibition. So when people talk about this opening being overshadowed, that is the human center of it — the event is opening under the vision of someone who is no longer here to defend it, explain it, or take the bow. (labiennale.org) ### What happened with the jury? The entire international jury resigned before the opening. La Biennale posted that it had received the resignations, and art-world coverage tied the walkout to the dispute over how countries linked to leaders under International Criminal Court warrants would be handled in the prize competition. In plain English — the body meant to hand out the Biennale’s most visible awards stepped away right before the show started. (labiennale.org) That is not normal background noise. That is an institutional rupture. ### Why are Russia and Israel at the center? Because the Biennale still runs through national representation. That structure always carries politics inside it, but this year the pressure got impossible to ignore. Russia’s return prompted protests, including an action by Pussy Riot and FEMEN, and coverage around the previews described arguments over both Russian and Israeli participation as the main flashpoint of the week. Once the jury quit, the usual fiction that art and geopolitics can be kept in separate rooms basically collapsed. (labiennale.org) ### Why does the U.S. show up in this story too? Because the Biennale is also a stage for how countries want to be seen right now. Coverage from opening week framed the U.S., Israel, and Russia as part of the same larger argument — who gets represented, who gets challenged, and whether national pavilions can still pretend to be neutral cultural diplomacy. The point is not that every pavilion is equally controversial. The point is that the whole format is under scrutiny. (cnn.com) ### Is this still a travel event, or just an art controversy? It is very much both. Venice will still get the classic Biennale surge — visitors, hotel pressure, transport crowding, and the usual scramble to see the pavilions before fatigue wins. The official visitor information makes clear how built-for-scale this is, with extended hours at the Arsenale on some summer evenings and the exhibition running for more than six months. (cnn.com) So if you are going, the practical story is simple: this is a huge citywide show, and May openings are the most intense moment. ### So what is the real takeaway? The 2026 Venice Biennale opened on schedule. But it did not open under normal conditions. It opened as a major art exhibition, a memorial to its curator, and a live argument about whether a national-pavilion mega-show can still act like politics is just scenery. (labiennale.org 1) (labiennale.org 2)