Venice Biennale music crossover

The Vatican’s pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale is turning to musicians, with new commissioned work from Patti Smith, Brian Eno, FKA Twigs and Dev Hynes. (wallpaper.com) The Holy See said 24 artists, poets, musicians, architects and filmmakers will take part in “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul,” a two-site exhibition in Venice curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers. The project will unfold in the Mystical Garden in Cannaregio and the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex in Castello. (wallpaper.com) The exhibition is built around Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century Benedictine abbess, composer and writer, and the garden section will present 20 headphone-based sound commissions made with Soundwalk Collective. The Art Newspaper reported that visitors will hear the new works while moving through the garden, alongside an instrument that listens to the site in real time. (theartnewspaper.com) The wider Biennale opens to the public on May 9 and runs through November 22, with previews on May 6, 7 and 8. La Biennale di Venezia says the 61st edition, titled “In Minor Keys,” will include 100 national participations and 31 collateral events. (labiennale.org) That timetable has pushed a wave of pavilion announcements in April, including several from Arab countries. The National reported that Lebanon selected painter Nabil Nahas, Morocco chose artist and designer Amina Agueznay, and Syria named London-based painter Sara Shamma. (thenationalnews.com) The same roundup said the United Arab Emirates and Egypt will also return in May, as countries lock in artists and curators for a show that still functions as the art world’s main national-pavilion stage. The Biennale has run since 1895, and its art and architecture editions now alternate by year. (thenationalnews.com) (news.err.ee) Estonia is taking a different route, with Merike Estna planning to paint in public view throughout the exhibition rather than arrive with a finished work. The Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art said the project, “The House of Leaking Sky,” will grow into a single painting spread across 22 canvases. (e-flux.com) Estna’s pavilion turns the act of making into the show itself: she begins with a blank surface, paints daily in Venice, and works inside an installation that includes painted floor tiles, ladders, tables and tools. The project is expected to reach about 22 by 6 metres by the close of the Biennale. (e-flux.com) So this year’s Venice rollout is not just about which country picked which artist. It is also showing how far the Biennale’s pavilion model now stretches, from headphone sound pieces in a Carmelite garden to a painting that will not be finished until November. (wallpaper.com) (e-flux.com)