Curatorial backstory: Koyo Kouoh
Reporting on the Biennale notes that Koyo Kouoh was the curator originally meant to lead the 2026 edition, a detail shaping conversations about the show's direction and voices behind it. (petervw.substack.com)
Koyo Kouoh was appointed to curate the 2026 Venice Biennale on November 5, 2024, and the exhibition is still being staged from her plan after her death in May 2025. (labiennale.org 1) (labiennale.org 2) La Biennale di Venezia said Kouoh was named Director of the Visual Arts Department with the specific task of curating the 61st International Art Exhibition, scheduled to open on May 9, 2026. On February 25, 2026, the institution presented that exhibition under the title *In Minor Keys*. (labiennale.org 1) (labiennale.org 2) That backstory now sits at the center of how people read the 2026 show: not as a late change in direction, but as a project Kouoh had already conceived, developed, and partly assembled before she died on May 10, 2025. La Biennale said she worked on the exhibition “to the very end,” and later chose to preserve and realize her plan with the support of her family. (labiennale.org) (biennialfoundation.org) Kouoh’s appointment carried its own institutional weight. Multiple outlets and the Biennale’s own announcement identified her as the first African woman selected to curate the Venice Biennale’s international exhibition. (theartnewspaper.com) (artsy.net) She came to Venice from Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, where she had served as executive director and chief curator since 2019. Before that, she founded RAW Material Company in Dakar in 2008 as a center for art, knowledge, and society. (zeitzmocaa.museum) (cimam.org) The 2026 exhibition now reflects both her authorship and the work of the team she assembled. La Biennale said the show will include 111 invited participants from multiple regions, and reporting on the February 2026 briefing said the curatorial team presented the framework Kouoh had developed with them. (labiennale.org) (theartnewspaper.com) The dates matter because the exhibition is no longer hypothetical. *In Minor Keys* is set to run from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with pre-opening days on May 6, 7, and 8 in Venice. (labiennale.org) So when coverage points back to Kouoh as the curator originally meant to lead the 2026 edition, it is describing the actual origin of the Biennale now taking shape. The person absent from the opening remains the person who set the exhibition’s course. (labiennale.org) (artnews.com)
