Venice Biennale's scale

The Venice Biennale is usually something you can picture as one big international art show with a main exhibition and a ring of country pavilions. In 2026, that picture gets much wider: the official program now includes 111 invited participants in the central exhibition, plus 99 national participations and 31 collateral events spread across Venice. (labiennale.org) The public run starts on Saturday, May 9, 2026, and ends on Sunday, November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7, and 8. The awards ceremony and inauguration are set for May 9, which means the city’s busiest art week lands before the long six-month exhibition even settles into its normal rhythm. (labiennale.org) The person behind this edition is Koyo Kouoh, the curator chosen in November 2024 to lead the Visual Arts Department. Kouoh died in May 2025, and La Biennale di Venezia said it would still realize the exhibition according to the project she had already defined, including the artist list, exhibition design, catalogue authors, and graphic identity. (labiennale.org) That decision makes the scale feel different from a normal year, because this is not a show being expanded on the fly. The institution says Kouoh had already set the theoretical framework and worked through the architecture of the exhibition spaces before her death, and her team is now carrying it through. (labiennale.org) The main exhibition is titled In Minor Keys, and the official venues are the Giardini and the Arsenale, with additional projects in other parts of Venice. Think of the Giardini and the Arsenale as the two anchor campuses, and the rest of the city as the overflow that turns a museum visit into a citywide route map. (labiennale.org) The country side of the Biennale is also larger than usual in a very literal way. La Biennale says seven countries are participating for the first time in the art exhibition in 2026: Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Nauru, Qatar, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Viet Nam, while El Salvador is participating for the first time with its own pavilion. (labiennale.org) That matters on the ground because national participations are not all clustered in one place. Some countries have long-standing buildings in the Giardini, others use spaces in the Arsenale, and many are installed in palazzos, warehouses, and other venues across the city, so “seeing the Biennale” can mean crossing neighborhoods rather than walking one fairground. (labiennale.org) The practical details show how much territory this edition covers. Official visitor information lists the Giardini, the Arsenale, and Forte Marghera among the venues, with summer hours from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday late openings at the Arsenale until 8 p.m. through September, and Monday closures except on four specific dates: May 11, June 1, September 7, and November 16. (labiennale.org) Even the awards structure reflects the unusual circumstances of 2026. La Biennale says there will be no Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in the art exhibition this year because Kouoh did not have the chance to finalize the selection before her death. (labiennale.org) So the headline number is not just “111 artists.” The real size of the 2026 Venice Biennale is a central exhibition built from Kouoh’s final plan, surrounded by 99 national participations, expanded by 31 collateral events, and stretched across the Giardini, the Arsenale, Forte Marghera, and multiple sites around Venice for more than six months. (labiennale.org)