Holy See Pavilion at Venice Biennale spotlights Saint Hildegard of Bingen

The Holy See’s 2026 Venice Biennale pavilion is built around Saint Hildegard of Bingen and asks visitors to listen before they look. (vaticannews.va) The Vatican presented the project on April 27 and said the pavilion will run during the 61st International Art Exhibition from May 9 to November 22, 2026. It is split between the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelites in Cannaregio and the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex in Castello. (vaticannews.va) (dce.va) The show is titled “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul,” and the Vatican says it is conceived as a “sound prayer” inspired by the 12th-century abbess, composer and mystic. Curators Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers developed it with Soundwalk Collective. (vaticannews.va) (dce.va) The Dicastery for Culture and Education said 24 artists were commissioned for the pavilion. The lineup includes Brian Eno, FKA twigs, Patti Smith, Jim Jarmusch, Otobong Nkanga, Precious Okoyomon and the Benedictine nuns of St. Hildegard’s Abbey in Rüdesheim. (dce.va) (theartnewspaper.com) Hildegard is an unusual anchor for a contemporary art pavilion because she worked across theology, music, medicine and natural history, and the Vatican is using that range to frame listening as a spiritual and artistic act. Vatican News said the project draws directly on her writings and on the idea that hearing can shape inner vision. (vaticannews.va) The pavilion also extends the Holy See’s recent Biennale strategy of using unexpected venues and social themes rather than a conventional national display. In 2024, the Vatican’s exhibition was staged inside Venice’s women’s prison on Giudecca and was visited by Pope Francis. (vaticannews.va) (theartnewspaper.com) This year’s Venice program is also filling with overtly political collateral events. Belarus Free Theatre, an exiled company that has operated outside Belarus since 2020, is opening “Official. Unofficial. Belarus.” in Venice on May 9 after previews from May 6 to 8. (artnews.com) (news.artnet.com) That exhibition is being presented as an official collateral event rather than a national pavilion, reflecting the absence of an official Belarus representation. Organizers say it will use installation, performance and testimony to depict censorship, surveillance and repression under Alexander Lukashenko’s government. (artnews.com) (news.artnet.com) Together, the Vatican’s Hildegard pavilion and the Belarus project show a Biennale where sound, memory and testimony are carrying as much weight as objects on walls. In Venice this spring, one exhibition asks visitors to listen for contemplation, and another asks them to listen for evidence. (vaticannews.va) (artnews.com)