Vatican’s sound pavilion named
The Vatican’s pavilion for the 2026 Venice Biennale will be sound‑based and includes artists across music and film such as FKA twigs, Brian Eno, Jim Jarmusch and Patti Smith. The project—titled “The Ear Is the…”—is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective and will honor Saint Hildegard of Bingen, per The Art Newspaper and ArtNews (theartnewspaper.com) (artnews.com).
The Vatican will stage a sound-based pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, built around listening rather than painting or sculpture. (theartnewspaper.com) The Pavilion of the Holy See is titled “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul” and features 24 commissioned contributors across music, film, poetry, architecture and visual art, including FKA twigs, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, Jim Jarmusch, Devonté Hynes and Precious Okoyomon. (artnews.com) Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers curated the project with Soundwalk Collective, and the exhibition will unfold across two Venice sites: the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelites in Cannaregio and the Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Castello. (artsy.net) The show is tied to Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century Benedictine abbess, composer and mystic whose chants, writings and visions are the project’s central reference point. (theartnewspaper.com) The Vatican first joined the Venice Biennale in 2013, and its recent editions have used the pavilion to engage contemporary social and spiritual themes outside the usual national-pavilion format. In 2024, it placed the Holy See pavilion in the women’s prison on Giudecca. (theartnewspaper.com) This edition also lands as the Biennale moves ahead with “In Minor Keys,” the 61st International Art Exhibition curated by Koyo Kouoh, scheduled to run from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with previews on May 6, 7 and 8. (labiennale.org) Several reports describe the Vatican project as a “sonic prayer” organized around contemplation and attention, with newly commissioned works responding to Hildegard rather than illustrating church doctrine. (hypebeast.com) The title itself carries an extra layer: Artlyst reported that “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul” was a phrase given to the pavilion by German filmmaker and writer Alexander Kluge, whose final work will also be included. (artlyst.com) When the Biennale opens in May, the Vatican’s contribution will ask visitors to stop looking first and start by listening. (artnews.com)
