1922 Revisited Program

A new performance program called 1922 Revisited will take over Venice from May 5 to 9, just ahead of the 2026 Biennale opening. (manilatimes.net) Third Space Art Foundation said the project will unfold across multiple sites in the city and will be curated by art historian Dr. Janine A. Sytsma, the foundation’s founder. The announced lineup includes Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Jelili Atiku, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, Zora Snake, Wura-Natasha Ogunji and ruby onyinyechi amanze. (finance.yahoo.com) The program is built around a specific historical target: a 1922 Venice Biennale presentation that framed African sculpture inside a European exhibition system. Organizers said the new works draw on that fragmentary archive through live performance rather than a conventional historical display. (finance.yahoo.com) That timing places 1922 Revisited in the Biennale’s busiest access window, when curators, collectors and museum groups flood Venice before the public opening. La Biennale di Venezia says the 61st International Art Exhibition, titled *In Minor Keys*, runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7 and 8. (labiennale.org) The scheduling is slightly wider than the official preview calendar: 1922 Revisited starts on May 5, one day before the Biennale’s listed pre-opening begins, and continues through May 9, the day of inauguration. That gives the project a five-day run that overlaps both the private preview and the exhibition’s formal launch. (manilatimes.net) (labiennale.org) Third Space Art Foundation said the initiative was developed in dialogue with *In Minor Keys*, the 2026 Biennale framework shaped by the late curator Koyo Kouoh. La Biennale says it chose to carry out Kouoh’s exhibition with the support of her family after her death in May 2025. (finance.yahoo.com) (labiennale.org) The foundation is not staging the project alone. Organizers said 1922 Revisited is being presented with the African Art in Venice Forum and the European Cultural Centre, with other academic and institutional partners handling research, programming and documentation. (finance.yahoo.com) In Venice, that matters because the Biennale now extends far beyond the national pavilions in the Giardini and the main exhibition at the Arsenale. Official Biennale materials say the 2026 show will also spread across “various locations around Venice,” and outside groups increasingly use preview week to mount talks, performances and collateral events that compete for the same art-world audience. (labiennale.org) (artsy.net) For 1922 Revisited, the wager is that performance can do archival work in public view. Instead of adding another static exhibition to preview week, the organizers are using live bodies, timed actions and citywide staging to revisit how African art entered the Biennale record in 1922. (compuserve.com)