Vatican’s Venice pavilion becomes a listening show
The Holy See pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale — titled “The Ear Is the Eye of the Soul” — will foreground sound and listening across two sites, including the women’s prison on Giudecca and the Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Castello (artnews.com). Artists named so far include Brian Eno, FKA twigs, Dev Hynes, Jim Jarmusch and Patti Smith, and the project is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective ( ).
The Vatican’s 2026 Venice Biennale pavilion will be built around sound, with new works by Brian Eno, FKA twigs, Patti Smith and other artists. (artnews.com) The project is titled *The Ear Is the Eye of the Soul* and is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers with Soundwalk Collective. Reports in *ARTnews* and *The Art Newspaper* say 24 artists, poets, musicians, architects and filmmakers have been commissioned so far. (artnews.com) The named participants include Brian Eno, FKA twigs, Devonté Hynes, Jim Jarmusch, Patti Smith, Precious Okoyomon and Otobong Nkanga. The exhibition is scheduled to run from May 9 to November 22, 2026, during the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. (artnews.com) The Biennale’s main exhibition, *In Minor Keys*, was conceived by Koyo Kouoh and will proceed with the support of her family after her death. The Holy See pavilion’s emphasis on listening fits a broader 2026 Biennale language of slowing down, tuning in and attending to quieter registers. (labiennale.org) The Vatican has been using the Biennale to test forms of cultural outreach that sit outside church ritual and doctrine. Its culture office, the Dicastery for Culture and Education, describes its mission as developing human values in a Christian framework, and it has recently linked Biennale projects to care, repair and marginal communities. (vatican.va) That recent history matters because the Holy See’s 2024 pavilion was staged inside Venice’s women’s prison on Giudecca, and the Vatican’s 2025 architecture pavilion focused on restoration and social repair. In a December 2024 program note, the dicastery said its prison-based art initiatives continued the path it began with the 2024 Biennale project. (dce.va) Coverage of the new pavilion points to Saint Hildegard of Bingen as a key reference for the commissioned works. Hildegard, the 12th-century abbess, composer and mystic, gives the show a Catholic lineage while also anchoring it in music, voice and contemplation. (msn.com) The 2026 art exhibition opens with preview days on May 6, 7 and 8, before the public opening on May 9. The Vatican’s pavilion will arrive as one of the more closely watched national presentations because it is leaning on musicians and filmmakers as much as visual artists, and because it is asking visitors to listen before they look. (labiennale.org)
