Pavilions mix music, food, sound

Several Venice Biennale pavilions are shifting from static displays to live gatherings, with Qatar planning meals and music and the Vatican building a show around sound. (labiennale.org, theartnewspaper.com, iloveqatar.net) Qatar’s 2026 presentation is titled *untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people)* and is commissioned by Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani through Qatar Museums. The project centers on Rirkrit Tiravanija and brings together Sophia Al-Maria, Tarek Atoui, Alia Farid, chef Fadi Kattan and others from across the Arab world. (iloveqatar.net, qatar-tribune.com) Qatar said the pavilion will combine visual art, music, poetry and food rather than isolate them as separate programs. That approach fits Tiravanija’s long-running practice of making shared meals and social exchange part of the artwork itself. (artforum.com, iloveqatar.net) The Vatican’s pavilion is titled *The Ear is the Eye of the Soul* and will run across two Venice sites, the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelite in Cannaregio and the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex in Castello. The artist list includes FKA twigs, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, Jim Jarmusch, Precious Okoyomon, Otobong Nkanga and Kali Malone. (theartnewspaper.com, usaartnews.com) The Holy See project is co-organized by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers with Soundwalk Collective, and it draws on the life of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century abbess, composer and mystic. The result is a pavilion built around listening, voice and spiritual atmosphere rather than painting or sculpture alone. (theartnewspaper.com) These announcements land less than a month before the 61st International Art Exhibition opens on May 9, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7 and 8. La Biennale says the exhibition, titled *In Minor Keys*, runs through November 22 in the Giardini, the Arsenale and other sites across Venice. (labiennale.org, labiennale.vivaticket.it) Qatar is also arriving with a larger institutional footprint in Venice. Qatar Museums announced in February 2025 that the country would build a permanent national pavilion in the Giardini, joining the small group of nations with dedicated buildings in the Biennale’s historic grounds. (qm.org.qa) That expansion helps explain why food, performance and sound are showing up so prominently in this year’s national presentations. Venice’s pavilion format has long favored objects in rooms, but the 2026 plans from Qatar and the Vatican point toward exhibitions that unfold as events, with audiences listening, eating and gathering in real time. (qm.org.qa, theartnewspaper.com, artforum.com) When the Biennale opens in May, some of its most closely watched national pavilions may be the ones that ask visitors not just to look, but to stay for a meal or listen for a while. (labiennale.org, iloveqatar.net, theartnewspaper.com)