The Venice Art Biennale returns for its 61st edition from May 9th to November 22nd, 2026, and designboom is here to guide you through this year’s main exhibition, national participations, collateral events, and everything unfolding across the city during the six-month event. Titled In Minor Keys, the 2026 International Art Exhibition was conceived by curator Koyo Kouoh, who developed the project before her passing in May 2025. The exhibition will be realized by the curatorial team she assembled, carrying forward the framework, artists, and exhibition architecture she had already defined. Conceived as an invitation to tune into quieter frequencies of artistic expression, In Minor Keys proposes a shift away from spectacle and toward slower, sensorial encounters with art. 
The exhibition unfolds across the Giardini and the Arsenale, with additional projects staged in various locations around Venice. Bringing together 111 invited participants, including artists, collectives, and artist-led organizations from across multiple geographies, Kouoh’s project explores resonances and affinities between practices that may emerge from vastly different contexts. Rather than organising the exhibition through rigid thematic sections, In Minor Keys follows a constellation of conceptual motifs that weave across the venues, ranging from shrines and processional assemblies to artist-led ‘schools’ and spaces of rest that encourage reflection and deep listening. 
