13/05/2026
Venice this year: you queue, you sweat, the vaporetto doesn’t come, and the strikes (.arakawa.nash babies strike too) reset the script. The idea that exhibitions run smoothly while everything else keeps breaking down is, at least, questioned. Stopping circulation is the point.
La Biennale di Venezia under Koyo Kouoh sits in that register without over-performing. You stay with what doesn’t resolve. Small shifts, but also friction.
Some works that stayed with us, from the show and the national pavilions:
Rana Elnemr, The Sugarcane Choir, La Biennale di Venezia, In Minor Keys curated by Koyo Kouoh
Matías Duville, Monitor Yin Yang, curated by Josefina Barcia, Argentina Pavilion
Oriol Vilanova, Los restos, curated by Carles Guerra, Spanish Pavilion
MAREUNROL’S in dialogue with Bruno Birmanis, Untamed Assembly: Backstage of Utopia, curated by Inga Lāce and Adomas Narkevičius, Latvian Pavilion
Eglė Budvytytė: animism sings anarchy, curated by Louise O’Kelly, Lithuanian Pavilion
The Unfinished Business of Living Together, conceived by curators Gianmaria Andreetta and Luca Beeler together with artist Nina Wakeford, and developed in collaboration with artists Miriam Laura Leonardi, Lithic Alliance, and Yul Tomatala, Swiss Pavilion
Florentina Holzinger, Seaworld Venice, curated by Nora-Swantje Almes, Austrian Pavilion
Ei Arakawa-Nash’s, Grass Babies, Moon Babies, Japan Pavilion
Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu: Ruin, German pavilion.
Panos Giannikopoulos, Curator & Art Historian.