The late curator Koyo Kouoh to complete what she had started-‘curating from beyond the grave’ the Venice Biennale in 2026
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
When Cameroonian born and Swiss brought up respected curator Koyo Kouoh died earlier this month, aged 57, only two weeks before she unveiled her theme for her biggest art gig in life, the 61st Venice Biennale commencing in May 2026, she was mourned widely around the world. The worldwide grief is understandable as here was someone who was on the cusp of her biggest achievement as a curator, curating the biggest art feast in the world, but then death did its big blow. She died suddenly in a Swiss hospital, a place she called home, besides Cape Town where she was employed in the influential position of Executive Director and Chief curator for Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA). It is there where she is credited for having turned this important museum in Africa around, at a time when it was facing potentially damaging challenges.
And therefore when it was announced that she was going to be the chief architect, crafting the whole architecture of Venice 2026, from conceptualisation of the theme to programming the whole affair, there was indeed a lot of excitement especially within the ranks of the art world on the African continent. This is because, Koyo had crafted so many art events that became a success both in Africa, especially in Senegal where she is credited for founding The Material Company, which became a game changer there in the region, before she was snapped by Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town in 2019, as well as around the globe.
But then death visited and snatched her away. In light of her demise, questions were then raised as to what would happen with regards to the future of Venice 2026. Answers were not immediately provided. However on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, those answers were provided. They are sweet answers to the ears of those who had wished Koyo well. Koyo will shine a light on the Venice 2026. Even in death. She will therefore be curating the Venice 2026 edition as originally planned. Even in death, so to speak.
“The 2026 edition of the Venice Art Biennale will be realised in full accordance with the original vision of its curator, Koyo Kouoh, who died earlier this month aged 57. Scheduled to open on 9 May, the edition is titled In Minor Keys.
Unveiling the curatorial concept at a press conference in Venice on Tuesday, Maria Cristiana Costanzo, the Biennale’s head of press, said Kouoh had worked “intensively on the development of the curatorial project, defining its theoretical framework, selecting artists and works, appointing catalogue contributors, determining the exhibition’s graphic identity and spatial design, and engaging directly with the invited participants,” the Art Newspaper has reports.
It further writes: “The show will now be completed by Kouoh’s core team “in strict accordance with the plan she defined, in order to preserve, enhance, and share her ideas and the work to which she dedicated herself until the very end”. Costanzo added that the plan had the “full support” of Kouoh’s family.
“Everything you will see is the fruit of her work,” Costanzo anticipated.
Reading out Kouoh’s words, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, one of Kouoh’s collaborators, described the exhibition as “neither a litany of commentary on world events, nor an escape from compounding or continuously intersecting crises”. Rather, it “proposes a radical connection with art’s natural habitat and role in society.
“In Minor Keys are sequences of exhilarating journeys that address the sensate and the effective, inviting visitors to marvel, meditate, dream, revel, reflect and commune in realms where time is not corporate property nor at the mercy of relentlessly accelerated productivity,” she continued.
Siddhartha Mitter, another collaborator, said: “Artists are channels to and between the minor keys and listening to, rather than speaking for them, is at the core of the curatorial concept. In Minor Keys stands as a collective score, composed with artists who have built universes of imagination,” Mitter said.
Born in Douala, Cameroon, Kouoh was the executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town. She gained recognition as a champion of Black artists from Africa and the diaspora and would have been the first African woman to curate the Biennale.
Her death in a hospital in Basel, Switzerland, prompted a wave of tributes from across the art world. At today’s presentation, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the president of the Biennale, described her as “a thinker who whispers from another place” and “a drawer of new maps”.
Kouoh had called the Biennale “the centre of gravity for art for over a century”. She promised that the 2026 edition would “carry meaning for the world we currently live in—and, most importantly, for the world we want to make”.
In a way therefore, it can be argued that the beloved curator, known for championing the the space for African artists in corridors of power in the art world, has defeated and defied death to complete what she had started for the 61st Venice Biennale, which will commence on 20 May, 2026.