Minor Keys and Major Unrest

This MUBI Notebook essay examines the 61st Venice Biennale’s video art section and curatorial landscape following the unexpected death of curator Koyo Kouoh at 57. The exhibition, titled In Minor Keys, was conceptualized by Kouoh to spotlight overlooked artists from the Global South united by beliefs in art’s capacity for radical solidarity and community formation. The show sprawls across the Giardini and Arsenale venues with works emphasizing sonic and sensory dimensions as metaphors for resilience and transcendence. However, the Biennale faced substantial institutional turmoil preceding its May opening: calls to exclude Israel’s pavilion regarding Gaza, controversy over Russia’s return, administrative failures in American pavilion curation, and jury resignations protesting the inclusion of nations whose leaders face ICC charges. The article contextualizes these structural tensions within the Biennale Foundation’s fragmented governance model, examining the collision between curatorial vision centered on solidarity and the geopolitical complications inherent to an international art institution.

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