Ao percorrer estas veredas de luz e sombra, tons e cores, KaSoma não nos entrega respostas. Oferece-nos, sim, uma chance de apreciar o belo dentro do caos aglomerado, das ideias fixas, convidando-nos a novas interpretações e perspectivas e, como consequencia, à construção de uma leitura própria sobre este facto social comum. Há algo de extraordinário no cotidiano. Um valor que passa despercebido e exige ser resgatado.

Labuta é o resultado de dois anos de pesquisa e imersão por províncias como o Cuanza-Norte, Icolo e Bengo e Luanda, estas 24 fotografias traçam um mapa humano do trabalho informal, mas um dos principais dinamizadores da economia nacional. Cada uma das obras aqui apresentadas fala por si, tecendo narrativas de resistências paralelas: a caminhada, ora lenta, ora apressada; a polimorfia do “corpo-monumento”, usado como expositor e veículo; a jornada do “futuro do nosso futuro” nas correntes da vida; a carroça que hoje serve os produtores e amanhã os produtos. Nada aqui estagna. Do pão de cada dia equilibrado à cabeça ao “lotador” que corre a “duzentos” por “cem”, tudo pulsa, tudo fala, tudo a/mostra e algo falha. Nesta selva de realidades, cada fotografia é um espelho de múltiplos contextos, uma caleidoscópio de sonhos, as vezes esquecidos, mas encarnado nos pés, tudo sob um mesmo quadro. A exposição provoca uma análise imersiva, convidando o público a reflectir sobre a dignidade do esforço e a força que estrutura o nosso quotidiano: a persistência, o barulho do sustento, as batalhas dos dias, a espera e à Labuta.

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Born in Asmara and raised in Saudi Arabia, Tewelde draws on her diasporic experience and Eritrean heritage to explore ideas of in-betweenness, perception, and belonging. Working intuitively across layered applications of powder pigment, oil stick, and acrylic, her paintings unfold through repetition, movement, and mark-making, creating immersive surfaces that shift between energetic and meditative states. Beginning each work on the studio floor, gravity and gesture become central to her process, allowing each composition to evolve organically through layering and interruption.

Across Geometry of Elsewhere, abstraction becomes a language for navigating memory, interior space, and transformation. Through textured surfaces and rhythmic forms, Tewelde invites viewers into spaces that resist fixed meaning, instead holding a continual sense of becoming.

“Geometry of Elsewhere brings together a body of work I’ve been developing over time, shaped by lived experience and an interest in perception, memory, and interior space. Moving further into abstraction, the paintings unfold through gesture, rhythm, and layered mark-making,
allowing the surface to remain open and in flux. I’m interested in creating a space that can be entered rather than read – one that holds a sense of becoming rather than resolution.”

Source: Gallery 1957

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By fashioning in clay, a tool—the shield—meant to provide protection on the metaphorical battlefield, Onuzulike exploits what he calls the material’s “fragile strength,” to gesture towards the precarious realities of the postcolonial condition. Onuzulike’s Shield Series, like his earlier ceramic garments, refers to the colonial trade in palm oil to comment upon its ramifications on the environment in Nigeria today. The differently glazed beads and buttons provide the artist with a varied visual vocabulary with which to experiment with patterns that evoke textiles, chainmail, lace, and other dress traditions that resonate with complex histories of trade, protection, prestige, and communal and familial continuity in Nigeria. Throughout his practice, the artist deftly explores the connection between the colonial history of extraction in Nigeria and contemporary political corruption. Onuzulike reminds us that colonial histories remain unfinished.

Ozioma Onuzulike is a professor of ceramics and of art and design history and, until recently, director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he received in 1996 the first degree in ceramics awarded by the institution. At Nsukka, his practice was influenced by the legacy of the professors and artists Uche Okeke (1933–2016) and El Anatsui (born 1944) and their engagement with indigenous aesthetic traditions in their work. Onuzulike is deeply invested in exploring the aesthetic and symbolic nature of clay. His labor-intensive process takes the manipulation of clay, through pounding, crushing, hammering, wedging, grinding, and cutting, as a metaphor for the violence associated with resource exploration, exploitation, and control in colonial and postcolonial Africa.

Source: AFIKARIS

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Auteure: Anaïs Fa

 

À la 61e Biennale de Venise, placée sous le commissariat posthume de Koyo Kouoh, les pavillons africains s’imposent comme l’un des faits saillants de l’édition. Entre premières participations et retours institutionnels, cette présence élargie – 13 pavillons – dessine une constellation de récits. De Conakry à Kampala, de Rabat à Harare, l’Afrique s’impose sur la scène du plus important évènement d’art contemporain mondial.

L’édition 2026 de la Biennale de Venise, intitulée In Minor Keys, a ouvert ses portes aux professionnels du monde de l’art le 6 mai. Dès le 9 mai et jusqu’au 22 novembre 2026, le grand public pourra y découvrir une centaine de pavillons, et une programmation parallèle foisonnante. Commissariée par Koyo Kouoh, curatrice camerouno-suisse et première femme africaine nommée à la direction artistique de la manifestation, décédée prématurément en 2025, la 61e mouture de la manifestation internationale accueille en son sein une douzaine de pavillons du continent africain. La présence – en nombre – des pays du continent est un signal fort, qui vient ancrer la présence africaine dans les circuits institutionnels de l’art contemporain. Qu’ils soient insérés au cœur de l’Arsenale, dans des palazzo vénitiens, des fondations ou des espaces périphériques ; ces projets nationaux, aux formats hybrides et propositions parfois inégales, renforcent le rayonnement de l’art africain au niveau international. Tour d’horizon.

Égypte — Silence Pavilion: Between the Tangible and the Intangible

Dans son pavillon historique des Giardini, l’Égypte présente le travail d’Armen Agop, à la fois artiste et curateur du projet. Intitulée Silence Pavilion: Between the Tangible and the Intangible, l’exposition se construit à rebours du spectaculaire : elle propose une expérience de ralentissement, de concentration et d’écoute. Le visiteur est ainsi invité à pénétrer un espace totalement plongé dans la pénombre, où parler est interdit car le silence y règne en maître. Le travail d’Agop, nourri par la sculpture, la forme minimale et une attention à la permanence des matériaux, fait du silence une matière active plutôt qu’un vide. Né au Caire en 1969 dans une famille arménienne, l’artiste inscrit cette proposition dans une mémoire à la fois égyptienne, méditerranéenne et diasporique. Ses œuvres – dont plusieurs sculptures de granit que le visiteur est invité à toucher, voire à caresser – joue entre volumes réduits, lignes, points et formes contenues, invitant le spectateur à percevoir ce qui se joue entre présence physique et dimension intérieure.

Pavillon de l’Égypte, Giardini della Biennale, Venise

République démocratique du Congo — Simba Moto! Seize the Fire! Saisis le feu !

Pour sa toute première participation nationale à la Biennale, la République démocratique du Congo a choisit le feu comme thématique curatoriale. Baptisée “Simba Moto! Seize the Fire! Saisis le feu !”, le projet, commissarié par la philosophe et spécialiste des études post-coloniales Nadia Yala Kisukidi, réunit neuf artistes congolais et issus de la diaspora : Sammy Baloji, Arlette Bashizi, Patrick Bongoy, Damso, Gosette Lubondo, Nelson Makengo, Aimé Mpané, Léonard Pongo et Géraldine Tobé. Situé dans l’ancien réfectoire de la Scuola Grande di San Rocco, lieu emblématique de la Renaissance italienne, le pavillon aux allures un brin futuriste, se pense comme une forge lumineuse, où le feu n’est pas seulement une force de destruction, mais une puissance de transformation, de création et de récit. Le projet – financé en partie par la Fondation Damso, du rappeur congolais basé en Belgique – articule imaginaires radicaux congolais, mémoires anciennes, bibliothèques noires de la liberté et récits capables de déplacer les discours du manque, de la douleur ou de la mort.

Antico Refettorio – Scuola Grande di San Marco, Castello 6777, Venise

Cameroun — NZƎNDA – The Path Home

Le pavillon du Cameroun se présente comme un parcours de retour, de réparation et de réactivation spirituelle. Conçu par l’artiste Beya Gille Gacha, également curatrice du projet, NZƎNDA – The Path Home transforme le Palazzo Canova en architecture immersive, pensée comme un seuil entre le visible et l’invisible. L’exposition se déploie en différents espaces reliés, où le corps, la terre, la mémoire et l’esprit sont envisagés comme les éléments d’un même organisme. Aux côtés de Beya Gille Gacha, le pavillon réunit Jail Time Records, Sylvie Njobati, Bienvenue Fotso, Zora Snake et Neals Niat. Chacun active une dimension spécifique du projet : paysages sonores, divinité féminine Ngon’so, pharmacopée camerounaise, médecine baka, seuils temporels ou gestes rituels.

Gervasuti FOUNDATION PALAZZO CANOVA CANNAREGIO
Calle Lunga Santa Caterina 4998

Guinée équatoriale — The Forest The Undergrowth

La Guinée équatoriale fait son entrée à la Biennale avec The Forest The Undergrowth, projet curatoriel confié à Joan Abelló. Le pavillon part de la forêt comme archétype : espace mystérieux, inexploré, spirituel, mais aussi lieu de l’inconscient. La forêt y devient une zone de passage entre le visible et l’invisible, entre nature et culture, entre ce que l’homme croit maîtriser et ce qui lui échappe. Fernando Nguema Madja et Modest Gené Roig sont les deux figures centrales du projet, accompagnés d’un vaste ensemble d’artistes invités, parmi lesquels Rani Bruchstein, Barbara Cammarata, Florin Codre, Jianqi Du, Fulvio Merolli, Alfred Mirashi Milot, Mfochive Oumarou, Hannou Palosuo, Andrea Roggi, Sonia Ros ou encore Liu Youju. Les œuvres construisent une expérience sensorielle et mystique, invitant le visiteur à habiter la forêt plutôt qu’à simplement la contempler.

Palazzo Donà dalle Rose, Cannaregio 5038 / 5101

Éthiopie — Shapes of Silence

Avec Shapes of Silence, l’Éthiopie propose un solo show de Tegene Kunbi, commissarié par Abebaw Ayalew. Le projet part d’une interrogation très juste : comment les œuvres sont-elles parfois rendues muettes par les textes, cartels et discours qui prétendent parler à leur place ? Le pavillon aborde ainsi le silence non comme une absence, mais comme une condition politique. Les hiérarchies entre texte et image, langage écrit et formes visuelles, se prolongent dans d’autres rapports de domination : masculin/féminin, élite/peuple, colonisateur/colonisé. Les peintures monumentales de Tegene Kunbi sont alors envisagées comme des archives stratifiées de travail, de mémoire et d’histoire. Elles refusent l’idée d’une peinture purement passive ou décorative, pour faire du silence une matière tendue, chargée d’affects, de pouvoir et de récits empêchés.

Palazzo Bollani, Castello 3647

Guinée — Le Son de l’Art : l’Écho de la Matière

La Guinée participe pour la première fois à la Biennale avec Le Son de l’Art : l’Écho de la Matière, commissarié par Carlo Stragapede. Le projet investit l’île de San Servolo comme un espace de résonance, où le silence devient support d’écoute et de mémoire. Le pavillon entend inscrire la Guinée dans un dialogue interculturel mondial, en articulant modernité, spiritualité ancestrale et héritage postcolonial. L’exposition rassemble un très large groupe d’artistes, dont Bella Bah, Bachir Diallo, King Emmanuel, Sékou Oumar Thiam, mais aussi de nombreux artistes italiens et internationaux. Les œuvres annoncées mêlent tapisseries évocatrices et sculptures, dans une scénographie pensée comme un journal visuel immersif. À travers la matière, le pavillon cherche à faire entendre une mémoire nationale qui ne se réduit ni à l’histoire politique ni aux récits de crise, mais se projette vers une renaissance culturelle.

Isola di San Servolo, Venise

Maroc — Asǝṭṭa

Pour sa première participation à la Biennale, le Maroc présente Asǝṭṭa, un projet d’Amina Agueznay commissarié par Meriem Berrada, dans les Sale dell’Artiglieria de l’Arsenale. Le titre renvoie à la notion tissage rituel en langue amazigh : un geste technique, mais aussi mémoriel, féminin et spirituel. L’installation prolonge plus de vingt ans de travail de l’artiste avec les savoirs vernaculaires marocains, les artisanes et les communautés locales. Ici, le textile n’est pas traité comme un motif identitaire figé, mais comme une architecture suspendue, une membrane vivante qui traverse l’espace. Les œuvres – 150 bandes tissées et rehaussées de motifs et de couleurs – font dialoguer matériaux, gestes, transmission et site d’origine. Le projet interroge aussi la notion de seuil, en écho au concept marocain de âatba : une zone ni totalement dedans ni totalement dehors, où se rencontrent mémoire intime, espace public, visible et invisible.

Arsenale, Sale dell’Artiglieria, Venise

Sénégal — « WURUS »*

Le pavillon sénégalais, commissarié par Massamba Mbaye, présente un solo show de Caroline Gueye autour de l’or, “wurus” en wolof. Le projet prend cette matière comme point de départ cosmique, historique, politique et technologique. L’or vient de la terre, mais aussi des étoiles ; il traverse les civilisations, les économies, les imaginaires de richesse et de pouvoir. Le pavillon rappelle l’âge d’or de l’empire du Mali au XIVe siècle et la figure de Kankou Moussa, dont la mémoire reste associée à une prospérité fondée sur l’or, mais aussi au développement de bibliothèques, d’universités et de savoirs. Les œuvres interrogent l’ambivalence de ce métal : symbole de puissance, matériau high-tech, mais aussi cause d’extraction, d’impérialisme, de dégâts environnementaux et de violations des droits humains.

Palazzo Navagero, Riva degli Schiavoni 4145, Venise

Sierra Leone — Worlds of Today

La Sierra Leone entre pour la première fois à la Biennale avec Worlds of Today, un pavillon porté par Fatima Maada Bio et commissarié par Sandro Orlandi Stagl et Willy Montini. Le projet insiste sur l’ouverture culturelle du pays, sa vitalité créative et ses liens d’échange avec l’Italie et l’Afrique de l’Ouest. Soutenu par la CEDEAO, le pavillon se veut un espace de présence active, où l’art contemporain devient un langage partagé. L’exposition rassemble des artistes de Sierra Leone, d’États membres de la CEDEAO et d’Italie, parmi lesquels Hawa-Jane Bangura, Ayesha Feisal, Hickmatu Bintu Leigh, Abu Bakarr Mansaray, Seyni Awa Camara, Abdoul Ganiou Dermani, Eloi Lokossou, Móyòsóré Martins, Eros Bonamini ou encore Piergiorgio Colombara. Les œuvres sont pensées dans un espace fluide et non hiérarchique, fondé sur l’écoute, l’interaction et le dialogue.

Liceo Guggenheim, Dorsoduro 2613, Venise

Somalie — Saddexleey

La Somalie participe pour la première fois à la Biennale avec Saddexleey, commissarié par Mohamed Mire et Fabio Scrivanti. Le titre vient d’une forme poétique somalienne structurée par le chiffre trois : répétition, variation, équilibre. Le pavillon fait de la poésie non un simple contenu littéraire, mais une architecture sociale et spatiale. Dans un pays souvent qualifié de “nation de poètes”, la parole, le chant et le poème constituent des formes de transmission du savoir et de la mémoire collective. L’exposition se déploie sur les trois étages du Palazzo Caboto, suivant cette logique ternaire. Le parcours commence avec la présence poétique de Warsan Shire, se poursuit avec les films et installations d’Asmaa Jama, puis culmine dans les œuvres textiles d’Ayan Farah, teintes par la terre et le temps. Langage, son, odeur, image et textile composent une expérience multisensorielle.

Palazzo Caboto, Via Garibaldi, Castello 1645, Venise

Tanzanie — Minor Frequencies: The Inner Life Of A Nation

La Tanzanie présente Minor Frequencies: The Inner Life Of A Nation, commissarié par Lorna Benedict Mashiba et Martina Cavallarin. Le projet répond directement au titre général de la Biennale, In Minor Keys, en invitant à écouter les fréquences faibles, les bruits de fond, les formes moins spectaculaires de la vie nationale. L’exposition articule quatre lignes de recherche : le corps, le geste, l’archive et l’esprit. Des artistes tanzaniens comme Amani Abeid, Valerie Asiimwe Amani, Turakella Editha Gyindo ou Lazaro Samuel dialoguent avec un large groupe d’artistes internationaux. Les œuvres habitent une structure scénographique ponctuée de tissus vibrants et d’installations pluridisciplinaires. Le pavillon se pense moins comme un récit national unifié que comme une topographie relationnelle, où l’on accepte de se perdre, d’écouter et de reformuler les questions.

Fondamenta de la Sensa 3218, Venise

Zimbabwe — Second Nature | Manyonga

Le Zimbabwe présente Second Nature | Manyonga, commissarié par Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa, sous l’égide de Raphael Chikukwa, directeur exécutif de la National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Le pavillon réunit Gideon Gomo, Eva Raath, Felix Shumba, Franklyn Dzingai et Pardon Mapondera. Le projet interroge la neuroplasticité comme métaphore et méthode : comment les cerveaux, les identités, les récits et les sociétés se réorganisent-ils face à la technologie, aux crises et aux imaginaires contemporains ? Les œuvres se situent au bord de la transformation, entre résilience, perception, environnement, réalité post-pandémique et révolutions numériques. L’exposition pose une question très actuelle : que reste-t-il de l’humain lorsque la machine devient une seconde nature ? Les pratiques présentées envisagent les médias non seulement comme supports, mais comme matériaux conceptuels, capables d’ouvrir de nouvelles philosophies de l’art numérique et de la perception.

Santa Maria della Pietà, Castello 3701 / 3702, Venise

Seychelles — Existence on an island

Ajoutées à la liste officielle après l’annonce initiale des participations nationales, les Seychelles présentent Existence on an island, un projet confié à l’artiste Egbert Marday, sous le commissariat de Nina Comini. Le pavillon prend place au Palazzo Mora, dans le cadre du European Cultural Centre, et peut être lu comme une méditation sur la condition insulaire : habiter une île, c’est vivre dans un rapport constant à la mer, à l’isolement, aux circulations, à l’écologie et aux récits d’appartenance. Peintre et sculpteur majeur de la scène seychelloise, Marday travaille depuis plusieurs décennies à partir de son environnement, de l’histoire sociale de l’archipel et de ses formes naturelles. Sa pratique, marquée par la peinture, la sculpture et les commandes publiques, permet d’aborder l’île non comme un motif exotique, mais comme un espace de mémoire, de transformation et de résistance quotidienne.

European Cultural Centre, Palazzo Mora, Cannaregio 3659, Venise

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PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

28 to 31 May 2026 | Pátio 3

Exhibition – World African Artists United
WAAU presents at ARCOlisboa 2026 a presentation exploring Afro Atlantic perspectives through contemporary artistic practices shaped by memory, transformation, and intercultural exchange. Developed in collaboration with ABLAKASSA and THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, the exhibition brings together works that reflect on identity, historical continuity, and the circulation of cultural narratives across territories marked by colonial histories, migration, and diasporic experience.
Positioning the Afro Atlantic as a space of relation, movement, and shared histories, the programme considers how personal and collective narratives are continuously constructed, fragmented, inherited, and reimagined over time. Through distinct visual languages and material approaches, the participating artists engage with questions surrounding visibility, belonging, resilience, and the emotional and social complexities of contemporary existence.
The presentation further reflects on the progressive affirmation of contemporary African and Afro descendant artistic practices within the global art system, foregrounding the role of artists and curatorial platforms in the critical expansion of historiographical and cultural discourse. Moving between material experimentation, poetic reflection, and social inquiry, the works propose alternative readings of memory and contemporaneity while opening space for new epistemologies and forms of encounter.
Conceived as a site of dialogue, the presentation reflects WAAU’s ongoing commitment to fostering meaningful connections between African and Afro descendant artists, institutions, and international audiences.
Artists presented: Aristide Kouamé, Gonçalo Mabunda, Nelo Teixeira, Ricardo Piedade aka Blac Dwelle, Yvanovitch Mbaya.

29 May 2026 | 18:30 – 19:30 | Torreão Nascente

Talk – Decolonial Memory and Artistic Education
Moderator: Ana Balona de Oliveira. Researcher, Lisbon
Speakers: Ângela Ferreira (Artist, Lisbon), Amanda de la Garza (Deputy director of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid), Cindy Sissokho (Curator and Associate Program Director (Africa & Europe) at KADIST, Lisbon), Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh (Curator and educator, Kumasi).

This roundtable will examine how colonial legacies have been addressed, remembered and contested within artistic education in various contexts in the North and South, including both formal and informal education. Colonial narratives have shaped art histories, museum collections and educational curricula, privileging Eurocentric perspectives, while erasing, marginalizing or fetishizing others, namely those that had been a source of inspiration. At the same time, artists and educators from the Global South and its diasporas have historically claimed as theirs not only pre- and anticolonial knowledges and modernities, but also some Western traditions which have been variously appropriated and transformed, requiring a complex understanding of the aesthetics and politics of influence in various contexts. How has art education critically addressed inherited canons, acknowledging the historical impact of colonialism while highlighting multiple forms of resistance, thus creating space for more plural narratives? How have artists, educators and institutions revisited archives, rewritten histories, and included voices that had long been overlooked? How can artistic education become a truly decolonial, emancipatory and reparatory site for critical reflection, memory and imagination, open to the community, and able to foster actual change?

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About the Artists

Lavett Ballard
b. 1970, East Orange, New Jersey
Lavett Ballard (b. 1970, East Orange, NJ) anchors the presentation with richly layered portraits that fuse historical consciousness and decorative abstraction. Holding dual Bachelor’s degrees in Studio Art and Art History with a minor in Museum Studies from Rutgers University, and an MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Ballard brings academic rigor and cultural sensitivity to her practice. Her compositions often incorporate wallpaper-like motifs, gilded surfaces, and symbolic patterning that reference African textiles while engaging Western portrait traditions. Ballard’s national recognition includes her commission by Time Magazine.

Damilare Jamiu Kanyinsola
b. 1994, Lagos Island, Nigeria
Damilare Jamiu Kanyinsola (b. 1994, Lagos Island, Nigeria) grounds the presentation in lived African experience and philosophical reflection. Apprenticed early under Lagos-based artist Muyiwa Williams, Damilare developed a practice deeply informed by his environment and the realities of contemporary Nigeria. Self-described as an African Realist, he centers authentic African narratives through figurative painting that often includes animals—cats and dogs—as symbolic companions. His work reflects a meditative engagement with humanity, spirituality, and Black consciousness. Within the booth, Damilare’s paintings offer an intimate, grounded perspective on African identity, memory, and resilience.

Megan Lewis
b. 1989, Baltimore, Maryland
Megan Lewis (b. 1989, Baltimore, MD) contributes a dynamic, painterly counterpoint through highly physical figurative works that pulse with movement and color. A graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design (BFA, Illustration, 2011), Lewis is both a painter and muralist, known for wielding a palette knife with decisive precision. Her figures are rendered in bold hues and geometric forms, often adorned with layered textiles that draw from African design traditions. Ankara fabrics—some acquired during her travels to Johannesburg, South Africa—are integrated directly into her paintings, collapsing boundaries between surface, pattern, and body.

Source: Galerie Myrtis

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The presentation centers on paintings that explore what it means to remain psychologically and morally present in a world marked by suffering. Informed by Gethsemane, the works paint the residue of suffering through silence, dread, endurance, and the strain of continued witness. Across the presentation, pain appears as something absorbed, carried, and lived with, leaving its weight on the surface.

Working on glazed tarpaulin and cotton duck canvas, Kudi builds his surfaces through liquid metal, ink, enamel, and acrylic. Layering, settling, cracking, and erosion shape each composition, guided by a sustained attention to process, repetition, and restraint. His paintings develop through close observation of material behavior, in which pressure, control, and release remain in active relation.

Set within antique gold frames, the paintings enter into deliberate tension with the European institutional structures that have historically shaped how painting is framed and received. At the same time, Kudi’s practice draws ancestral visual knowledge into conversation with the formal language of international abstraction. This places the work within a broader modernist history shaped through non-Western perspectives, bringing local systems of knowledge into dialogue with abstraction.

Titles such as Pillars of the Firmament, Syllables for a Midnight Vigil, and Hymn to the Heavy Root extend the presentation’s interest in time, transformation, and interior states.

Presented by Adegbola Gallery, a Lagos-based gallery with a program grounded in research, historical continuity, and rigorous curatorial thinking, the booth reflects the gallery’s commitment to artists whose practices are shaped by material intelligence and sustained inquiry.

Source: Adegbola Gallery

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The 2026 edition will take place at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, positioning the fair in the heart of one of New York’s most vibrant cultural districts. Returning during Art Week New York, 1-54 offers a dynamic platform to discover contemporary art from Africa and its diasporas. Within the energy of the city’s wider art world, we will be bringing together artists, galleries and audiences.

We look forward to welcoming you to this exciting chapter of 1-54 New York in the heart of Chelsea. Stay tuned for more details!

VIP & Press preview:
Wednesday 13 May 2026, 11 am – 7 pm
Thursday 14 May 2026, 11 am – 4 pm

Public opening:
Thursday 14 May 2026, 4 pm – 8 pm

Friday 15 May 2026, 11 am – 7 pm
Saturday 16 May 2026, 11 am – 7 pm
Sunday 17 May 2026, 11 am – 5 pm

Location:
Starrett-Lehigh Building
600 W. 27th St
Manhattan, New York

Source: 1-54

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EN | PT

Author: Elias Joaquim

 

The 61st Venice Art Biennale takes place from May 9 to November 22, 2026. Who are the Afro-descendant artists in the spotlight? What did they bring? How did they translate the “minor keys” of acclaimed curator Koyo Kouoh?

Before any hasty conclusions, it should be noted that the 2026 Biennale was architected by a Black woman, born in Cameroon. The late Koyo Kouoh built, over recent decades, one of the most influential curatorial trajectories in contemporary African and diasporic artistic thought. As Executive Director of Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, Koyo not only fostered and expanded African presence in the international circuit, but also helped reshape the very ways of looking, exhibiting, listening, and organizing cultural sensibilities within contemporary art.

And perhaps that is precisely what makes this Biennale so singular, so special. This shift in tone that seems like an intimate desire to collectively create a sensibility tribe.

In a world saturated by speed, visual excess, hyperproduction of images, and curatorial monumentality, In Minor Keys emerges almost as a forced brake, an essay on the conscious deceleration of perception. Less spectacle. Less noise. Less excess of the future. More listening. More intimacy. More silence. More relationship between bodies, memory, and territory. And in the end, silence again.

Did Koyo Kouoh attempt to translate the language of birds?

In Minor Keys does not seem to function as a curatorial title. But how do you truly translate the theme Koyo proposed, since it functions more as an emotional state, a kind of sensory enigma about the present, or a birdsong on a sunny or rainy day? It seems to function as a translation before the translation, as if, even before the artists began translating the world through their works, there had already existed a first great gesture of translation: that of Koyo herself, trying to name what the contemporary world feels, but which slips through her hands amid the chaos with which it has grown familiar.

There is something profoundly African and simultaneously universal in this proposal. We venture to say that the African and Afro-diasporic presence in this edition is not merely present for the sake of it, nor merely as a geographical emblem, it occupies instead a conceptual center within the Biennale. Walking through the pavilions of Venice, one notices that many of the strongest works of this edition refuse the very logic of immediate impact.

Art saves us!

What do these Black artists communicate within the Biennale? Where do they want to go?

Artists like Otobong Nkanga, from Nigeria, and Sammy Baloji from the DRC, dialogue in many ways, they are members of that sensibility tribe. The works of both shout, are stained with sweat and blood, are sharp and corporeal, but viewed in reverse or from another perspective, they are the perfect illustration of minor keys, of touches from within, of waves in a gentle breeze that embrace us. As the saying goes, art saves us: it is political, but it does not make politics on its own.

Both work on the relationship between land, mineral extraction, ecological violence, and colonial memory. They create works, through photography, visual arts, or performance, in which the African soil manages to rise beyond its beauty to challenge global capitalism. In their installations, the materials seem to carry subterranean wounds, as if the modern world had been built upon minerals forcibly torn from certain territories.

Beyond these, several other Afro-descendant artists stand out in this edition, such as Wangechi Mutu, born in Kenya, Billie Zangewa from Malawi and South Africa, Buhlebezwe Siwani from South Africa, and Kader Attia, born in France and deeply connected to Algeria.

There is a kind of conceptual maternity in In Minor Keys, capable of generating life, creating tensions, raising doubts, bringing hope. And this prominent Black presence, though plural and quite diverse, manages to capture and even embody the essence of minor keys, as in the case of South African artist Helen Sabidi, who brings the sensibility of home, the roots and traditions inherited from her grandmother, to explore the traumas of Apartheid through beautiful paintings. Yes, art does save us, art always points to a path, even when it does not know it.

The mouth of the Global South

In the previous article we asked: if the artistic system has decentralized, what remains the center that legitimizes global art?

Perhaps Venice has partially answered that question. Or perhaps the Global South itself answered through its own mouth, saying that it was not merely a theme of contemporary art, it was the minor key itself, a producer of language, a producer of sensibility, and a producer of curatorial methods.

Because what is observed here is not a simple substitution of centers, as has already been said, but something more complex: a gradual displacement of the emotional frequencies of contemporary art. The dominant axis remains institutionally strong, but the imaginary, the questions, and much of the conceptual vitality seem today to be shifting increasingly toward geographies historically considered peripheral.

And that inevitably raises an uncomfortable question for the old center: What return paths are even possible now?

Images: Celestino Bastos and Eduardo Lima.

EN | PT

Autor: Elias Joaquim

 

A 61ª Bienal de Arte de Veneza acontece de 9 de maio a 22 de novembro de 2026. Quem são os artistas afrodescendentes em destaque? O que trouxeram? Como traduziram eles os “tons menores” da aclamada curadora Koyo Kouoh?

Antes de qualquer avanço precipitado, é preciso ressalvar que a Bienal de 2026 foi arquitetada por uma mulher negra, nascida nos Camarões. Koyo Kouoh construiu ao longo das últimas décadas uma das trajetórias curatoriais mais influentes do pensamento artístico contemporâneo africano e diaspórico. Como diretora executiva do Zeitz MOCAA, na Cidade do Cabo, Koyo, para além do fomento e da ampliação da presença africana no circuito internacional, ajudou a reformular os próprios modos de olhar, expor, escutar e organizar o sensível dentro da arte contemporânea.

E talvez seja precisamente isso que torna esta Bienal tão singular, tão especial. Esta mudança de tom que parece um desejo íntimo de criar em conjunto uma tribo da sensibilidade.

Num mundo saturado por velocidade, excesso visual, hiperprodução de imagens e monumentalidade curatorial, In Minor Keys surge quase como um travão forçado, um ensaio sobre desaceleração consciente da percepção. Menos espetáculo. Menos ruído. Menos excesso de futuro. Mais escuta. Mais intimidade. Mais silêncio. Mais relação entre corpos, memória e território. E no fim, silêncio outra vez.

Koyo Kouoh tentou traduzir a linguagem dos pássaros?

In Minor Keys não parece funcionar como título curatorial. Mas afinal, como traduzir verdadeiramente o tema que Koyo nos propõe, uma vez que funciona mais como um estado emocional, uma espécie de enigma sensorial sobre o presente, ou um canto de pássaros num dia de sol ou chuva? Parece que funciona como uma tradução antes da tradução, como se antes mesmo dos artistas começarem a traduzir o mundo através das suas obras, já tivesse existido um primeiro grande gesto de tradução: o da própria Koyo tentando nomear aquilo que o mundo contemporâneo sente, mas que lhe escapa das mãos em meio ao caos com o qual se familiarizou.

Há qualquer coisa de profundamente africano e simultaneamente universal nessa proposta. Arriscamo-nos a dizer que a presença africana e afro-diaspórica nesta edição não está apenas por estar, nem está apenas como um emblema geográfico, ocupa antes um centro conceptual dentro da Bienal. Ao atravessar os pavilhões de Veneza, percebe-se que muitas das obras mais fortes desta edição recusam a própria lógica do impacto imediato.

A arte nos salva!

O que comunicam esses artistas negros dentro da Bienal? Aonde querem chegar?

Artistas como Otobong Nkanga, da Nigéria, e Sammy Baloji da RDC, dialogam em muitos aspetos, são os tais membros daquela tribo da sensibilidade. As obras de ambos gritam, estão manchadas de suor e sangue, são ácidas, corpulentas, mas se vistas ao contrário ou sob outra perspectiva, são a perfeita ilustração dos tons menores, dos toques de dentro, das ondas em brando sopro que nos abraçam. Como se costuma dizer, a arte nos salva: é política, mas ela não faz política por si só.

Os dois trabalham a relação entre terra, extração mineral, violência ecológica e memória colonial. Criam obras, por meio da fotografia, artes visuais ou da performance,  em que o solo africano se consegue erguer para além das suas beldades, para pôr em xeque o capitalismo global. Nas suas instalações, os materiais parecem carregar feridas subterrâneas, como se o mundo moderno tivesse sido construído sobre minerais arrancados à força de determinados territórios.

Além destes, outros vários artistas afrodescendentes destacam-se nesta edição, como Wangechi Mutu, nascida no Quénia, Billie Zangewa do Malawi e África do Sul, Já Buhlebezwe Siwani, da África do Sul e Kader Attia, nascido em França e profundamente ligado à Argélia.

Há uma espécie de maternidade conceptual em In Minor Keys, capaz de gerar vida, criar tensões, fazer dúvidas, trazer esperança. E essa presença negra em destaque, apesar de plural e bastante diversa, consegue captar e até capturar o essencial e a essência dos tons menores, como no caso da artista sul africana Helen Sabidi, que traz a sensibilidade de casa, as raízes e as tradições herdadas da sua avó para explorar os traumas do Apartheid com quadros belíssimos. A arte nos salva sim, a arte aponta sempre um caminho, mesmo que não saiba.

A boca do Sul-global

 No artigo anterior perguntávamos: se o sistema artístico se descentralizou, qual continua a ser o centro que legitima a arte global?

Talvez Veneza tenha respondido parcialmente à questão. Ou talvez o próprio Sul Global tenha respondido pela própria boca dizendo que não era apenas um tema da arte contemporânea, era o tom menor por si só, produtor de linguagem, produtor de sensibilidade e produtor de método curatorial.

Porque o que se observa aqui não é uma substituição simples de centros, como já se disse, mas algo mais complexo: uma deslocação gradual das frequências emocionais da arte contemporânea. O eixo dominante permanece institucionalmente forte, mas o imaginário, as perguntas e parte da vitalidade conceptual parecem hoje deslocar-se cada vez mais para geografias historicamente consideradas periféricas.

E isso produz inevitavelmente uma pergunta desconfortável para o velho centro: Que caminhos de volta são possíveis agora?

Imagens: Celestino Bastos e Eduardo Lima.

The post The presence of Black creators at the Biennale: Afro-descendant artists in the spotlight appeared first on waau art.

Grada Kilomba, with a body of work spanning large-scale installations, sculptures, video, and performance, approaches the concepts of memory, trauma, violence, and repetition in a striking yet poetic manner. In the exhibition O Fundo do Mundo (The Bottom of the Earth), the artist envisions a scenography of the future, posing a disturbing and urgent philosophical question that weaves through both her works and their material forms: “What would the bottom of the ocean tell us tomorrow, if it were emptied of water today?”

Kilomba invites us to imagine a futuristic landscape in which the “bottom of the earth” becomes a site of memory. The ocean floor is a repository of geological sedimentations and transformations, but also a repository of routes and traces of human activity—often barbaric and violent—from slavery to colonialism, from multiple wars to climate crises, all the way to the tragic genocides of today. The seabed holds countless corridors of human bodies, revealing nature itself as an archive of human existence.

In her work, the frailty of materials such as glass and nearly see-through fabric contrasts with the resilience of stone and the silent memory of burned and cut wood, which bear the traces of hundreds of years. Traversing and shaping these materials—at times elevated, others more direct—the written, sung, or merely alluded to is another recurring element in Kilomba’s moving and inspiring practice, reflecting both the breadth of her interests and her academic background.

Source: The Albuquerque Foundation

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