 |
| Koyo Kouoh - Photo: (c) antoine tempé |
(Venice, Italy) Certain souls have the cosmic strength to impact our lives long after they shuffle off their mortal coil. Koyo Kouoh, the Artistic Director of this year's Venice Art Biennale, is one of them. From beyond the grave, her mighty vision, In Minor Keys, invites us to "shift to a slower gear and tune in to the frequencies of the minor keys."
Koyo Kouoh was born on the day before Christmas in 1967 in Cameroon, Africa, moving to Zurich, Switzerland at age 13. As an adult, she was based in Dakar, Senegal, where she founded the RAW Material Company, an artists' residency and exhibition space. In 2019, she was appointed the director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. Kouoh died unexpectedly in Basel, Switzerland, of recently diagnosed cancer on May 10, 2025, at the age of 57.
On October 17, 2024, when Koyo Kouoh accepted the invitation from Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale, she became the first African woman appointed to curate Venice's renowned International Art Exhibition, the "Olympics of the Art World." She had a short, intense amount of time to compose her concept of In Minor Keys. After her sudden passing, with the full support of her family and her dedicated team, La Biennale decided to fulfill Kouoh's profound vision for the 61st Venice Art Biennale.
 |
| In Minor Keys presentation at Ca' Giustinian Photo: Jacopo Salvi - Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia |
At the presentation of In Minor Keys for the 61st Venice Art Biennale on February 25, 2026, Koyo Kouoh's team again took turns reading her words of wisdom, which I first published in May 2025 post shortly after her death. Then they each gave their impressions of how In Minor Keys was developed, and how it would move forward.
Kouoh's frequencies of the "minor keys" challenge the mechanical, loud, "major key" noise of the modern world. In Minor Keys is a call to discover one's permanent center of gravity, a concept central to The Work of G.I. Gurdjieff, the mystic philosopher who developed The Fourth Way, a system with which I am well acquainted. It had been a while since I'd heard his name.
It was President Buttafuoco's words at the presentation that startled me out of my slumber. While discussing the exhibition's philosophical direction, he said something that I was amazed to hear coming from the mouth of someone who had been repeatedly labeled as a "right-wing journalist." He spoke of the baffo furbo di Gurdjieff.
"Baffo" means "moustache" in Italian. "Furbo" is a difficult word to translate into English, often translated as "sly" or "cunning." But in Italian, "furbo" often has a positive connotation, more like using ingenuity or being clever to get around the rules. More like "artful." So, he spoke of Gurdjieff's artful moustache.
President Buttafuoco said that when he met Koyo Kouoh at Ca' Giustinian, Biennale headquarters, in October 2024, there was perfect alchemy and magic in their meeting.
She exclaimed, "You're Sicilian! Therefore, African." She had the smile of one who knows.
"The baffo furbo di Gurdjieff appeared between us," Buttafuoco said. "The permanent center of gravity..."
"Let's look for it together.' Kouoh told him. "Let's look for it together."
 |
| Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale and Cristiana Costanzo, Head of Press & Media Relations, Visual Arts, Architecture, Historic Archive Photo: Cat Bauer |
President Buttafuoco smiled as he addressed the audience at Ca' Giustinian. "It's a secret, underground way of understanding and speaking to each, and it's the cura," he said. "The cure—and I look directly at Professor Zecchi (Stefano Zecchi, who was in the audience), who, beyond his institutional role, is a philosopher—it's the cure that explains and reveals active commitment in the world. She used a very precise expression: gettatezza."
Gettatezza is the Italian translation of the German word Geworfenheit, or "thrownness" in English, a fundamental philosophical concept introduced by Martin Heidegger in 1927. It describes the condition of being "thrown" into a world and circumstances we did not choose.
%20-%20YouTube.png)
Usually, this "throwness" leads to a sense of being lost—falling into the "major key" noise of a world that demands we react like machines to every headline and crisis. We are "thrown" into our families, our nationalities, and our struggles without a map.
But for Koyo Kouoh, gettatezza was the starting point for active commitment. By finding that permanent center of gravity, we gain the ability to remain ourselves, no matter how hard the world tries to pull us off balance.
This is the "cure" that Buttafuoco recognized. It is the secret understanding that art is not just something to look at, but a way to wake up. When Kouoh looked at the Sicilian President of La Biennale and claimed him as a fellow African, she was bypassing the "major key" labels of politics, prejudice, and geography. She was tuning into a deeper frequency—the "minor key" where true human connection happens.
 |
| Koyo Kouoh - Photo: Mirjam Kluka |
The 61st Venice Art Biennale, In Minor Keys, is a posthumous gift from a woman who knew how to find the center in the middle of the storm. It invites us all to look for that center of gravity together, guided by a vision that refuses to be silenced by death.
The International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia has been the center of gravity for art for over a century. Artists, art and museum professionals, collectors, dealers, philanthropists and an ever-growing public converge on this mythical site every two years to feel the pulse of the Zeitgeist. It is a once-in-a-lifetime honor and privilege to follow in the footsteps of luminary predecessors in the role of Artistic Director, and to compose an exhibition that I hope will carry meaning for the world we currently live in — and most importantly, for the world we want to make.
--Koyo Kouoh
In Minor Keys, the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, will run from Saturday, May 9 to Sunday, November 22, 2026, with previews on May 6, 7, and 8. You can watch the presentation of In Minor Keys on The Biennale Channel on YouTube. Go to the Venice Biennale for more information.
Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
No comments:
Post a Comment