Thank you — Venice, the biennial, and everything in between

A couple of weeks after the opening of the Biennale, Venice has begun to shift into a different rhythm. There is a way of moving through the city in these days that feels closer to listening than looking. A Venice in minor keys, where attention drifts differently: less towards the spectacle of arrival, more towards what lingers after. A quieter register that feels, in its own way, closely aligned with Koyo’s sensibility: precise, restrained, attuned to what doesn’t need to announce itself to be felt. And in this shift, there is space to reflect.

 

Over this edition of the 61st Venice Biennale, African practices have been impossible to miss. Moving across its many layers, they appeared in multiple forms and registers: never singular, always in motion, unfolding through different voices, materials, and approaches. Across the African pavilions and collateral spaces, there was a clear sense of articulation and confidence in scale and language. These works expanded the field around them, opening new points of contact and subtly shifting the rhythm of the conversation. But their reach extended well beyond the Giardini and the Arsenale, finding further resonance across the city and within Venice’s institutional landscape, where new readings began to take shape.

 

Within this wider constellation, we also had the pleasure of hosting moments that felt both intimate and expansive. Welcoming a special reception in our gallery for the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa trustees brought together a gathering of conversations already in motion, collecting threads from earlier days in Cape Town. Joining then the event hosted at Palazzo Zeno, organized by Zeitz MOCAA, opened another space where these dialogues could continue to evolve. A sense of continuity ran through rooms, days, and encounters, shaping a conversation that kept unfolding in different forms and directions.

 

Looking back, what remains is less a checklist of events and more a texture: of meetings, of exchanges, of shared attention. Venice, in all its density, seemed to function less as a destination and more as a temporary language spoken collectively for a brief period, then slowly dissolving, leaving space to rediscover the works and conversations the city held with quiet intensity.

 

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who passed through the gallery during these weeks. To old friends, familiar faces, and those we met for the first time: each encounter added something to the atmosphere we will carry forward.