Venice in a Minor Key: Two Voices at the 61st Biennale
Each edition of the Venice Biennale reshapes the way we experience contemporary art. The 61st edition in 2026 unfolds under the poetic and introspective theme In Minor Key, conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh. Her question lingers across Venice’s palazzos and pavilions: what does art sound like when it listens instead of announces?
At Amstel Gallery, we follow two artists whose work resonates precisely in that space of quiet intensity; Gregory de la Haba and Koen Vanmechelen; each presenting distinct yet deeply connected narratives within the city.
Gregory de la Haba: Diaspora, Memory, and the Persistent Mark
Presented within the Diaspora: Dissonance In Mineur F guest artists section, Gregory de la Haba’s work inhabits the emotional core of this year’s Biennale. Curated by Chiara Modica Donà dalle Rose and Massimo Scaringella, the exhibition explores displacement, fragmentation, and the quiet endurance of identity.
De la Haba’s practice has long been rooted in what remains rather than what is declared. His surfaces carry traces, gestural, layered, and often unresolved, mirroring the movement of cultures across time and geography. These are not works that demand attention; they accumulate it.
In his own words, his art exists in “the marks that persist, the cultures that travel, the identity that survives erasure.” Within the framework of In Minor Key, his contribution feels less like a statement and more like a frequency, something sensed before it is fully understood.
Koen Vanmechelen: A World Where We Were Never Alone
In the layered grandeur of Palazzo Rota Ivancich, Koen Vanmechelen presents his solo exhibition We Thought We Were Alone, curated by James Putnam.
Vanmechelen’s universe is one where boundaries dissolve; between species, cultures, and histories. Known for his long-term exploration of biocultural diversity, the artist creates sculptural ecosystems where hybrid forms emerge as symbols of connection rather than division.
The exhibition unfolds as an immersive journey. Classical references are present, but altered, reimagined through a contemporary lens that questions purity, origin, and isolation. A dedicated room highlights the Wild Gene Festival, his collaboration with Youssou N’Dour, reinforcing a central idea: coexistence is not a concept, but a condition.
The title itself; We Thought We Were Alone, reads almost as a quiet correction.
A Biennale That Listens
What connects these two artists is not medium or form, but sensitivity. Both de la Haba and Vanmechelen operate within a subtle register, one through abstraction and memory, the other through symbolic transformation and biological metaphor.
In a Biennale shaped by reflection rather than proclamation, their works offer a slower encounter. They ask the viewer not just to look, but to attune.
Exhibition Details:
Gregory de la Haba
Diaspora: Dissonance In Mineur F
Guest Artists Section, 61st Venice Biennale
May 9 – November 22, 2026
Curated by Massimo Scaringella and Rosa Mundi
📍Palazzo Donà dalle Rose
Cannaregio 5038, Venice
10 -minute walk from Fondamenta Nove
Vaporetto stop: Fondamenta Nove
Koen Vanmechelen
We Thought We Were Alone
May 9 – November 22, 2026
Curated by James Putnam
📍 Palazzo Rota Ivancich
Calle del Remedio 4421, Castello, Venice
5-minute walk from Piazza San Marco
Vaporetto stop: San Zaccaria
Hours:
May – September: 11:00 – 19:00
October – November: 10:00 – 18:00
Closed Mondays
A final note: Venice has always been a city of echoes; water carrying sound, history layered upon itself. This year, the Biennale doesn’t compete with that atmosphere.
It joins it.
