#In Miner Keys
Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition
– La Biennale di Venezia
Song E Yoon : Songs Across Time
Curated by Seohyun Kang
Song E Yoon | Frederic bruly Bouabre
May 9 – Nov 22, 2026
Tue - Sun 11:00–19:00 (May–Sep)
10:00–18:00 (Oct–Nov)
Fri–Sat until 20:00
Closed Mondays – except May 11 and Nov 16
PRESS PREVIEW May 6, 7, 8
Spazio 996/A, Fondamenta Sant'Anna 996/A Castello, 30122 Venice
The Foundation of ART NYC presents Song E Yoon: Songs Across Time as a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Seohyun Kang, the exhibition will be on view from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at Spazio 996/A, Fondamenta Sant’Anna 996/A, Castello, Venice. The exhibition features works by Song E Yoon and Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, exploring humanity’s engagement with memory, recording, and the passage of time. Set within a historic Venetian space, visitors can experience the exhibition in a context that reflects the city’s rich cultural and architectural heritage.
The history of humanity is, above all, a history of communication. Since the earliest times, humans have invented new languages to convey their thoughts, fears, and hopes. Long before the emergence of writing, gestures, sounds, markings, cave paintings, and symbolic carvings served as meaning channels; these traces were never mere decoration but records of how humans related to the world, ways of conversing with the cosmos and the divine. They bridged earth and sky, body and spirit, individual and community, leaving behind the oldest footprints of human presence.
At the center of this early communication stood the shaman. Far from being a mere practitioner of superstition, she was a mediator between the visible and invisible worlds. By observing the stars, the sun, the moon, and the rhythm of the seasons with acute precision, she provided direction for survival. The signs, prayers, and cryptic images she left behind were not irrational fantasies but proto-scientific records. They gradually evolved into systems of writing, and every civilization developed its own language to preserve life and memory.
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré’s work compresses this trajectory of history. Born in Côte d’Ivoire, he dedicated his life to safeguarding the oral traditions of his community. His invention of the Bété Alphabet was a linguistic innovation and a prophetic system of symbols designed to make memory permanent. Bouabré described himself as an artist, recorder, and prophet. His alphabet transcends phonetic communication; it serves as a code transmitting the voices of a people to the future. Just as writing enabled humanity to inscribe its memory across time, Bouabré’s alphabet operates as a tool that archives and transcends collective consciousness.
In dialogue with this legacy, Song E Yoon presents her petroglyph if paintings and installations as another recording form. She gathers ancient human symbols and re-inscribes them through lines and luminous marks across walls and space. Her work resembles prehistoric carvings, yet it is not a reconstruction of the past. Instead, it is a map of journeys across 10,000 years of human history, a constellation of signs that weave together layers of time. Lines intersect like star charts; symbols glow within shadow; fragments of characters and mythological figures overlap. The result is an environment where past, present, and future appear simultaneously. Song’s work, in particular, embodies the symbolic journey toward the North Star. For ancient navigators and nomads, Polaris was the fixed point in the heavens, the light that guided direction.
Her installation revives those ancient journeys toward the star, recalling humanity’s pursuit of orientation and survival. She asks through her lines and symbols: “Is it not true that even now, we are still moving toward the North Star?” This question is not a metaphor alone but a reminder of humanity’s enduring longing for direction that transcends epochs.
Placed alongside Bouabré’s cards, Song’s installation resonates deeply. Bouabré’s alphabet is a “language of recording,” while Song’s carvings are a “language of journey.” One preserves memory in symbolic form, the other reopens paths of exploration. Together they stage a dialogue across cultures and generations, asking the same fundamental question: Where do we come from, and where are we going?
The exhibition gains further depth from its setting in a historic space in Venice. Brick walls, wooden trusses, and the proximity of canals bear centuries of accumulated time. The architecture functions as an archive, embodying layers of memory and resonance. Venice, long a crossroads between East and West, tradition and innovation, amplifies the voices of the works, turning the exhibition space into another memory vessel.This exhibition does not seek to provide a definitive answer. Instead, it leaves the viewer with an open question: “What do we record, and how do we remember?” From prehistoric markings to contemporary installations, humanity has always looked to the skies and sought orientation. The journey toward the Polaris is not a relic of the past but a living metaphor of our present quest. Bouabré’s alphabet inscribes memory; Song’s installations reanimate it through matter and light.
Song’s lines are not random accumulations but traces of human history gathered and intertwined across time. They remind us that humanity has never ceased to seek connection—with one another, the cosmos, and the future. And in their glow we hear again the question: “Even now, are we not still moving toward the Polaris?” This question places us alongside the shamans and navigators of the past, reminding us that the primal desire to find direction has never faded. The Polaris remains unmoved, and we continue to move toward it despite centuries of change.
Ultimately, this exhibition becomes a song for a new Golden Age, where past and present, record and imagination, human and cosmos converge. It is not a reconstruction of what has been lost, but a living testimony to the journeys humanity has always undertaken, and a vision of those still to come.
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La storia dell’umanità è, prima di tutto, una storia della comunicazione. Fin dai tempi più antichi, gli esseri umani hanno inventato nuovi linguaggi per trasmettere pensieri, paure e speranze. Molto prima della scrittura, gesti, suoni, segni, pitture rupestri e incisioni simboliche hanno funzionato come canali di significato. Queste tracce non erano mai semplici decorazioni, ma registrazioni del rapporto dell’uomo con il mondo, modi per dialogare con il cosmo e con il divino. Collegavano terra e cielo, corpo e spirito, individuo e comunità, lasciando le più antiche impronte della presenza umana.
Al centro di questa comunicazione primitiva stava lo sciamano. Lungi dall’essere un semplice praticante di superstizioni, ella era una mediatrice tra i mondi visibile e invisibile. Osservando con precisione il sole, la luna, le stelle e il ritmo delle stagioni, forniva orientamento per la sopravvivenza. I segni, le preghiere e le immagini criptiche che lasciava non erano fantasie irrazionali, ma registri proto-scientifici. Col tempo si trasformarono in sistemi di scrittura, e ogni civiltà sviluppò un proprio linguaggio per conservare vita e memoria.
L’opera di Frédéric Bruly Bouabré condensa questa traiettoria storica. Nato in Costa d’Avorio, dedicò la sua vita a salvaguardare le tradizioni orali della sua comunità. La sua invenzione dell’Alfabeto Bété non fu solo un’innovazione linguistica, ma anche un sistema profetico di simboli pensato per rendere la memoria permanente. Bouabré si definiva artista, cronista e profeta. Il suo alfabeto trascende la comunicazione fonetica; funziona come un codice che trasmette le voci di un popolo al futuro. Così come la scrittura ha permesso all’umanità di incidere la propria memoria nel tempo, l’alfabeto di Bouabré diventa uno strumento che archivia e al tempo stesso trascende la coscienza collettiva.In dialogo con questa eredità, Song E Yoon presenta le sue installazioni di tipo rupestre come un’altra forma di registrazione. L’artista raccoglie simboli antichi e li reinscrive attraverso linee e segni luminosi su pareti e nello spazio. Le sue opere richiamano le incisioni preistoriche, ma non si limitano a ricostruire il passato.
Sono piuttosto una mappa di viaggi lungo 10.000 anni di storia umana, una costellazione di segni che intrecciano diversi strati temporali. Le linee si intersecano come carte stellari; i simboli brillano nell’oscurità; frammenti di caratteri e figure mitologiche si sovrappongono. Il risultato è un ambiente in cui passato, presente e futuro appaiono simultaneamente.
Il lavoro di Song incarna in particolare il viaggio verso la Stella Polare. Per navigatori e nomadi antichi, la Stella Polare era il punto fisso del cielo, la luce che indicava la direzione. La sua installazione rievoca quei viaggi remoti, richiamando la ricerca umana di orientamento e sopravvivenza. Attraverso linee e simboli, l’artista chiede: «Non è forse vero che, ancora oggi, stiamo andando verso la Stella Polare?». Questa domanda non è solo una metafora, ma un richiamo al desiderio universale e senza tempo dell’umanità di cercare un orientamento. Poste accanto alle carte di Bouabré, le installazioni di Song risuonano profondamente. L’alfabeto di Bouabré è un “linguaggio della registrazione”, mentre i segni rupestri di Song sono un “linguaggio del viaggio”. Uno preserva la memoria in forma simbolica, l’altro riapre cammini di esplorazione. Insieme mettono in scena un dialogo tra culture ed epoche, ponendo la stessa domanda fondamentale: Da dove veniamo, e dove stiamo andando?
La mostra acquisisce ulteriore profondità grazie al suo allestimento in uno spazio storico di Venezia. Pareti di mattoni, travi di legno e la vicinanza dei canali portano con sé secoli di tempo accumulato. L’architettura stessa diventa un archivio, incarnando strati di memoria e risonanza. Venezia, da sempre crocevia tra Oriente e Occidente, tra tradizione e innovazione, amplifica le voci delle opere, trasformando lo spazio espositivo in un ulteriore contenitore di memoria.
Questa esposizione non cerca di dare risposte definitive. Piuttosto, lascia allo spettatore una domanda aperta: «Che cosa registriamo e come ricordiamo?». Dai segni preistorici alle installazioni contemporanee, l’umanità ha sempre guardato il cielo e cercato un orientamento. Il viaggio verso la Stella Polare non è un residuo del passato, ma una metafora vivente della nostra ricerca attuale. L’alfabeto di Bouabré incide la memoria; le installazioni di Song la rianimano attraverso materia e luce.
Le linee di Song non sono accumulazioni casuali, ma tracce della storia umana intrecciate nel tempo. Ricordano che l’umanità non ha mai smesso di cercare connessione: tra di noi, con il cosmo, con il futuro. E nel loro bagliore si leva di nuovo la domanda: «Ancora oggi, non stiamo andando verso la Stella Polare?»
Questa domanda ci pone accanto agli sciamani e ai navigatori del passato, ricordandoci che il desiderio primordiale di trovare una direzione non è mai svanito. La Stella Polare resta immobile, e noi—nonostante i secoli di cambiamento—continuiamo a muoverci verso di essa.
In definitiva, questa mostra diventa un canto per una nuova Età dell’Oro, in cui passato e presente, memoria e immaginazione, uomo e cosmo convergono. Non è una semplice ricostruzione di ciò che è stato, ma una testimonianza vivente dei viaggi che l’umanità ha sempre intrapreso, e una visione di quelli che devono ancora venire.
#In Minor Keys
The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh, – which will run from Saturday 9 May to Sunday 22 November 2026 at the Giardini, the Arsenale and in various locations around Venice. The pre-opening will take place on May 6, 7, and 8, while the awards ceremony and inauguration will be held on Saturday, May 9, 2026.
After the premature passing of Koyo Kouoh in May 2025, with the full support of her family, La Biennale di Venezia decided to carry out her Exhibition, with the purpose of preserving, enhancing and widely disseminating her ideas and the work she pursued with such dedication to the very end. Koyo Kouoh, nominated as the Artistic Director of the Visual Arts Department in November 2024, already developed the curatorial project, defining its theoretical framework, selecting the artists and the artworks, designating the authors of the catalogue, determining the graphic identity of the Exhibition and the architecture of the exhibition spaces, and establishing a dialogue with the artists invited to participate.
In Minor Keys is the title chosen by Koyo Kouoh for the 61st International Art Exhibition, as specified in the curatorial text, which was sent to the President of La Biennale on 8 April 2025. The Exhibition will be realised with the contribution of the team selected by Koyo: Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira and Rasha Salti (advisors); Siddhartha Mitter (editor-in-chief); and Rory Tsapayi (research assistant).
During the presentation in Venice, at Ca’ Giustinian, headquarters of the La Biennale di Venezia, they were the ones who outlined the work carried out together with Koyo for the 61st International Art Exhibition. This work culminated in a significant meeting held in Dakar in April 2025 at RAW Material Company — the cultural center founded by Kouoh — and led by the Curator herself. That experience remains emblematic of the way she conceived curatorial practice: grounded in relationships and open to the unexpected.
“That week in Dakar – stated Koyo’s Team - was the edifying week that defined the 61st International Art Exhibition. We mapped practices and projects, we identified resonances, affinities, synchronicities and conversations, we extracted motifs to structure the exhibition and pillars on which to draw it. Notions like enchantment, seeding, commoning, and generative practices that invite collectivities, emerged organically. On the last day of our convention, after reckoning that we had accomplished the most daunting milestone, Koyo assigned missions to each of us. The exhibition had found its manifest forms, it was no longer intention, nor abstraction. We could hear the music she so gracefully composed with us, under the generous guardianship of the mango tree.”
Koyo’s Team, with members based in different cities around the world — Gabe in London, Marie Hélènebetween Dakar and Berlin, Rasha between Beirut and Marseille, Rory in Cape Town, and Siddhartha in New York City — has in recent months continued the work of producing the Exhibition, engaging La Biennale in a special effort during the project’s development phase, particularly the Visual Arts Department. Remote work through online meetings, combined with in-person seminars held in Venice in May and October 2025 and in Dakar in June 2025, enabled the Team to work alongside the Biennale while being distributed across several continents. This gave rise to an intense, multilayered, and deeply shared process, in which each contribution enriched the collective construction of the Exhibition.
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