[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1769869191.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tWith the 2026 Venice Biennale wrapping up its professional previews and officially opening to the public on Saturday, a new foundation dedicated to Koyo Kouoh\u2014the curator of the Biennale\u2019s main exhibition who passed away a year ago\u2014has been announced.<\/p>\n
\n\tBased in Basel, Switzerland, where Kouoh lived for part of her life, the Koyo Kouoh Foundation \u201ccontinues and structures the work initiated by Koyo Kouoh\u201d with the goal of keeping \u201ca tradition alive, rather than turning it into a still image,\u201d according to the foundation\u2019s website. \u201cIt is based on the idea that art is not neutral<\/em> and that history, power, access, and the conditions in which artists and curators can think, make, and share their work all shape cultural production.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe site adds, \u201cIt\u2019s important to know that culture isn\u2019t secondary. It\u2019s structural.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs part of its work, the foundation will support emerging and established organizations and curators in both Africa and internationally, including RAW Material Company, the Dakar-based arts and research organization Kouoh founded in 2008.<\/p>\n \n\tPer the website, the foundation \u201cfunctions as a platform for resources, funding, and structural support for those contributing to contemporary African cultural production globally,\u201d which includes spaces for the research, education, production, and circulation of \u201cpractices that have been pushed to the edges, moved, or ignored in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn addition to its support of curators more broadly, the foundation is planning to establish the Koyo Kouoh Prize, which will \u201csupport and recognize artists, curators, researchers, cultural practitioners, and institution builders whose work reflects the values of critical thought, structural imagination, and transformative cultural practice,\u201d as well as creating a long-term home for the Koyo Kouoh Collection, which will house \u201cart, archives, research, and cultural contributions that are in line with Koyo Kouoh\u2019s values, conversations, and legacy,\u201d per the website. The foundation is asking for financial support for both projects, adding that it welcomes \u201creal conversations with people who want to help it grow.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe foundation is led by saxophonist and composer Philippe Mall, Kouoh\u2019s partner of 17 years who serves in the role as president. It also includes artist Alfredo Jaar; Adrienne Edwards, senior curator and associate director of curatorial programs at the Whitney Museum; Kate Fowle, director of arts programs for the Hearthland Foundation; and Josef Helfenstein, the former director of the Kunstmuseum Basel.<\/p>\n \n\tAt the time of her death, Kouoh was at work on \u201cIn Minor Keys,\u201d the main exhibition for the 2026 Biennale, which focuses on art as a life-sustaining strategy. She was also the executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, where her curatorial credits included the 2022 exhibition \u201cWhen We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting.\u201d She had previously served on the curatorial teams of Documenta 12 and Documenta 13 in 2007 and 2012, respectively, and she had curated six editions of the EVA International, the Ireland Biennial.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a video on the site\u2019s homepage that serves to ground the foundation\u2019s work, Kouoh says, \u201cFor me, creating exhibitions is like a journey; it\u2019s teamwork over time. Curating is 20% research, intellect, and critique, and 80% organization, coordination, and logistics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/koyo-kouoh-foundation-launch-1234784665\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1769869191.jpg?w=1024″] With the 2026 Venice Biennale wrapping up its professional previews and officially opening to the public on Saturday, a new foundation dedicated to Koyo Kouoh\u2014the curator of the Biennale\u2019s main exhibition who passed away a year ago\u2014has been announced. Based in Basel, Switzerland, where Kouoh lived for part of her life, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1926946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}