"“Today and forever, Koyo Kouoh, you are here with us... We are coming. Almost there, mother of the water. Almost there, mother of the ocean,” Campos-Pons announced to the growing crowd, some of whom were fellow artists that Kouoh selected for the Biennale. Many more were unsuspecting bystanders standing in line for free Illy-sponsored espresso, now forced to confront the conscience so often separated from commerce at this art-world spectacle."
"“a minor key to keep fighting and working for the center of our core, for the center that is what is to be human. And be a daughter, a son, of the original continent of humanity, Africa.”"
"After Kouoh died suddenly of cancer at age 57 last May, a five-person team of her assistants and advisers worked to channel her curatorial practice in her absence. They took to the ad hoc stage today, a slightly raised pavilion suddenly erected along the Giardini's main promenade, indicating that while this procession was absent from an official schedule, it was sanctioned."
"Marie Hélène Pereira, curator and stand-in lead of the 2026 Biennale, explained that this poetry caravan takes inspiration from a voyage Kouoh took with nine African poets from Dakar to Timbuktu in 1999."
María Magdalena Campos-Pons led a poetry caravan across seven locations in the Giardini during the Venice Biennale opening preview. The procession honored Koyo Kouoh, the late curator of the main exhibition, In Minor Keys. Campos-Pons addressed the crowd with lines invoking Kouoh as “mother of the water” and “mother of the ocean,” and framed the event as a “minor key” for continued work toward a human center rooted in Africa. Kouoh’s curatorial practice was channeled by a team of assistants and advisers after her death from cancer at age 57. The caravan was inspired by Kouoh’s 1999 voyage from Dakar to Timbuktu with nine African poets.
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