VENICE.- The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, under the visionary guidance of Koyo Kouoh and the theme “In Minor Keys”, invites us to engage in an exercise of acoustic and visual decentering. It calls for the abandonment of the major key of hegemonic narratives — those of clamor, perpetual crisis, and monumentality — in order to tune into subtler frequencies, to stories that germinate in the shadows, to silent forms of resilience.

In response to this call, the National Pavilion of Sierra Leone, marking its historic first participation in the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, presents “Worlds of Today”. The title refers not only to the present moment, but also to a process of becoming. Drawing inspiration from the philosophical concept of “minority” as a revolutionary space (in the Deleuzian sense, where language vibrates and generates new realities), the pavilion takes shape as a device for listening and research.

As curators Sandro Orlandi Stagl and Willy Montini wrote: “We are not exhibiting static objects, but vital processes. Sierra Leone does not ask to be ‘discovered,’ but to be ‘listened to’ as it intones, together with the world, a new ethical score.”

The Sierra Leone National Pavilion: Dialectics of Renewal

Within the pavilion, the exhibition unfolds as an intimate and intense conversation. The curatorial approach avoids accumulation in favor of depth, staging a dialogue between four Sierra Leonean artists, four artists selected from ECOWAS countries, and several international artists.

This structure is not arithmetic, but alchemical. The Sierra Leonean artists bring with them the epistemology of their land: a territory in transformation which, through communal and spiritual practices, is rewriting its own future. The international artists, chosen for their elective affinity with themes of care, memory, and social sustainability, act as a sounding board.

Each work on display must respond affirmatively to a moral imperative:

● The artwork is not an end in itself, but a vector of change.
● Aesthetics must take on a civic function.
● Art has the duty to imagine the unimaginable: lasting peace, environmental justice, and radical brotherhood.

The exhibition space is conceived as a fluid environment, where the boundaries between works dissolve, suggesting that no “world of today” can emerge in isolation.

The Inner Space: ECOWAS and Polyphonic Cartography

In an internal space, however, the Sierra Leone project performs its most audacious and politically relevant gesture, expanding the concept of national representation into a transnational and pan-African dimension.

At a historical moment when nationalisms tend to fragment global discourse, Sierra Leone offers its space in Venice to host an expanded project dedicated to ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States).

The selected artists come from Nigeria, Togo, Senegal, and Liberia; this section brings together distinct voices — “soloists” who agree to form a dissonant yet harmonious chorus. It is not merely a group exhibition, but a Visual Constituent Assembly.

Why artists from other African countries?

This fundamental choice aims to map the complexity of West Africa without flattening it. Each selected artist becomes the ambassador of a specific “minor key” rooted in their own geographical and cultural context.

● Breaking homogeneity: The West often views Africa as a monolith. By presenting artists from different associated nations, the exhibition highlights fractures, linguistic specificities, religious differences, and varying speeds of modernization.

● The aesthetics of relation: Drawing on Édouard Glissant, the project embodies a Poetics of Relation, where identity is defined not by opposition, but through contact with the other. Within this inner space, the works interact through proximity, creating a network of meanings that transcends imposed borders.

● A common front: These nations, united within this pavilion, generate a seismic frequency impossible to ignore. It is tangible proof that art can anticipate politics: a cultural ECOWAS asserts itself strongly in Venice even before many political integrations are completed.

Curatorial Vision and Ethical Commitment

Sandro Orlandi Stagl and Willy Montini have orchestrated this dual movement (national and supranational) while firmly steering according to the principles of an idea of Ethical Art.

The selection of artists for the ECOWAS section does not necessarily follow the logic of the mainstream art market, which often fetishizes African art for external consumption. Instead, the curators seek authors who work “in minor keys” within their own countries: artists engaged with communities, who use vernacular materials, and who narrate stories of everyday resistance.

The project within the National Pavilion, encouraged by the concurrent presidency of both Sierra Leone and ECOWAS under H.E. President Julius Maada Bio, demonstrates that creativity is West Africa’s most powerful renewable resource. If precious raw materials could divide, art possesses the intrinsic capacity to mend.

Conclusion: An Archipelago of Possibilities

Visiting the Sierra Leone National Pavilion and its ECOWAS expansion in 2026 will mean traversing an archipelago of worlds already vividly present.

As the late curator Koyo Kouoh suggests, we must learn to listen to the silence between the notes. In that silence — between a work from Nigeria and one from Sierra Leone, between an international installation and an African one — lies the promise of a different future.

“Worlds of Today” is, ultimately, a declaration of faith in humanity’s capacity for regeneration. It is an invitation to see West Africa as an advanced laboratory where new forms of global humanism are being tested.

List of Artists

Sierra Leone: Hawa-Jane Bangura, Ayesha Feisal, Hickmatu Leigh, Abu Bakarr Mansaray; International: Eros Bonamini (Italy), Piergiorgio Colombara (Italy), Jacopo Di Cera (Italy), Fernando Garbellotto (Italy), Gianfranco Gentile (Italy), Armando Romero (Mexico), Margherita Levo Rosenberg (Italy), Alberto Salvetti (Italy);
ECOWAS: Seini Awa Camara (Senegal), Abdoul Ganiou Dermani (Togo), Eloy Lokossou (Benin), Mòyọ̀sórẹ́ Martins (Nigeria)