An inaugural pavilion listens beyond the noise, composing a polyphonic future from West Africa to the world.
17 April 2026
In Venice, where spectacle often competes for attention amid the grandeur of national pavilions, Sierra Leone arrives quietly, yet with profound clarity. Its debut at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia does not seek to overwhelm. Instead, it listens. Titled ‘Worlds of Today’, the pavilion unfolds less as an exhibition and more as a sensorial proposition, an attunement to what curator Koyo Kouoh has framed as “minor keys,” a shift away from dominant narratives toward subtler, often overlooked frequencies of existence.
Hawa-Jane Bangura, The Black Athenas: African Medicine, 2022.
Situated at the Liceo Guggenheim, Sierra Leone’s pavilion resists the gravitational pull of spectacle. It is, as curators Sandro Orlandi Stagl and Willy Montini suggest, not a display of static objects but a constellation of “vital processes” . This distinction is critical. In a global art ecosystem that frequently commodifies identity and aestheticises crisis, ‘Worlds of Today’ proposes something more radical. It positions art as an ethical instrument, a living framework through which futures can be rehearsed.
The pavilion’s structure is deceptively simple. Sierra Leonean artists Hawa-Jane Bangura, Ayesha Feisal, Hickmatu Bintu Leigh, and Abu Bakarr Mansaray anchor the exhibition, their practices deeply embedded in local epistemologies shaped by transformation, spirituality, and communal resilience. Their works do not operate in isolation but in dialogue with artists from across ECOWAS nations and with a group of international practitioners. The result is not a survey but a conversation, one that privileges depth over density.
Alberto Salvetti, Lupo Alpha, 2016. Courtesy ARTantide Gallery.
This curatorial decision resists the arithmetic logic often imposed on African representation. Instead, it leans into what might be called an alchemical model. Each artistic voice becomes a node within a wider network of relations, generating meaning through proximity rather than hierarchy. In this sense, the pavilion becomes porous. Boundaries between works dissolve, suggesting that no single “world of today” can exist independently of others.
Perhaps the pavilion’s most compelling gesture lies within its inner space, where the concept of national representation expands into a transnational framework. Here, Sierra Leone hosts a dedicated ECOWAS(Economic Community of West African States) project that brings together artists from Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, and beyond. This move is both aesthetic and political. At a time when nationalist rhetoric is resurging globally, the pavilion proposes an alternative model rooted in regional solidarity and cultural interdependence.
Móyòsóré Martins, Feed the machine, 2025. Courtesy TrafficArts.
The ECOWAS section operates as a kind of visual constituent assembly. Each artist contributes a distinct “minor key” that reflects the linguistic, religious, and socio-political complexities of West Africa. Rather than smoothing over differences, the exhibition amplifies them. It is in this dissonance that harmony emerges, echoing Édouard Glissant’s notion of a “Poetics of Relation,” where identity is forged through encounter rather than opposition.
This approach also challenges the persistent homogenization of African art within Western contexts. By foregrounding multiplicity, ‘Worlds of Today’ dismantles the myth of a singular African narrative. It insists instead on specificity, on the granular textures of lived experience that resist easy categorisation. In doing so, the pavilion reframes West Africa not as a site of extraction or crisis, but as a dynamic laboratory of ideas and practices shaping global discourse.
Central to this project is a clear ethical mandate. Each work is tasked with responding to a set of imperatives: to act as a vector of change, to assume a civic function, and to imagine futures grounded in peace, environmental justice, and collective care. This is not art for art’s sake. It is art as proposition, as rehearsal for a world otherwise.
The presence of international artists within the pavilion further complicates and enriches this dialogue. Selected not for market visibility but for their alignment with themes of care and sustainability, they function less as external observers and more as interlocutors. Their works resonate with those of their West African counterparts, creating a feedback loop that underscores the interconnectedness of contemporary concerns.
Ayesha Feisal, Rooted (Infinite source), 2023.
In many ways, Sierra Leone’s pavilion embodies a quiet defiance. It refuses the urgency of spectacle, opting instead for a slower, more deliberate engagement. It asks viewers to listen, not just to the works themselves but to the spaces between them. As Kouoh suggests, it is within these silences that new possibilities emerge.
To walk through ‘Worlds of Today’ is to traverse an archipelago of ideas, each island distinct yet interconnected. It is an invitation to reconsider how we understand presence, participation, and power within the global art world. Sierra Leone does not position itself as a newcomer seeking validation. Rather, it arrives as a host, offering a space where multiple worlds can coexist, collide, and co-create.
In its inaugural gesture, Sierra Leone’s pavilion does something rare. It shifts the terms of engagement. It reminds us that the most transformative voices are often those that speak in quieter registers. And in doing so, it composes a new score, one that resonates far beyond Venice.
This exhibition will be on view at the Liceo Guggenheim at the Venice Biennale, from 9 May until 22 November 2026.
