The Pavilion of the Holy See at this year’s Venice Biennale will focusing on listening by way of commissioned sound works by artists and musicians including Brian Eno, FKA Twigs, Jim Jarmusch, Patti Smith, Devonté Hynes, Laraaji, Kali Malone, Caterina Barbieri, and Terry Riley. The work in the pavilion will take the form of a “sonic prayer” and is inspired by the 12th-century abbess and musical composer Saint Hildegard of Bingen.
Under the title “The Ear Is the Eye of the Soul,” the works by 24 artists will be presented in two venues: the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelites, in the Cannaregio district of Venice, and the Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, in Castello. The exhibition is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers, in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective. The idea behind it was “conceived in response to Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial proposition for Biennale Arte 2026 to slow down and attune to a quieter register,” according to a press release.
In the Mystical Garden, Biennale visitors will be able to stroll while listening on headphones to sound works “responding to Hildegard’s chants, writings, and visionary images through voice, instrumentation, and at times, silence.” The press release attributes part of the thinking behind the pavilion to a quote from Pope Leo XIV: “The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what ‘works,’ but art opens up what is possible. Not everything has to be immediate or predictable.”
The Complex of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice will play home to the final work by the German filmmaker and writer Alexander Kluge, who died last month at the age of 94, as well as an archive featuring Hildegardian texts, artist books by Ilda David’, and new monastery architecture by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio.
In 2024, the Vatican garnered much attention for its pavilion featuring work by Maurizio Cattelan at the Giudecca Women’s Prison, with help from inmates in the prison.
Other artists and musicians in this year’s presentation of sound works include Bhanu Kapil, Carminho, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, Kazu Makino, Meredith Monk, Moor Mother, Otobong Nkanga, Precious Okoyomon, Raúl Zurita, Suzanne Ciani, and Benedictine Nuns of the Abbey of St. Hildegard Eibingen.
