We are thrilled to announce that gallery artist Léonard Pongo (b. 1988, Liège, Belgium) has been invited to In Minor Keys, the central exhibition of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, on view at the Arsenale from 9 May to 22 November 2026. The exhibition was conceived by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, and is being realised by the curatorial team she assembled, honouring her vision.
Pongo presents two large-scale immersive installations rooted in Congolese cosmology, where land is understood as a living carrier of knowledge and ancestry.
Inhabiting the Landscape is a black-box environment in which three semi-transparent voile panels act as projection screens for a video work moving between visible and invisible Congolese landscapes. The projection reflects on a mirrored floor and aluminium photo prints, so visitors physically move within the image itself. The work explores how landscape is experienced not just visually, but also bodily and spiritually.
Tribute to Tshibola and Upemba draws on Pongo's personal family history — referencing his grandmother — and the symbolism of the banana tree in Kasaï epistemology as a marker of cyclical time and ancestral connection. It combines a jacquard tapestry (showing an image on one side and its negative on the reverse) with a hanging sculpture made of printed and hand-painted glass mirrors evoking the shape of a banana tree. Together, the two works position landscape not as backdrop, but as an active spiritual presence that reflects, transmits, and remembers.
Pongo is also participating in Simba Moto ! Seize the Fire !, in the DR Congo Pavilion curated by Nadia Yala Kisukidi, presented at the Antico Refettorio of the Scuola Grande di San Marco — alongside Sammy Baloji, Arlette Bashizi, Patrick Bongoy, Damso, Gosette Lubondo, Nelson Makengo, Aimé Mpané, and Géraldine Tobé.
Both exhibitions are on view until 22 November 2026.
In Minor Keys — 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Arsenale, Venice
9 May – 22 November 2026
Simba Moto ! Seize the Fire ! — DR Congo Pavilion
Antico Refettorio, Scuola Grande di San Marco, Venice
9 May – 22 November 2026
