Commissioner: Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See
Curators: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ben Vickers
Exhibitors: Alexander Kluge, Benedictine Nuns of the Abbey of St. Hildegard Eibingen, Bhanu Kapil, Brian Eno, Carminho, Caterina Barbieri, Devonté Hynes, FKA Twigs, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, Ilda David’, Jim Jarmusch, Kali Malone, Kazu Makino, Laraaji, Meredith Monk, Moor Mother, Otobong Nkanga, Patti Smith, Precious Okoyomon, Raúl Zurita, Soundwalk Collective, Suzanne Ciani, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, MAIO Architects & Dogma, Terry Riley
Venues: Giardino Mistico dei Carmelitani Scalzi, Cannaregio 54
Reservations: https://www.coopculture.it/it/eventi/evento/lorecchio-e-locchio-dellanima/
and
Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, Fondamenta S. Gioachin, Castello 450 (no reservation required)
Opening hours: 11 am - 7 pm (May to September), 10 am - 6 pm (October to 22 November). Closed on Mondays (except 1 June, 7 September, 16 November)
Holy See
The Ear is the Eye of the Soul
Album
Description
In Venice, the Giardino Mistico dei Carmelitani Scalzi preserves a rare quiet. Behind its walls, the city’s breath slows, and light moves across herbs shaped by centuries of prayer. Across the city, at Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, a process of restoration unfolds. Between these two sites, the Holy See Pavilion for Biennale Arte 2026 takes the form of a sonic prayer: The Ear Is the Eye of the Soul, inspired by the life and legacy of Saint Hildegard of Bingen.
Responding to Koyo Kouoh’s call for quieter registers, the pavilion proposes listening as contemplation. Hildegard – abbess, composer, healer, visionary – understood sound as knowledge, a bridge between body and world, microcosm and macrocosm. In an age of saturation, her work invites inwardness.
In the Giardino Mistico, listening becomes central. New commissions by composers, musicians, poets and artists form a shared sonic composition, developed in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective. The garden contributes through an instrument translating plant bioelectric activity into sound. At Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, the pavilion becomes a contemporary scriptorium and living archive, developed with Sister Maura Zátonyi OSB and the St. Hildegard Academy. Together, these sites invite silence, care and communal listening.
