contessanally: #BiennaleArte2026 - The Holy See Pavilion

Thursday, July 23, 2026

#BiennaleArte2026 - The Holy See Pavilion - The Ear is the Eye of the Soul

"The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what “works,” but art opens up what is possible. Not everything has to be immediate or predictable."

Pope Leo XIV

The Holy See Pavilion

The Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelites - Cannaregio

The Ear is the Eye of the Soul

Commissioner - Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça
Curators - Hans Ulrich Obrist - Ben Vickers

Collaborators - Southwalk Collective

At - La Biennale di Venezia - one of the two venues for the Holy See Pavilion is in the The Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelite - entitled - The Ear is the Eye of the Soul - until November 22 - curated by - Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective - is an ensemble of new commissions by 20 artists. Conceived in response to Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial proposition for Biennale Arte 2026 to slow down and attune to a quieter register, the exhibition takes the form of a sonic prayer, a call to the contemplative act of listening, inspired by the life and legacy of Saint Hildegard of Bingen - 1098-1179 - medieval abbess, poet, healer and composer.

In the garden, visitors are invited to enter into a contemplative listening experience through headphones, with each of these new commissions by 20 contemporary composers, musicians and poets, responding to Hildegard’s chants, writings, and visionary images through voice, instrumentation, and at times, silence. These have been composed into a sonic whole by Soundwalk Collective that also has created a bespoke sonic instrument that listens to the garden in real time, translating subtle natural rhythms, including bioelectrical activity in plants and the micro-acoustics of wind, water, wood, insects and soil, into an evolving composition.

"Music becomes a bond between body and world,

microcosm and macrocosm"

For Hildegard, sound is a way of knowing. Her vision moves from breath - spiritus - to chant, to understanding. Music becomes a bond between body and world, microcosm and macrocosm. In the Giardino Mistico, listening is the primary act, unfolding as an ensemble of new commissions by 20 contemporary composers, musicians, poets, and artists - amongst these - Brian Eno - Patti Smith - Jim Jarmusch - Meredith Monk - who begin from Hildegard’s chants, writings, and visionary images, and respond through voice, instrumentation, and at times, silence.