What Connects FKA Twigs, Hans Ulrich Obrist and a Group of Benedictine Nuns?

News Which Artists Are Showing at Venice Biennale 2026? Ada Leung

In what might be one of this edition’s most unlikely groupings, The Holy See pavilion at the Venice Biennale will unite musicians including FKA Twigs and Brian Eno to explore the life and legacy of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century Benedictine abbess, philosopher, healer and composer.

The sound-based show, titled The Ear is the Eye of the Soul and co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers—current artistic director and former CTO of London’s Serpentine Galleries—in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective, will represent Vatican City and unfold across two venues.

A project statement connects the show closely to Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial proposition for the biennale, which calls for slower, quieter contemplation. “The exhibition takes the form of a sonic prayer, a call to the contemplative act of listening,” the statement says.

In 2012, Hildegard of Bingen was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI and named a doctor of the Catholic church—one of only four women to hold the title. A composer and visionary mystic in her lifetime, she is a revered patron saint of musicians and writers.

At Venice’s ancient Giardino Mistico (Mystic Garden), a monastic green space hidden within a 17th-century convent, her chants, writings and image will provide inspiration for new works by 20 contemporary composers, musicians, poets and visual artists.

Big names from the world of music include Devonté Hynes—currently better known as Blood Orange, but remembered among 2000s indie devotees as Lightspeed Champion and one third of Test Icicles—Patti Smith, and the American multi-instrumentalist Laraaji who, following a chance encounter while busking, began working with fellow exhibitor Eno during the late 1970s.

They will be accompanied by works by: Nigerian American artist and poet Precious Okoyomon; poet, musician and activist Camae Ayewa (better known as Moor Mother), and Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, who are known for their influential practice in the artificial intelligence space. In 2025, the married couple presented The Call at Serpentine North Gallery, which centred on developing new protocols and materials for the creation of choral AI models. 

In the garden, visitors will be able to listen through headphones to these new commissions, alongside a site-specific instrument, created by Soundwalk Collective, that listens to the garden in real time. 

Across the city in Castello, the pavilion’s second venue is the Complex of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, which becomes a contemporary scriptorium—a space where books were once copied and illuminated.

The venue will host a living archive, curated in close collaboration with the St Hildegard Academy, whose teachings, research and preservation of Hildegard’s legacy helped to inspire the artists and collaborators of the pavilion. 

The venue will present the final work of filmmaker and author Alexander Kluge, completed before his death in March 2026. The towering, 12-station film and image installation will unfold across three rooms, making use of industrial space within the building’s ongoing restoration.