Four projects, four unique moments at the Venice Biennale, with the support of Onassis Culture: Andreas Angelidakis, Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Janis Rafa.

The 61st Venice Biennale is not merely a major international gathering of contemporary art. It is also a map of relationships, collaborations, and artistic journeys that converge in this iconic city. Building on Onassis Culture’s consistent strategic support for the Greek Pavilion, the Onassis Foundation is making its presence felt in Venice through a series of significant projects, from May through November 2026.

Onassis Culture is a strategic supporter of Greece’s participation in the 61st Venice Biennale, featuring Andreas Angelidakis’s “escape room” project, curated by Giorgos Bekirakis. The Greek Pavilion is transformed into a contemporary Platonic Cave. In the hands of Andreas Angelidakis, the Platonic allegory becomes a tool that explores the present—a present where the world of images is saturated with digital illusions and replicas. As an allegorical escape room, the Greek Pavilion reflects a reality that resembles a game, while on a symbolic level it embodies the paradox of a building attempting to escape from its “self”—that is, its history. The implementation of the escape room project and its exhibition in Venice are primarily funded by the Ministry of Culture. The National Commissioner is the Metropolitan Organization of Visual Arts Museums of Thessaloniki (MOMus).

In collaboration with Onassis Culture, Patti Smith and the Soundwalk Collective presented the mystical site-specific live performance *A Sonic Prayer with Patti Smith* at the Chiesa di Santa Maria di Nazareth, as part of the official opening of the Holy See’s Pavilion at the Vatican, at the exhibition *The Ear is the Eye of the Soul*. The performance, lasting approximately 30 minutes, featured three works created specifically for the exhibition. The performance is a continuation of the broader collaboration between Patti Smith and the Soundwalk Collective with Onassis Culture, following their two live performances on the Main Stage of the Onassis Cultural Center in 2024. The Vatican Pavilion, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers, features 25 artists, including FKA twigs, Brian Eno, Jim Jarmusch, Kali Malone, Dev Hynes, and Precious Okoyomon. Dedicated to the life and cultural legacy of Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century Benedictine nun, poet, healer, and composer, the exhibition stages an experience of listening, contemplation, and “sonic prayer.” The exhibition is spread across two venues in Venice: the Secret Garden of the Discalced Carmelites in Cannaregio and the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex in Castello.

At the same time, the Onassis Collection is participating in the main exhibition of the 61st Venice Biennale, *In Minor Keys*, curated by Koyo Kouoh, with two works by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige: *Time Capsules Eleonas (Athens x 3)* and *Zig Zag Over Time Eleonas*. The two works by the Franco-Lebanese artists were presented in the exhibition Unconformities at the Acropolis Museum, as part of the Fast Forward Festival at the Onassis Foundation’s Stegi, in May 2018. Two works that bring traces of Athens’ Eleonas to Venice and open a dialogue around memory, the ground, and the layers of a city.

Finally, running concurrently with the Biennale, Onassis AiR Fellow Janis Rafa is participating, in a co-production with Onassis Culture and Heretic, in the group exhibition CANICULA, presented by Fondazione In Between Art Film at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto in Venice, curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi. Rafa’s video installation, Baby I’m Yours, Forever (2026), marks the opening of the exhibition in the space of the church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti. The work, which serves as an allegory of the concept of sacrifice, is situated within a meat-cooling facility—a symbolic architecture for the industry that processes and distributes meat for human consumption. Janis Rafa poetically expands on this reflection and examines the broader tension between life and death, survival and extinction, as well as the “sacrificial” violence that one form of life demands by killing another.

Onassis Culture is not merely a sponsor in Venice. It participates as an active link in an international network of artists, producers, and collaborations, where contemporary art is once again challenging the way we hear, see, and connect.