NEW YORK, NY, April 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Third Space Art Foundation has announced the full program overview for 1922 Revisited, a live arts initiative to be presented during the preview week of the Venice Biennale (May 5–9, 2026).
Curated by Dr. Janine A. Sytsma, the program brings together artists from across Africa and its diasporas to engage a historical moment in the Biennale’s exhibition history through a series of performances unfolding across Venice.
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Structured as a multi-day, multi-site program, 1922 Revisited includes live works presented in both public and institutional contexts. The program moves between performance, procession, and site-responsive practice, with each work approaching the archive as a point of departure for contemporary artistic engagement.
Participating artists include Jelili Atiku (Nigeria), Tsedaye Makonnen (United States/Ethiopia), Jermay Michael Gabriel (Ethiopia-Italy), Va-Bene Fiatsi (crazinisT artist) (Ghana), Zora Snake (Cameroon), Wura-Natasha Ogunji (United States/Nigeria), ruby onyinyechi amanze (Nigeria/United States), Bernard Akoi-Jackson (Ghana), Maddly Mendy-Sylva (France), and Wilfried Nakeu (Cameroon) among others.
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Each artist engages questions of memory, embodiment, and spatial practice, working through performance as a means of encountering historical material in the present. Collectively, the program reflects a range of performance practices, blurring the boundaries between art and life.
“1922 Revisited offers a platform for contemporary performance artists to confront the imperial logic of the Biennale, amplify long-silenced voices, introduce epistemologies rooted in African thought, and envision possibilities for renewal.”
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1922 Revisited draws on the fragmented archival record of the 1922 Biennale exhibition, approaching it not as a fixed narrative but as a source for ongoing artistic inquiry. Through performance, the program engages this material as something that can be activated and encountered in new ways.
The initiative is presented in collaboration with the African Art in Venice Forum and the European Cultural Centre, with additional academic and institutional partners supporting research, programming, and documentation.
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The program is developed in dialogue with the curatorial framework of the 2026 Biennale. Its theme, In Minor Keys, emphasizes attention to affective and sensory dimensions of artistic experience, creating space for reflection, listening, and encounter.
In parallel with the live program, Third Space Art Foundation is developing a companion publication, Harmonies of Repair, which will include artist contributions, curatorial essays, and archival research related to the project.
Through its multi-site structure and focus on performance, 1922 Revisited brings together artists, research, and public engagement within a shared framework, contributing to ongoing conversations about how historical moments are revisited and experienced in contemporary contexts.
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Key Facts
- 1922 Revisited will take place May 5–9, 2026, during the Venice Biennale preview week
- Curated by Dr. Janine A. Sytsma, founder of Third Space Art Foundation
- Multi-day, multi-site program across Venice
- Features artists from Africa and its diasporas
- Draws on the fragmented archive of the 1922 Biennale
- Presented in collaboration with African Art in Venice Forum and European Cultural Centre
- Companion publication Harmonies of Repair in development
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About Third Space Art Foundation
Third Space Art Foundation supports artistic exchange and collective engagement through the cultivation of third spaces – dynamic zones of encounter, negotiation, and creative transformation. Drawing from the widely embraced concept of third space as a site for dialogue, and Homi Bhabha’s decolonial theory of third space as a liminal ground that challenges fixed hierarchies and dominant narratives, Third Space Art Foundation advances practices that expand cultural understanding and foster new frameworks for connection. Through exhibitions, residencies, and collaborative initiatives, it brings together artists and communities across geographic and cultural divides, working to catalyze critical inquiry, mutual understanding, and new structures of solidarity.
To learn more visit: https://thirdspaceartfoundation.org/
- 1922 Revisited Artists, Updated List, Preview Week Venice Biennale 2026