VENICE, ITALY, May 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — 1922 Revisited, the live arts program presented by Third Space Art Foundation during the 61st Venice Biennale preview week, officially opened on May 5 with a major participatory performance and public procession led by Ghanaian artist Bernard Akoi-Jackson through the historic Venetian waterfront.
Beginning at Hotel Monaco and continuing along the Riva degli Schiavoni promenade toward Palazzo Navagero, the performance drew hundreds of Biennale attendees, tourists, and members of the public, many of whom stopped to observe, photograph, follow, and participate in the unfolding procession.
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Presented in the stead of a planned performance by Nigerian artist Jelili Atiku, who was unable to attend due to visa delays, Bernard Akoi-Jackson’s Openings and meanderings: supplications for more accessible futures transformed Venice’s crowded public spaces into a site of ritual movement, reflection, and collective encounter.
The performance began with an intimate activation at Hotel Monaco’s Sala Vallaresso before unfolding outward into the city itself, where participants followed Akoi-Jackson along one of Venice’s busiest and most historically symbolic waterfront corridors, from the Grand Canal and Doge’s Palace area toward San Zaccaria and Palazzo Navagero.
The evening concluded with a second performance in the courtyard of Palazzo Navagero, followed by a wine reception for invited guests, artists, curators, and Biennale attendees.
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Akoi-Jackson’s performance drew from the conceptual framework originally developed around Jelili Atiku’s Eyes No Dey Forget Wetin Heart See, reframing the work through what the program described as a “Luminous Pilgrimage” integrating ritual movement, psychogeography, and dérive.
The processional structure invited participants to move through the city in a trance-like collective journey shaped by spatial awareness, memory, and embodied encounter. Drawing from African epistemologies and ritual traditions, the work proposed public movement itself as a form of reclamation, resistance, and reconnection.
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“What unfolded exceeded our expectations, not only as a performance, but as a genuinely shared public experience,” said Dr. Janine A. Sytsma, curator of 1922 Revisited. “People encountered the work unexpectedly, joined it organically, documented it, and carried it through the city alongside the artists. It became a living procession of participation, memory, and collective presence.”
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Presented by Third Space Art Foundation, 1922 Revisited unfolds across Venice from May 5–9, 2026 as a series of performances, screenings, and discussions engaging the historical 1922 Venice Biennale exhibition of African sculpture through contemporary artistic practice.
Participating artists include:
The program is presented in collaboration with the African Art in Venice Forum and the European Cultural Centre.
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Key Facts
- Program: 1922 Revisited
- Opening Event: May 5, 2026
- Lead Artist: Bernard Akoi-Jackson
- Locations: Hotel Monaco, Riva degli Schiavoni, Palazzo Navagero
- Presented by: Third Space Art Foundation
- Occasion: Venice Biennale 2026 Preview Week
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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 on both widely recognized and decolonial interpretations of the “third space,” the Foundation advances practices that challenge fixed hierarchies and foster new frameworks for cultural understanding. Through performances, exhibitions, residencies, and collaborative initiatives, the Foundation brings together artists, curators, and scholars across geographies to catalyze dialogue, critical inquiry, and new forms of solidarity.
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