Chimera at 61st Venice Biennale Arte

B-KD designed Denniston Hill’s Chimera (2026), a large-scale, mutli-disciplinary installation housed within In Minor Keys, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. To create the installation, Duman and Denniston Hill engaged in a reciprocal exchange that included interviews with alumni, a psycho-geographic mapping of Denniston Hill’s 220-acre campus, studies of front-porch facades and deep excavations of the organization’s history to produce a bridge between art and architecture. Their collaboration represents a defining feature of the artists in Kouoh’s In Minor Keys as those “who work at the boundaries of form, and whose practices can be thought of as intricate melodies to be heard both collectively and on their own terms.” 

Image credit: Photo by Gaia Cambiaggi/Studio Campo. Courtesy of Denniston Hill.

Status

Completed in 2026

Program

Art Exhibtion

Area

160 sqm

Location

61st Venice Biennale, Italy

Reflecting on the interviews with the alumni’s, B-KD designed a stepped ziggurat that will be used for impromptu communal gatherings and public programs. Visitors to the Biennale Arte’s 2026 Central Pavilion are invited to use Chimera’s seating for rest and reflection either before or after they experience all of the exhibitions and events happening throughout Venice. In this way, Chimera—like time spent at Denniston Hill’s residency program acts as a connective tissue between other kinds of happenings. The central seating, inspired by Denniston Hill’s front porch, is a liminal space between the galleries and the Giardini della Biennale, a space of generosity, knowledge creation, and new forms of community. 

Chimera is an ode to the Surrealist parlor game, Exquisite Corpse. For the Biennale Arte 2026, Denniston Hill has reimagined the Corpse as a mythical chimera, a beast whose cells come from two or more different organisms. The many heads, torsos, legs and tails of the chimera are constructed of sculptures, drawings, videos, sound works, paintings and photography by 153 of Denniston Hill’s alumni. What results is a room-sized group portrait representing the artists and encounters that have shaped Denniston Hill’s 20-year history. The installation’s architecture is inspired by the historic display of looted objects of world-making in the colonial museum. To realize this curatorial vision, B-KD designed a display system that prioritized flexibility. By affixing wooden planks to plywood panels that cover each section of wall where artworks are hung, the design allows for objects to be easily moved regardless of medium or display requirements. 

Team

Design Team: Koray Duman, Vishesh Sahni, Angel Rodriguez, Vernice Riego
Graphics: Commonwealth Projects, Tech Design: Pierre Briet, Curatorial Assistant: Sofia Reeser Del Rio, Registrar: Autumn Beck, Installation Team: Robert Vinas Jr., Damien Young, Jacopo Scarpis, Yuval Pudik, Diana Restrepo