Second Gathering
Friday 8 May 2026
10:00–13:00
Ocean Space (courtyard), Venice
Between Tides: Gatherings on Return is a two-part public program convened by Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll and Wietske Maas within the context of the exhibition Tide of Returns, commissioned and produced by TBA21–Academy at Ocean Space.
The second gathering returns to questions that surfaced on 28 March, carrying them into the opening week of the Venice Biennale. The first gathering held space for the restlessness of displaced objects, their power to overflow the systems of knowledge that claim to contain them, and asked what it means to think of repatriation not as an endpoint but as an ongoing, unpredictable process: sometimes ceremony, sometimes argument, always relation. It sat with the tension between unconditional return and the colonial logics that persist within national institutions, museums, and archives.
The 8 May gathering brings those ideas into resonance with the Venice Biennale’s In Minor Keys—Koyo Kouoh’s invitation to tune into lower frequencies, to the fugitive tunes and quiet tones that persist beneath the cacophony of crisis. What are the resonances between the Biennale’s attunement to minor keys and the slow, unfinished work of return?
These questions are held in conversation by In Minor Keys co-curator Rasha Salti, artist Sammy Baloji, and anthropologist and filmmaker Jesse Weaver Shipley moderated by Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, with an introduction by Wietske Maas. The morning opens with artist conversation between Verena Melgarejo Weinandt and Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll on Tide of Returns exhibition moderated by Mark Rappolt (Editor-in-Chief, ArtReview), followed by the launch of the Tide of Returns reader with co-editor and art historian Christopher Williams-Wynn and present authors. The gathering opens with words from Markus Reymann followed by artist Samson Ogiamien and closes with an activation by artist Laimi Kokololo and Jesse Weaver Shipley.
Program
10:00–10:15 Words of welcome: Markus Reymann and Samson Ogiamen
10:15–11:15 Conversation on Tide of Returns: Verena Melgarejo Weinandt and Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, moderated by Mark Rappolt (Editor-in-Chief, ArtReview)
11:15–11:40 Launch of Tide of Returns publication: Christopher Williams-Wynn, co-editors, together with the authors
11:40–12:50 Rasha Salti, Jesse Weaver Shipley, et al — moderated by Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, with an introduction by Wietske Maas
12:50–13:00 Activation — Laimi Kokololo and Jesse Weaver Shipley