Highlight of the 61st Venice Biennale, which opens to the public this Saturday, the 9th, Brazilian artist Ayrson Heráclito presents, as a major installation at the Arsenale, his series “Juntós”, a deep immersion in Afro-Brazilian cosmoperception.
In Candomblé, the term “juntó” describes the sacred union between two orixás, a principal and a complementary one, which together shape the personality and destiny of each individual. It is this “combination of forces” that serves as the backbone of Heráclito’s series. The installation, which occupies one of the spaces in the main exhibition In Minor Keys, curated by Koyo Kouh (in memoriam), brings together drawings and stainless-steel sculptures that reimagine the insignia and sacred tools of the African pantheon. The project takes shape as a visual exploration of the more than 200 possible combinations between the 16 principal orixás worshipped in Brazil, each accompanied by oriki poems that invoke the energies present in these compositions.
The series is also presented as a tribute to Mestre Didi, a pioneering figure in the introduction of Afrocentric perspectives into Brazilian contemporary art. Through his work, Heráclito operates in a fertile “in-between space”, where aesthetic creation and spiritual repertoire merge, in dialogue with Afrofuturist perspectives.
“This is the first time I have presented the complete set of this complex system,” says the artist. “It is a way of understanding the world and people through this conception that we have inherited and transformed in the Americas, within the context of the African diaspora.”
The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will take place from 9 May to 22 November 2026 at the Giardini and Arsenale venues, as well as in various locations across the city of Venice. For more information, please visit: www.labiennale.org
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Ayrson Heráclito (b. 1968) is a visual artist, curator and lecturer whose work focuses on Afro-Brazilian cultural matrices and their connections with Africa and the African diaspora in the Americas. His multidisciplinary practice spans installation, performance, photography and video, mobilising art history to articulate a contemporary understanding of the spiritual dimension in art, anchored in ancestry and the invisible.
He has participated in major international exhibitions and biennials, including the 35th São Paulo Biennial (2023), the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), the Biennale Architettura (2023) and the Havana Biennial (2025). His most recent solo exhibition, Oríkì Ìwòran (2025), was held at Portas Vilaseca in Rio de Janeiro.
His works are included in significant public and private collections around the world, including major museums in the United States, Europe, Africa and Brazil.
He holds a PhD in Communication and Semiotics from PUC-SP and is a professor at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia. He is also an Ogã Sojatin in the Jeje Mahi Candomblé tradition in Salvador, where his spiritual practice informs his artistic research.
