For the 61st Venice Biennale, marking its second participation, Senegal is spotlighting artist Caroline Gueye, whose project “WURUS”* will be presented from May 6 to November 22, 2026 at the Palazzo Navagero. Curated by Massamba Mbaye, the exhibition offers a sensitive dialogue between artistic creation, scientific research, and historical memory.

Born in Senegal and trained in France, the United States, and China, Caroline Gueye stands out through a rare transdisciplinary path combining fundamental sciences and artistic creation, with a practice shaped by experimentation, scientific references, and a strong visual ambition. Her work explores the relationships between astrophysics, wall sculpture, installation, light, materials, and spatiality, creating works in which every element interacts with the others.

“WURUS”*: gold in Wolof

In “WURUS”, gold ceases to be merely a precious material and becomes instead a revealer of systems of value, articulating cosmic, historical, and political dimensions. In “WURUS”, gold does not appear: it is constructed through the gaze.

The work connects the celestial origins of the metal with the history of Senegal and the Mali Empire, evoking the emblematic figure of Mansa Kanka Musa while opening a contemporary reflection on resource extraction, environmental issues, and human rights. Created notably using polymer bronze and brass, the works extend this reflection through a dialogue between materiality and the perception of value.

For Caroline Gueye, art emerges from space itself: seeing becomes a physical experience, and the exhibition venue transforms into an integral part of the work. Conceived in dialogue with the architecture of the site, the exhibition reconfigures the space into a perceptual journey where certain works appear through openings, while others are embedded within wall-based dispositifs that engage the body and shift the conditions of perception. Through these optical and perceptual effects, the artist displaces the question of value: it no longer resides in the object itself, but in the gaze that constructs it.

Her background in physics, particularly astrophysics and atomic physics, does not determine her practice but rather serves as a conceptual tool in support of an autonomous artistic research. Her international trajectory, enriched by the study of Mandarin in China, nourishes a practice attentive to cultural circulations and different ways of understanding the world, affirming a singular artistic approach at the intersection of science, cultures, and contemporary forms.

The artist will be present in Venice from April onward to install and finalize her new site-specific work conceived especially for the venue. This phase of in situ work constitutes an essential moment of the project leading up to its official presentation during the opening days (May 6–8).