The new season of Radio GAMeC, Pedagogy of Hope, curated by Lorenzo Giusti and Lara Facco, arrives in Venice on Tuesday, May 5, as a Collateral Event of the Biennale Arte 2026.
Until Sunday, May 10, it will broadcast from the premises of Radio Vanessa, a historic independent local radio station founded clandestinely in 1978, and the only one still broadcasting on FM from the town center, between the Arsenale and the Giardini.
Pedagogy of Hope aligns with the themes and objectives of the museum’s 2026 program, inspired by the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and dedicated to education as a practice of freedom and transformation.
What knowledge and skills are needed to understand and transform contemporary reality? What pedagogical practices foster autonomy, responsibility, and critical thinking, even in contexts that “educate” us automatically through algorithms and digital flows? In other words, educate for what? And how? These are the questions that will guide the conversations of Radio GAMeC – Pedagogy of Hope.
In dialogue with the theme of the Biennale Arte 2026, In Minor Keys, conceived by Koyo Kouoh (1967–25), the project will foreground decentralized perspectives and non-hegemonic forms of knowledge, reinterpreting the radio platform as a device for listening and a tool for critical and participatory learning.
The program will unfold through a series of conversations with Italian and international guests from a wide range of research backgrounds. The schedule will be developed as an open and dynamic process, progressively shaped through encounters and relationships formed over the course of the Biennale and beyond.
The first week of programming places a significant focus on the visual and performing arts, featuring the participation of international artists. The voices and experiences of Éric Baudelaire, blaxTARLINES KUMASI, Eglė Budvytytė, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Nonument Group, Gala Porras-Kim, Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser—to name but a few—will enrich the platform with narratives on contemporary artistic practices, fostering critical exchange on the educational urgencies of our time.
Expanding this dialogue, artists such as Aliaskar Abarkas, Sammy Baloji, Chiara Bersani, Chiara Camoni, Gabrielle Goliath, Ahmet Öğüt, Hito Steyerl, Cecilia Vicuña will also contribute to the program, exploring themes such as disability aesthetics, decoloniality, and the digital mediation of reality.
The program will also engage curatorial and educational perspectives through figures such as researcher Els Silvrants-Barclay and curators Ute Meta Bauer, Janna Graham, Philippe Pirotte,and Sam Thorne. The area of science and technology will be explored with data science and artificial intelligence expert Georg Fuchs, professor of Computer Engineering Juan Carlos De Martin, philosopher of science and evolutionist Telmo Pievani, computational semanticist Aurélie Herbelot, and quantum technologies researcher Tommaso Calarco.
Contributions from the fields of media and cultural studies will be brought by Marie Moïse, writer and lecturer in intercultural communication, and McKenzie Wark, theorist and writer working across media theory and critical studies. The program will also extend into the field of anthropology with Tim Ingold, and music with trumpeter and composer Paolo Fresu.
To guide these conversations, the season’s first episodes will feature a diverse rotation of hosts who will join Lorenzo Giusti and Lara Facco throughout the week. The roster of professionals includes—among others—Barbara Casavecchia, Andrea Contin, Guia Cortassa, Micaela Deiana, Silvia Franceschini, Ilaria Gadenz, Valentina Gervasoni, Ilaria Gianni, Irene Guandalini, Alice Labor, Greta Martina, Barbara Meneghel, Lucia Pietroiusti, Nicola Ricciardi, and Jelena Sofronijevic.
New contributors will join the project in the upcoming months, progressively enriching a program that remains open by design to foster a plurality of perspectives throughout the entire season.
Each broadcast will be introduced by the brand-new sound piece Pedagogy of Hope, a special commission by Kenyan composer and performer Nyokabi Kariũki, whose practice encompasses contemporary classical, experimental electronic music, film scoring, sound art, field recording, and East African musical traditions.
During the week, the physical headquarters of Pedagogy of Hope—located at 1923 Fondamenta de la Tana, Sestiere Castello—will be open daily to the public as a space for listening, encounter, and participation, combining on-site experiences with FM broadcasting on Radio Vanessa and streaming on the new web radio radio.gamec.it.
Radio GAMeC’s programme will run until November 22, the closing date of the Biennale Arte 2026; the contents produced will become part of the Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts of La Biennale di Venezia, and will then be made available online as a public resource accessible to everyone.