How does one live at the end of the world? What blossoms in the Black morning?
Hartwig Art Foundation presents Minor Music at the End of the World by writer and scholar Saidiya Hartman at Teatro Goldoni in Venice on May 5, 6 and 7 during the preview week of the Venice Biennale 2026, following its critically acclaimed world premiere in Amsterdam last October. The stage adaptation, structured in three movements, is based on Saidiya Hartman’s acclaimed essay The End of White Supremacy, An American Romance, which draws inspiration from W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Comet—a speculative short story written in the aftermath of the 1918 global pandemic that imagines the end of the world—and a new work, Dead River, a performative text conceived as a ceremony of life in the wake of catastrophe.
The collaboratively developed stage performance explores the possibility of Black life at the end of the world and in the wake of racial capitalism and white supremacy. Against this complex and layered backdrop, Minor Music conveys an ongoing series of catastrophes that converge at this critical inflection point—among others, the arrival of Africans in New York City, the first slave auction in lower Manhattan, the precarity of Black life, global pandemics, and environmental catastrophes that make life seemingly unliveable. In doing so, it provokes a series of penetrating questions about Black life at the end of the world and the new social formations that arise in its wake.
“It’s important to say that Minor Music isn’t a play. It’s performed discourse. This is consonant with the African diasporic intellectual tradition, where poetry finds a place in critical writing. It’s alive, like Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (1939). I’m following in the path of many other artists who are trying to create thought in multiple domains. How do we make thought in multiple places, like the stage, the performance, Arthur’s film, Precious’s beautiful petrified forests, the movement of Okwui?” —Saidiya Hartman
Directed by Sarah Benson, Minor Music at the End of the World features a film by Arthur Jafa, lead performances by actor André Holland and actor/sonic movement artist Okwui Okpokwasili, and artistic interventions by artists Precious Okoyomon, whose powerful scenographic contribution provides the haunting landscape for the second movement, and site specific reseach by Cameron Rowland, under the executive production of Tina Campt and Beatrix Ruf. Together with Hartman, this ensemble of artists transforms her original essays into a site-specific performance in three movements:
Movement I: The End of White Supremacy— Featuring Andre Holland
Movement II: Dead River— Featuring Okwui Okpokwasili, with Bria Bacon, Audrey Hailes, and AJ Wilmore Movement III: The World is Dead— film by Arthur Jafa
“At the heart of Minor Music is a powerful spirit of collective creation—bringing together a constellation of celebrated artists and combining literature, film, installation art, movement, and sound into a singular stage experience. Collaborating with Saidiya Hartman and her exceptional team of creators to bring her influential writings to life through this evolving and deeply collaborative process has been an extraordinary journey. The premiere in Amsterdam was a profoundly meaningful experience, marked by an engaged and generous audience, and it affirmed the urgency and resonance of the work. We are honoured to present Minor Music at the Teatro Goldoni in Venice next, and we look forward to sharing this vital work—perhaps today more than ever—in a new context.” —Beatrix Ruf, Director Hartwig Art Foundation and the future Hartwig Museum
Background
Minor Music was initiated by a staged reading of Hartman’s The End of White Supremacy by André Holland at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, which later evolved into a multidisciplinary performance and film project. Developed with the support of The Princeton Collabatorium for Radical Aesthetics and artists Precious Okoyomon, Okwui Okpokwasili and Arthur Jafa, the project was commissioned by Hartwig Art Foundation with workshops and performances in Ostia, Italy and The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York. It culminated in an invited rehearsal at BAM in 2024. The piece premiered at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA) in Amsterdam over the weekend of October 3, 2025, accompanied by a contextual programme of artist talks and a day of Black study held at ITA and Melly in Rotterdam. Watch the trailer here
Performance credits (Venice)
Performers: André Holland, Lead Performer / Okwui Okpokwasili, Lead Performer / Bria Bacon, Movement Artist / Audrey Hailes, Movement Artist /AJ Wilmore, Movement Artist
Creatives: Saidiya Hartman, Writer / Sarah Benson, Director / Mimi Lien, Scenic Designer / Stacey Derosier and Jane Cox, Lighting Designers / Josh Higgason, Live Camera Designer / Stan Mathabane, Sound Designer / Camilla Dely and Celeste Jennings, Costume Designer
Collaborating artists: Arthur Jafa, Film and Video Artist / Precious Okoyomon, Installation Artist / Peter Born, Sound Artist and Movement Adviser — Dead River / Cameron Rowland, Attendant of the Archive
Production: RR Sigel, Creative Producer / Betsy Ayer, Stage Manager / Maciej Lewandowski, Production Manager / Dante Green, Associate Director / Beatrice Perez-Arche, Assistant Stage Manager / Attilio Rigotti and Orsolya Szantho, Camera Operators / Erica Lauren Maholmes, Associate Lighting Designer / Attilio Rigotti, Associate Live Camera Designer / Dante Green, Sound Assistant / Tess James, Lighting Assistant / Jason Lajka, Scenic Assistant
Tina Campt, Executive Producer / Beatrix Ruf, Executive Producer
DH Office Italia srl, Production Partner in Venice / Maria Iaccarino, Italian Script Translator / Matilde Vigna, Copy Editor & Surtitle Operator
Production Residency Support provided by BAM.
Minor Music at the End of the World is commissioned and presented by Hartwig Art Foundation. The world-premiere in Amsterdam on October 3-5, 2025, realized in collaboration with Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA).
For complete credits please consult hartwigartfoundation.nl
About Hartwig Art Foundation
Hartwig Art Foundation is dedicated to fostering and facilitating the production, presentation, mediation, preservation, and collection of contemporary art. Through artist collaborations and partnerships with a wide range of institutions, we foster new artistic production and engagement. Currently, the foundation is developing the Hartwig Museum, a new major contemporary art museum in Amsterdam, set to open in 2028. Until the museum opens, our temporary space Hartwig Proxy serves as a testing ground, conceived as a meeting place for neighbours, artists and cultural worlds alike. For more information, please visit www.hartwigartfoundation.nl.