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Chris Essel Baiden

@chrisbaiden__

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Raised by an Angel
Film & Arts @visioninview

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There is room to interpret, room to speak, and room to challenge.

Five days inside the 61st Venice Biennale — what I saw, what I made, and what I wish I had done differently.

Full film on YouTube. Link in bio.

@labiennale @observer

#VeniceBiennale2026 #InMinorKeys #KoyoKouoh #ContemporaryArt #ArtDocumentary taken in Venice, Italy by @chrisbaiden__

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What a week on the ground at the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, documenting “In Minor Keys” a visual and meditative procession inviting us to slow down, listen, and sit with art more deeply.

From performances to installations, the Biennale unfolds like a minor key in music holding space for the blues, the lament, the whisper, and the call and response. Across pavilions and sites, artists engage colonial histories, ecological urgencies, and spiritual traditions, imagining forms of coexistence grounded in attunement rather than domination.

Curated by the late #koyokouoh In Minor Keys carried a profound sense of care and resonance. It was powerful to witness the global art community gather in such depth honouring her vision and the work of her team.
Grateful to have documented this moment.

Publication: @observer
Arts Reporter: @elisartgal

#LaBiennaleDiVenezia #BiennaleArte2026 taken in Giardini della Biennale by @chrisbaiden__

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A week ago today in the Giardini at the Venice @labiennale , I witnessed something I’m still carrying with me.

Chief Demond Melancon’s (@qadamawi) Blessing the Ancestors unfolded as both ritual and procession where the body became a vessel for memory, resistance, and spirit. Through movement, sound, and call-and-response, the space opened up to something beyond performance a shared act of remembrance, healing, and joy.

Rooted in the Black Masking culture of New Orleans, and performed in his Jah Defender suit, the work moved in rhythm with the elements water, air, fire, earth and with the presence of those who came before.

@marianeibrahimgallery

#LaBiennaleDiVenezia #BiennaleArte2026 #bigchiefdemondmelancon #inminorkeys #koyokouoh taken in Giardini della Biennale by @chrisbaiden__

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Bez zrozumienia przeszłości nie ma przyszłości - właśnie dlatego wsparliśmy swoim grantem działalność Ghańskiej fundacji @si.hene , która zajmuje się archiwami królewskimi i wspólnotowymi, historią mówioną, dokumentacją kultury i badaniami, a do tego prowadzi stypendia, wystawy, warsztaty i zasoby cyfrowe. Bo dbanie o dziedzictwo jest ważnym elementem budowania i utrzymywania tożsamości narodowej 🇬🇭

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Without understanding the past, there is no future. That’s why we supported the work of the Ghanaian foundation @si.hene with a grant. Si Hene looks after royal and community archives, oral history, cultural documentation and research, and also runs fellowships, exhibitions, workshops and digital resources. Caring for heritage is an important part of building and sustaining national identity 🇬🇭 by @chrisbaiden__

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12 days ago

A city with Everything 🫂 🎬

#VenicePostcards #VeniceBiennale2026 #labiennale #inminorkeys #ObservationalCinema taken in Venice, Italy by @chrisbaiden__

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2 months ago

Ghana! Dreaming Independence (1957–1976) is now open at @rencontresarles .

Last November, we gathered at Si Hene in Accra for The Reading Room — a workshop where archivists, artists, curators and community members sat with Ghana’s independence-era photographic archive and spoke freely about what they saw, referencing two books — Paul Strand’s Ghana: An African Portrait and The Roadmakers by Willis Bell and Efua Sutherland.

Swipe through to hear them.
🎙️ Featured Voices
@ritamawuena, @kwame_crentsil & @madugian @thewillisbellarchive, Mr. Basil Benissan @kwamepocho & Mikayla Nana Edua Dakwa @denyse.gm @abnaosaah Mr. Kwaku Koranteng Dako @nunadoe @belleobiri @c_mado1 @pninson

🇬🇭 Ghana! Dreaming Independence (1957–1976) open now through 4 October
@rencontresarles , Palais de l’Archevêche
Curated by @damariceamao

A @visioninview production in collaboration with @damariceamao @ritamawuena @si.hene @rencontresarles

Filmed by Chris Baiden and Samuel Mintah (@sammint.studio)

#GhanaDreamingIndependence #RencontresArles #AfricanPhotography #ContemporaryAfrica #TheReadingRoom taken in Palais de l'Archeveché Arles by @chrisbaiden__

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3 months ago

Through every season, every chapter, I’ll be loving you always. Happy Birthday to my favorite person @chrisbaiden__ !!❤️✨ by @chrisbaiden__

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1 Corinthians 3:6
Paul planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.

Another year older and grateful to God for his mercies over my life and also grateful to God for every Paul who have sown countless seeds in different seasons of my life be it word of encouragement, wisdom, counsel and many I can’t recall and for every Apollos who have watered every seed in my life. Trusting God for more grace in this new year, to grow in faith, in strength and in grace. Amen.

Grateful ❤️🙏 taken in Grateful & Blessed by @chrisbaiden__

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Some things only make sense in the minor key.

Full film on YouTube. Link in Bio
@labiennale @observer

#VeniceBiennale2026 #InMinorKeys #KoyoKouoh #ContemporaryArt #ArtDocumentary taken in Giardini della Biennale by @chrisbaiden__

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Retiro — @natalialassallem at the 61st Venice @labiennale .

Eight of eight moving image works that caught my attention across the Biennale.

A three-channel video projected onto vertical blinds, a reference to the window coverings of her childhood home and a metaphor for the fragmentation of memory and time. What began as interviews with her mother after her grandmother’s death transformed into a collaboration where Gloria rewrites her own memories and directs her daughter to re-enact scenes of her youth. Puerto Rico runs through it all PROMESA, Hurricane María, the weight of what gets inherited. A film that begins in mourning and unfolds into something closer to pre-emptive grief. Building something so full of love and tenderness that it becomes the inheritance instead.

Eight of eight. More to come.

#VeniceBiennale2026 #MovingImage #inminorkeys #koyokouoh #PuertoRico taken in Arsenale Biennale Di Venezia by @chrisbaiden__

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Ruinous — Tiona Nekkia McClodden at the 61st Venice @labiennale .

Seven of eight moving image works that caught my attention across the Biennale.

A two-channel video placed apart like stereo speakers, McClodden playing an abstract painter contemplating a work she has mixed feelings about. Pleasure and pain intertwining in the same frame. Hurt and rejection threaded with flashes of joy. The moving image holding what language alone cannot, the depth of longing and the way it marks us, sometimes forever.

#VeniceBiennale2026 #MovingImage #VideoArt #koyokouoh #inminorkeys taken in Arsenale Biennale Di Venezia by @chrisbaiden__

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The Unfinished Business of Living Together — @lithic_alliance at the Swiss Pavilion, 61st Venice @labiennale .

Six of eight moving image works that caught my attention across the Biennale.

A spatialised video and installation work that reactivates the archive as a site of dispute beginning with a 1978 Swiss television broadcast. A moment where the question of who gets to speak publicly and how collective norms get negotiated was played out in real time on screen. Lithic Alliance works through that history to open larger questions about media, authority and what it actually means to live together. The archive not as closure but as unfinished business.

@lithic_alliance
#VeniceBiennale2026 #SwissPavilion #MovingImage #VideoArt #inminorkeys taken in Giardini della Biennale by @chrisbaiden__

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