American music star Kelsey Lu will debut Penumbra, a powerful new immersive performance, at Palazzo Diedo in Venice on 7 May, 2026, coinciding with the opening of the Venice Biennale.
A year in the making, the site-specific work expands on Lu’s forthcoming album So Help Me God, dissolving the boundaries between concert and installation as audiences and performers move together through a living, sensory environment shaped by sound and movement.
Rooted in themes of land, erasure and survival, the piece finds Lu performing alongside a 4-piece music and movement ensemble featuring Josh Johnson, Alicia Hall Moran, Mikael Darmanie and Lady Jess.
With an installation by Yumna Al-Arashi, the work is curated by Olivier Berggruen and Monteverde Productions. A classically trained cellist, composer and multidisciplinary artist, Kelsey Lu moves fluidly between music, visual art and performance. Since their 2019 debut Blood, they have returned with a more expansive, confrontational body of work.
This new performance sits within that evolving language, translating the album’s emotional and spiritual currents into the physical space. The show also marks the first programme as part of Olivier Berggruen’s new project, Monteverde Productions, which champions multidisciplinary avant-garde approaches to visual art and musical production and the elements that amplify this work.
Monteverde will also launch a number of other projects and publications this year with artists such as Sayaka Shoji, who will be performing a solo violin recital at Palazzo Diedo on 10 May; Manon Lutanie, Mati Diop, and Dev Hynes; Francesco Libetta; and Zsela.
Public performance on 7 May, 2026 at Palazzo Diedo, Berggruen Arts & Culture.
