IBA Stage: Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) 2025
Installation view: Röda Sten Konsthall. Photo: Andrej Lamut. Courtesy GIBCA
IBA Stage: Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) 2025
November 28, 2025 (Friday)
3:00 pm (Göteborg/GMT+1)
https://www.gibca.se/en/
We are excited to announce the next edition of IBA Stage, dedicated to the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA), one of Sweden’s most significant platforms for contemporary art and the oldest continuously running biennial in the country.
This year’s edition, curated by Christina Lehnert, with the evocative title a hand that is all our hands combined, a line borrowed from a poem by Solmaz Sharif, took form in a moment when democratic values, artistic freedom, and institutional accountability are increasingly under pressure. If we were to sum up the biennial in a single question it might sound a bit like: How can art open space for reflection, resistance, and collective responsibility in times of war, polarization, and authoritarianism?
Rather than adhering to a singular theme, the 2025 edition intentionally takes a polyphonic approach. It gathers artists whose work resists monocultural narratives, defends artistic autonomy, and engages directly with political and social urgencies. As Christina Lehnert notes:
“In times when institution, artistic practice and freedom, and being in solidarity are increasingly questioned and undermined, it became unavoidable for me as a curator to shape the biennial as a platform for artists and practices that speak out politically… The biennial has evolved into a place that invites viewers to discover the possibility of resistance—through understanding and learning from the stories and moments created and shared by the artists.”
This year’s biennial embraces complexity and multiplicity, developing in close dialogue with the artists and shaped across several sites in Göteborg. It aims to nurture solidarity as a lived practice at a moment when it is being eroded in both language and policy.
Founded in 2001, the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) is held every two years in Göteborg, Sweden. It is internationally recognized as an investigative, site-responsive biennial, deeply engaged with the city’s social history and its intersections with global artistic practices. GIBCA is initiated by the Gothenburg City Cultural Committee and organized by Röda Sten Konsthall since 2006.
Each edition invites curators to develop a project in dialogue with Gothenburg’s communities, histories, and spaces. Exhibitions unfold across established art institutions, public sites, and collaborative venues throughout the city and region, often involving cross-disciplinary partnerships that connect art to broader societal questions.
GIBCA also facilitates three artist residencies, produces newly commissioned works, and engages wide audiences—including children and young people—through a dynamic educational programme of workshops, guided tours, and public events. Since 2013, it also coordinates GIBCA Extended, a regional network of art organizations across West Sweden.
Past curators have included figures such as Elvira Dyangani Ose, Nav Haq, Lisa Rosendahl, and João Laia, among others. Each edition builds on the biennial’s commitment to offering art “at its best”—not as spectacle, but as a forum for questions, dialogue, and critical engagement.
We invite you to join us on November 28 at 3PM CET as we reflect on how a hand that is all our hands combined finds its place within Göteborg, its communities and the wider biennial world
To have the possibility to hear and discuss with the individuals behind biennials has been a key component of what we believe IBA can offer to our members and the wider public and we value your participation through our live streams. As always IBA Stage events are meant as a moment to hear about a project through its makers and have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A session at the end of the presentation.
