Programs
Biennales
Programs
Plural, first person
Exhibition / Budapest, September 12-15, 2026
At the invitation of Örkény Theatre, OFF-Biennale Budapest is organising a pop-up exhibition as part of the theatre’s season-opening festival, ÖrkényKert. The exhibition explores possibilities for breaking free from entrenched social structures and reveals invisible forms of resistance. At the same time, it approaches identity as a kind of fiction: a narrative that can be rewritten, reinterpreted, and continuously transformed.
This is Another Socially Engaged Conversation … on anti-racist practices
International gathering, workshop / Budapest, March 6-7, 2026
The two-day international gathering—comprising public presentations and a roundtable discussion, as well as closed workshops—forms part of OFF-Biennale Budapest’s long-term program, which collaborates in various formats with artists and thinkers of Roma origin to explore contemporary forms, possibilities, and limitations of Roma cultural representation, as well as related social issues such as institutional racism.
Summit of the Independents
Meetup and community event / Budapest, November 8, 2025
With the conclusion of the fifth edition of OFF-Biennale (2025) and building on the organization’s ten years of experience, preparations for the 2027 edition have begun. As one of the first steps in this process, OFF is organizing a professional and community event aimed at mapping the current operational frameworks, and challenges of the independent, self-organized contemporary art ecosystem in Hungary, as well as presenting an overview of our plans for the next OFF-Biennale.
The Season of Darkness: Being Civil in an Uncivil Society
Symposium / Budapest, May 24-26, 2023
When the season of darkness comes, not all hope is lost, nor should it be. It is the darkest times—a time defined by multiple crises—when we (re)discover the importance of solidarity, care, and empathy. It is the war that reminds us of peace; it is the darkest deeds that emphasize human rights; it is the propaganda that makes us strive for clarity; it is the excesses of power that teach us to value democratic procedures; it is the corruption that accentuates the need for social justice; it is the bigotries that make us work for a more tolerant society; and it is authoritarianism that highlights autonomy. In a season of darkness, we formulate our civil responses and responsibilities; we create networks, finding new ways of collaboration.
From Complicated Past Towards Shared Future: International symposium
Symposium / Riga, May 18-19, 2023
The symposium is the final event of the collaborative project “From Complicated Past Towards Shared Futures” (2020–23), which has been focusing on the relationship between the complex and difficult past of the twentieth century and today in our region, considering how to think and talk about these issues in a wider society, with a particular focus on the role of art mediation.
Towards Shared Future
Conference / Budapest, November 24-25, 2022
The participatory conference Towards Shared Futures aims to create a meeting space, a platform for art mediators, curators, artists, educators and youth workers aiming to reach and work with vulnerable communities (with a special focus to minorities) using various tools that contemporary art projects offer. Our goal is to create a better understanding of challenges, goals and errors and to work towards more open and inclusive art mediation and museum practices.
Transperiphery Movement: Global Eastern Europe and Global South
Exhibition / Kyiv, October 16 – November 14, 2021
The exhibition Transperiphery Movement, presented at the 2021 OFF-Biennale, was also shown in the second half of the year at the Kyiv Biennial, as part of a collaboration among members of the East Europe Biennial Alliance (EEBA).
Culture at a Crossroad: What Collaboration Do We Want in Eastern Europe?
Online symposium / September 18, 2020
A 2018-ban kezdeményezett East Europe Biennial Alliance (EEBA) alapító tagjainak – Biennale Matter of Art Prague, Biennale Warszawa, Kyiv Biennial, és az OFF-Biennále Budapest – online szimpóziuma.
An online symposium of the founding members of the East Europe Biennial Alliance (EEBA), initiated in 2018: Biennale Matter of Art Prague, Biennale Warszawa, the Kyiv Biennial, and OFF-Biennale Budapest.
Home: An art project on housing
Exhibition and accompanying events / Budapest, May 17 – 24, 2019
Within the framework of the projec that took place in the former premises of the Otthon Department Store, 13 emerging visual artists reflect on the concept of home, their relationship to their own living spaces, and the challenges arising from the housing crisis.
The Home: An art project on housing program series is a diploma project by students of the Art Theory Department at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, realized within the OFF-Workshop Budapest program led by the OFF-Biennale.
Gaudiopolis: Attempts at a Joyful Society
Exhibition / Leipzig, March 10 – July 18, 2018
A collaborative project between the OFF-Biennale and the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig.
Communities of practice
Symposium and meetup / Budapest, September 18, 2015
