Biennials Connect

Aichi Triennale, Japan welcomes the participation of influential Ghanaian-born British artist and filmmaker Sir John Akomfrah in their International Contemporary Art Exhibition curated under the title of ‘A Time Between Ashes and Roses’. Aichi Triennale is one of the largest international art festivals in Japan, featuring a diverse range of Japanese and International artists. The participation of a second UK-based artist (supported through Biennials Connect) will be announced as part of their 2025 edition taking place September – November.

Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, UK hosts Japanese filmmaker Eri Makihara as ‘Artist in Focus’ at the 20th edition of the festival taking place 27-30 March 2025. Through her artistic practice Makihara centres the experience of Deaf people within the dominant hearing culture. This will be the first major showcase of Makihara's work outside of Asia. BFMAF is an artistically ambitious organisation for new cinema and artists’ moving image based in North Northumberland. 

An artist (to be announced) will present a work at the 36th edition of Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil titled 'Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice' –  a line from the poem 'Da calma e do silêncio' (Of calm and silence) by Afrobrazilian poet Conceição Evaristo. 

Bogiaisso Video Art Festival, Italy brings international video art into dialogue with fisher communities and island residents of Chioggia, in the southern edge of the Venetian Lagoon. Significant works from international artists are shared and discussed with the local working community. In Spring 2025, UK multi-disciplinary artist Abbas Zahedi will participate in an artistic residency researching and responding to the local context, and later attend the Bogiaisso Video Art Festival, 25-28 August 2025.

In response to their curatorial theme of Invention & Innovation, British Textile Biennial, UK, invite Bangalore-based artist Dhara Mehrotra to participate in an artist residency at the Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery in Lancashire, to develop an installation expanding on her research into mycelium networks and their regenerative environmental properties. British Textile Biennial runs from 2 October until 2 November 2025. 

Coventry Biennial, UK – a social, political and critical platform for contemporary art taking place across Coventry and Warwickshire from October 2025 to January 2026 – will build on their connection with Kolkata-based organisation Emami Arts to offer emerging Indian contemporary artists a significant opportunity to make, and/or present artworks exploring the roles and impacts of collections and archives in an international context.  

EAF (Edinburgh Art Festival), UK, deepen their close collaboration with Colombian Cultural Foundation Más Arte Más Acción (MAMA) and landmark project Around a Tree, which gathers global stories and experiences of the climate emergency (with contributions from Ireland, Scotland, Kenya, Germany and Colombia). Brazilian artists and collectives will be invited to bring their voice to this project as part of its continued production and have presence at EAF25 and COP25 in Brazil.   

Led by artist-run initiative 98B COLLABoratory, ESC Biennale, Philippines, has transformed urban spaces in Escolta, Manila through site-specific works that engage the public. Their 2025 edition will play around the theme tambay reflecting the Filipino spirit of gathering and hanging out. UK artists will be selected via open call to participate in residency alongside local artists, culminating in a project for the Biennale in November 2025.

A new site-specific installation by Derry-born mixed-media artist, Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh, will be commissioned for the 41st EVA International Biennial, Ireland (29 August – 26 October 2025) at Sadlier’s fishmongers in Limerick City. Ó Dochartaigh will also engage in a series of public and networking events with Irish and international peers. The commission forms part of an international curator-led ‘Guest Programme’ on themes of independence and autonomy, curated by Netherlands based Eszter Szakács. 

Groove Biennale, South Africa is an inclusive architecture and music festival celebrating the alternative nightlife scenes in Johannesburg, employing experimental interdisciplinary design to engage the city's traditional architectural profession with youth culture and nightlife. A day will be dedicated to learning and exchange, including a workshop facilitated by three UK-based visual artists for students, queer communities and others interested in the cities’ arts, music and cultural sector. The three-day festival takes place in Johannesburg from 30 January until 1 February 2025 and is presented by DORMANTYOUTH in partnership with Jägermeister x Night Embassy.

Hausa International Book and Arts Festival (HIBAF), Nigeria is an arts and language festival by and for African creatives across the UK, West and East Africa, curated by Open Arts Foundation. In June 2025, British-Nigerian architectural designer and artist, Antoinette Yetunde Oni, will collaborate with local northern Nigerian textile artisans on an art installation recounting the story of the region's long history of textile production. Yetunde Oni will also lead a fellowship and workshop for ten emerging artists on socially engaged creative practices.

'Waste Not Want Not – Up-cycled' is an artist residency bringing together Turkish artist Elif Ağatekin and Welsh artist, Bonnie Grace, over ten days in June 2025. Drawing on themes central to the festival’s (International Ceramics Festival, UK) emerging concerns of sustainability, the artists’ work will include sherds from important historical ceramic sites in Wales as well as contemporary industrial ceramic waste. The residency will include demonstrations at the festival, an exhibition at Aberystwyth, and displays and outreach workshops at Ruthin and Nantgarw.

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial, UK (7 June – 14 September 2025) ‘BEDROCK’, will examine the city’s foundations, from the sandstone bedrock of the city and region, pavements and distinctive architecture, to the civic, colonial, and personal beliefs that ground people and places in it. The Biennial will invite a new commission from the award-winning Ugandan multi-disciplinary artist Odur Ronald who mainly works with and explores the multi-faceted possibilities of aluminium printing plates.