A first look into TBA21's 2026 program

Artists and curators of TBA21’s upcoming 2026 programs. Top: Tarini Malik (by Francis Tsang), John Akomfrah (by Francis Tsang), Marina Avia Estrada (by José Alonso de Caso Williams), Ilaria Bonacossa (courtesy of the author), Yina Jiménez Suriel (by José Rozón), Natasha Ginwala (by Victoria Tomaschko). Second from top: Chus Martínez (by Nici Jost), Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk (by Taras Tarasov), Nadia Huggins (by Jacopo Salvi), Tessa Mars (by Wendy Désert), Pietro Consolandi (courtesy of the author). Third from top: Seba Calfuqeo (by Diego Argote), Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll (courtesy of the author), Verena Melgarejo Weinandt (courtesy of the author), Joel Kaudife Haikali (courtesy of the author), Amalia Rossi (courtesy of the author). Second from bottom: Marta Handenawer & Paul Aleikum Garcia & / Domestic Data Streamers, (courtesy of the authors), Laimi Kakolo (courtesy of the author), Kasimir Burgess (courtesy of the author), Rebekah Wilson (courtesy of the author). Bottom: Studio Grandeza (courtesy of the author), Gary Zhexi Zhang (courtesy of the author), Andrea Muniáin (by Alejandro Madrid), Paulo Tavares (by Gabriel Ribiero), Britten Syd Andrews (courtesy of the author).

Programming

Recommended

Upcoming

In 2026, TBA21 asks how ecology – understood not simply as the study of relationships between humans, nonhumans, and their environments, but as a practice that shapes governance, accountability, and collective survival—can redefine the role of cultural institutions today. After more than a decade of cultivating what TBA21–Academy has called Oceanic Thinking, the foundation now turns toward a more complex horizon: the entanglement of ecology, violent conflict, and democratic life. Unfolding across Madrid, Venice, Genoa, Panama City, and Busan, the 2026 program forms a deliberately interconnected initiative. Through exhibitions, commissions, and the experimental research platform Organismo, TBA21 positions art as a practice of heightened attention and shared planetary responsibility at a moment of mounting global crisis.

“Ecology challenges institutions to rethink the ways they govern, the alliances they form, and the conflicts they choose to witness,” note TBA21 co-directors Rosa Ferré and Markus Reymann. “The 2026 program asks what becomes possible when we learn to listen—really listen—to waters, atmospheres, and communities living with the consequences of war, extraction, and ecological collapse.”

EXHIBITIONS AT THE MUSEO NACIONAL THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA

John Akomfrah – Listening All Night to the Rain

Curated by Tarini Malik

Until February 8, 2026
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk – Pedagogies of War

Curated by Chus Martínez

March 3–May 31, 2026
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Seba Calfuqueo – CAUTÍN

Curated by Marina Avia Estrada

October 6, 2026–January 3, 2027
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

EXHIBITIONS IN ITALY

Moby Dick – The Whale