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Terrafilia Fest

Arts for political ecology and radical imagination

September 19 – September 21, 2025

Terrafilia Fest. Design: T.O.T Studio

Programming

MNTB Program

MNTB Public Program

DOWNLOAD THE FESTIVAL PROGRAM

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and TBA21 launch Terrafilia Fest, a new annual gathering that brings together experimental art, critical thought, and ecological activism to challenge exhausted worldviews and foster unorthodox yet urgent forms of knowledge and action.

Conceived as a speculative counterpart to the exhibition Terrafilia (on view until September 24), the festival unfolds as a collective platform for imagining new forms of planetary intelligence in response to the ecological and sociopolitical challenges of our time.

In the midst of the current global (dis)order—marked by climate collapse, the erosion of democratic frameworks, and the persistence of extractivist and colonial paradigms—Terrafilia Fest convenes artists, thinkers, and activists from diverse contexts to explore alternative ways of inhabiting the world.

Through a program of performances, workshops, talks, screenings, and experimental encounters, the festival rehearses new forms of cultural practices as tools for critical imagination, radical solidarity, and ecosocial transformation.

Confirmed participants include:

Malcom Ferdinand (France), philosopher and author of A Decolonial Ecology, who will address the intersection of environmental justice and historical repair through the case of chlordecone pesticide contamination in the French Caribbean.
James Bridle (UK/Greece), a writer, artist, and technologist. Author of New Dark Age (2018) and Ways of Being (2022), Bridle examines how digital and networked realities infiltrate the material world, expanding notions of planetary intelligence.
Libby Heaney (UK), artist and quantum physicist, internationally recognized for her pioneering work in quantum art. Through immersive installations and emerging technologies, she explores the political and aesthetic implications of quantum computing and the limits of perception.
Frédérique Aït-Touati (France), theater director and CNRS researcher, whose work merges narrative, science, and cartography to rethink our relationship with the planet. Projects like Terra Forma propose mapping Earth through fiction, ethics, and imagination.
Yina Jiménez Suriel (Dominican Republic), curator and researcher whose practice links diasporic imagination with processes of reconciliation and transoceanic memory.
Zheng Bo (Hong Kong/Taiwan), ecoqueer artist whose work investigates aesthetic and political forms of interspecies relationality from a non-anthropocentric perspective.
Riar Rizaldi (Indonesia), filmmaker and researcher who explores cosmologies of the Global South through the intersection of contemporary science and local mysticism.
Las Huecas (Spain), the Barcelona-based dramaturgical collective (Júlia Barbany, Núria Corominas, Andrea Pellejero) known for blending satire, metaclown, and absurdity into a distinctive theatrical language.
Klara Kofen (UK), artist, researcher and opera-maker, and Cameron Graham (UK), artist and composer-percussionist, come together in an intermedia project exploring spectral sovereignties, and strange temporalities.
Megane Mercury (Spain), multidisciplinary artist based in Barcelona. A vocalist, model, audiovisual creator, DJ, and storyteller, Megane explores queer, race, and dissident identities across pop-queer music and visual media.
Skye Arundhati Thomas (India), writer, editor, and curator whose work intertwines contemporary politics, South Asian histories, and aesthetic form. She has recently co-edited the anthology Palestine is Everywhere.
Tommaso Calarco (Italy), a leading quantum physicist known for pioneering quantum optimal control methods, co-author of the European Quantum Manifesto, and coordinator in the EU’s Quantum Flagship programme.
La cuarta piel (Spain), a worldwide distributed collective focused on designing ecologies of care through participatory methods.

Terrafilia Fest positions itself as a testing ground for disruptive thought and situated creation, embracing formats and approaches that transcend disciplinary silos and foster collaboration across multiple knowledge systems, bodies, and territories.

Terrafilia Fest is a public program initiative organized by TBA21 and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, with the collaboration of WIELS Brussels, Festival de las Ideas, and the Complutense University of Madrid. The festival is curated by Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa, together with Daniela Zyman and Marina Avia Estrada.

DATES

September 19, 20 & 21, 2025

LOCATION

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
P.º del Prado, 8. 28014 Madrid

BROCHURE

Download the festival program HERE

CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS

Frédérique Aït-Touati, Skye Arundhati Thomas, Jacob Bolton, Zheng Bo, James Bridle, Ana Carrasco-Conde, Tommaso Calarco, Cristina Catalina Gallego, Anxo Garrido Fernández, Malcom Ferdinand, Grandeza Studio, Daniel H. Rey, Gloria Habsburg, Libby Heaney, Las Huecas, Yina Jiménez Suriel, Klara Kofen and Cameron Graham, La cuarta piel, Megane Mercury, Andrea Muniain, Marina Otero, Haris Papoulias, Riar Rizaldi, César Ruiz Sanjuán, Paulo Tavares, Daniela Zyman, Gary Zhexi Zhang and Domestic Data Streamers.

TICKETS

Terraphilia Exhibition Guided Visit

PROGRAM

DAY 1 – FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
For more information about the Friday program, click HERE

7:10 – 7:40 PM | PERFORMANCE

Make Europe Great Again, with Las Huecas
Location: Entrance hall

Access and registration: Free admission until full capacity is reached.

Price: Free

7:40 – 8:10 PM | PERFORMATIVE LECTURE

Loving ourselves the Earth: Undoing the colonial inhabitation, by Malcom Ferdinand
Location: Auditorium

Language: English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

Collaborators: WIELS, Brussels
Price: Free, with invitations available for download on the museum’s website. Activity included in the Friday ticket.
A quota of 10% of the capacity is reserved for same-day access without a prior ticket.

8:10 – 8:40 PM | LECTURE
looking for the bodies of the senses, by Yina Jiménez Suriel
Location: Auditorium
Language: Spanish with simultaneous translation to English
Price: Free, with invitations available for download on the museum’s website. Activity included in the Friday ticket.
A quota of 10% of the capacity is reserved for same-day access without a prior ticket.

8:40 – 9:10 PM | CONVERSATION

Ecologies of Reparation, by Malcom Ferdinand and Yina Jiménez Suriel

Moderated by Daniel H. Rey
Location: Auditorium
Language: English and Spanish with simultaneous translation

Price: Free, with invitations available for download on the museum’s website. Activity included in the Friday ticket.
A quota of 10% of the capacity is reserved for same-day access without a prior ticket.

9:10 – 11:00 PM | PERFORMATIVE DJ SET

Cartographies of What’s to Come, by Megane Mercury
Location: Garden

Access and registration: Free entry until full capacity is reached

Price: Free of charge

SATELLITE ACTIVITY (OFF-SITE)

5:00 – 6:00 PM | CONVERSATION

Terrafilias, with José Luis Fernández Casadevante “Kois” and Daniela Zyman

Location: Círculo de Bellas Artes
Language: English and Spanish with simultaneous translation
Collaborators: In collaboration with Festival de las Ideas.

Access and registration: Círculo de Bellas Artes website

DAY 2 – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
For more information about the Saturday program, click HERE

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | TERRAPHILIA EXHIBITION WALKTHROUGH
Terraphilia exhibition Walkthrough, by curator Daniela Zyman (English group) and Marina Avia Estrada (Spanish group)

Location: Terrafilia exhibition rooms

Language: In English and Spanish

Collaborators: In collaboration with Festival de las Ideas

Price: Free, with invitations available for download on the museum’s website.

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | PROGRAM PRESENTATION

Organismo | Art in applied critical ecologies 2026 Edition with Andrea Muniain, Gary Zhexi Zhang, Jacob Bolton, Grandeza Studio, Paulo Tavares, Domestic Data Streamers.
Location: Auditorium (virtual presentation)

Language: English and Spanish

Price: Free, with invitations available for download on the museum’s website. Activity included in the Saturday morning ticket.
A quota of 10% of the capacity is reserved for same-day access without a prior ticket.

12:00 – 7:00 PM | PLAYGROUND

The End of Summer, designed by La cuarta piel
Location: Post-Pop rooms

Collaborators: Co-produced with Educathyssen

Access: Free

12:00 – 7:00 PM | FILM CYCLE

Film screenings: Regina de Miguel: Nekya: A Film River | Allora and Calzadilla: A Man Screaming is not a Dancing Bear | Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkáčová: Capital: Magical Recipes for Love, Happiness and Health | Amar Kanwar: The Scene of Crime | Yeo Siew Hua: An Invocation to the Earth | Asunción Molinos Gordo: Barruntaremos (Inklings) | Deborah Stratman: Last Things | Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Đại Bác Nghe Quen Như Câu Dạo Buồn (The Sounds of Cannons, Familiar Like Sad Refrains) | Eduardo Williams: Pude ver un puma (Could See a Puma) | Omar Mismar: Abou Farid’s War | Riar Rizaldi: Mirage: Eigenstate | Jumana Manna: Foragers

Location: Post-Pop rooms

Language: Original version with English and Spanish subtitles

Access: Free
For more information about the film program, click HERE.

12:45 – 2:15 PM | CONVERSATION + COLLECTIVE READINGS

Palestine is Everywhere, with Skye Arundhati Thomas, Nahil Mohana and Gloria Habsburg
Location: Auditorium
Language: English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

5:30 – 6:00 PM | SCREENING + ONLINE CONVERSATION

Interspecies Affections: Love, Plants, and Politics, with Zheng Bo
Location: Auditorium (online connection)
Language: English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

Price: Free, with invitations available for download on the museum’s website. Activity included in the Saturday evening ticket.
A quota of 10% of the capacity is reserved for same-day access without a prior ticket.

6:00 – 6:50 PM | KEYNOTE

There Is No Place Which Does Not See You, with James Bridle
Location: Auditorium
Language: English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

7:00 – 7:30 PM | SCREENING + ONLINE CONVERSATION

Integrative Cosmologies, with Riar Rizaldi
Location: Auditorium (online connection)
Language: English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

7:30 – 8:00 PM | ONLINE LECTURE

Becoming Slime/ Quantum Feeling, by Libby Heaney
Location: Auditorium (online connection)
Language: English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

8:00 – 8:50 PM | CONVERSATION
Computational ecologies, with Tommaso Calarco and Marina Otero Verzier
Location: Auditorium
Language: English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

9:30 – 11:00 PM | PERFORMANCE

Fake and Extinct, by Klara Kofen and Cameron Graham

Location: Garden

Access and registration: Free entry until full capacity is reached

Price: Free of charge

DAY 3 – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
For more information about the Sunday program, click HERE

11:00 AM –2:00 PM | LECTURE + CONVERSATION

By Frédérique Aït-Touati in conversation with Ana Carrasco-Conde, Cristina Catalina Gallego, Haris Papoulias and César Ruiz Sanjuán. Moderated by Antonio Rivera García y Nemesio García-Carril Puy.

Location: Auditorium

Language: In French and Spanish with simultaneous translation into Spanish

Collaborators: Co-produced with the Department of Philosophy and Society at the Complutense University of Madrid

Price: Free, with invitations available for download on the museum’s website. Activity included in the Sunday ticket.
A quota of 10% of the capacity is reserved for same-day access without a prior ticket.

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM | PLAYGROUND

The end of summer, designed by La cuarta piel
Location: Post-Pop rooms

Collaborators: Co-produced with Educathyssen

Access: Free

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM | FILM CYCLE
Film screenings: Regina de Miguel: Nekya: A Film River | Allora and Calzadilla: A Man Screaming is not a Dancing Bear | Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkáčová: Capital: Magical Recipes for Love, Happiness and Health | Amar Kanwar: The Scene of Crime | Yeo Siew Hua: An Invocation to the Earth | Asunción Molinos Gordo: Barruntaremos (Inklings) | Deborah Stratman: Last Things | Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Đại Bác Nghe Quen Như Câu Dạo Buồn (The Sounds of Cannons, Familiar Like Sad Refrains) | Eduardo Williams: Pude ver un puma (Could See a Puma) | Omar Mismar: Abou Farid’s War | Riar Rizaldi: Mirage: Eigenstate | Jumana Manna: Foragers

Location: Post-Pop rooms
Language: Original version with English and Spanish subtitles

Access: Free

For more information about the film program, click HERE.