Thirteenth edition: a hand that is all our hands combined

Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) 2025, a hand that is all our hands combined, is under way, presenting works by 24 artists across four main venues and in temporary locations. A third of the artworks on view are newly commissioned works, shown for the first time in Göteborg.  
 
The opening days of the biennial, 20–21 September, were marked by performances and conversations with artists and writers across the region, taking place at Röda Sten Konsthall, the Gothenburg City Library and Skövde Art Museum.

This edition of the biennial, curated by Christina Lehnert, intentionally departs from a singular thematic framework. Instead, it unfolds as a platform for polyphonic responses to the injustices, polarizations, and reactionary currents shaping our present. The project emerges in a moment when solidarity—a foundational principle of the European welfare state—is increasingly corroded by discriminatory practices and rhetoric that promote monoculture. Against this backdrop, the biennial insists on multiplicity, dissent, and the generative potential of collective resistance. Developed in close dialogue with the artists in multiple sites, the project resists narrowing and embraces complexity. 

At The Gothenburg Museum of Art, the biennial engages in dialogue with the museum’s permanent collection of 19th and 20th century art, responding to its historical textures and institutional history. The presentation at the City Library foregrounds its role as a civic forum—a space for public discourse and knowledge production. At Skövde Art Museum, the exhibition traces affinities with the site-specific works of Siri Derkert and Vera Nilsson, who anchor feminist and socially engaged practices in Swedish art history. The collaboration with Göteborgs Konsthall explores the modalities of an institution operating beyond its physical venue, emphasizing presence and hosting as an instiutional structure. Lastly, the presentation at Röda Sten Konsthall is grounded in the central concerns of the biennial: freedom of speech for artists and those in minoritised positions, solidarity, and eventually resistance. 

The biennial‘s title, a hand that is all our hands combined, is borrowed from the poem Personal Effects by Solmaz Sharif. An elegy, the poem explores the intergenerational impact of war on individual and collective biographies, and the inherited responsibility we all carry for the present. The work of Solmaz Sharif will be explored through a series of public conversations within the biennial programme.   

Participating artists and venues 

Gothenburg City Library: Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Christian Nyampeta 

The Gothenburg Museum of Art: Basma al-Sharif, Moki Cherry, Jonelle Twum, and at the invitation of Black Archives Sweden – Kiluanji Kia Henda & Tiago Mena Abrantes, and Pamela Z 

Röda Sten Konsthall: Noor Abed, Raven Chacon, Hans Haacke, Hanni Kamaly, Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi & Dalena Tran & Andrew Yong Hoon Lee, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lydia Ourahmane, Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), Georgia Sagri, Helena Uambembe 

Slakthuset and Gamlestaden, in collaboration with Göteborgs Konsthall: Simnikiwe Buhlungu 

Skövde Art Museum: Patricia L. Boyd, Siri Derkert, Olivia Plender, Lala Rukh, Georgia Sagri  
 
The biennial exhibition is accompanied by a public programme for youth and children and complemented by artist conversations, performances, film screenings and literary events.  
Coming events include a new performance by FRANKIE (Franziska Aigner) at Röda Sten Konsthall, a series of four artist-led sessions with Simnikiwe Buhlungu, programme inspired by the legacy of The Women’s Citizens School at Fogelstad and responding to the political poetry of Solmaz Sharif. More information on programme is available here.    

Performances
Concert by FRANKIE (Franziska Aigner) (2025) 
Trans Daughter & Mother (In The Same Boat) by Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo) (2025)
City by Georgia Sagri (2024)
Gone, Gone, Beyond by Georgia Sagri (2025)  

Artist-led sessions 
Amid B and C and a knot and E (a conver-something) 
Artist Simnikiwe Buhlungu invites to four public sessions in collaboration with Göteborgs Konsthall, in Gamlestaden and at the Gothenburg City Library. Register to attend. 
Functioning as exercises between the realms of reading and listening, Amid B and C and a knot and E (a conver-something) ask for public participation in sounding, dissonating and harmonising textual and sonic material together as an attempt of storing knowledges; in situ and in transience.  

Conversations 
Hierarchies of Solidarity: Authors Moshtari Hilal and Sinthujan Varatharajah in conversation with philosopher and art critic Josefine Wikström 
 
Inspired by the Poetry of Solmaz Sharif: Translator and author Jennifer Hayashida in dialogue with poet Leila Inanna Sultan 
 
The Women’s Citizens School at Fogelstad: Art and Citizenhood: Artist Olivia Plender, writers Nik Ruth Persson and Erika-Johannes Hoff Holmgren in conversation with Ann-Ighe, and Jonatan Habib-Engqvist, editors of the cultural journal Ord&Bild 
 
Language in the Time of War: Conversation starting from the literary work of Solmaz Sharif, with artist Basma al-Sharif and writers Johannes Anyuru and Athena Farrokhzad 

Through a Glass 
Artistic responses to works in the biennial by Ahmad Azzam, Ida Börjel, My Hellgren and Anna-Greta Himmer. 

Guided tours (in Swedish, English, Arabic, Italian, Mandarin) take place throughout the biennial period at both Röda Sten Konsthall and Skövde Art Museum.  

GIBCA Extended
During the autumn, the contemporary art scene across Västra Götaland presents a rich programme inspired by and in dialogue with the biennial’s theme. GIBCA Extended, a network developed in the region in close relation to the biennial, features events by more than 90 art organisations, including artist-run initiatives, galleries, museums and performance centers. Discover the programme at artka.se. 

Find visual documentation here.
Media enquiries: press@gibca.se

About GIBCA   
Organizer: Röda Sten Konsthall 
Director: Mia Christersdotter Norman   
Artistic Director: Ioana Leca   
Curator GIBCA 2025: Christina Lehnert  

The Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) was founded in 2001. As a platform for the presentation of international contemporary art, GIBCA aims to be an important junction between local, national, and international discourses on issues of urgent collective interest. Each biennial consists of several exhibitions and programs hosted by established art institutions in Gothenburg, by independent initiatives, and in the public realm.     

The biennial is produced by Röda Sten Konsthall in collaboration with Gothenburg City Library, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Göteborgs Konsthall and Skövde Art Museum, with main funding from City of Gothenburg, Region of West Sweden, and the Swedish Arts Council.