Lucia Pietroiusti appointed curator of sixth edition

Autostrada Biennale was founded by Leutrim Fishekqiu, Vatra Abrashi, and Barış Karamuço in 2014 in response to the need for spaces where contemporary art can bring people together to think, learn, and exchange. Imagined as a bridge between people, places, and ideas, it creates connections across different contexts and geographies through long-term engagement. The sixth edition of Autostrada Biennale will take place between July and September 2027, continuing a trajectory shaped over more than a decade of artistic and cultural practice. A list of artists and programmes as well as the concept of the exhibition, will be shared later in 2026.

Lucia Pietroiusti states: “Autostrada Biennale has reshaped the cultural life of Kosovo and I am grateful to be involved in the next edition. Looking toward 2027, we want to remember to bring tenderness to the table; to place our trust in art’s capacity to make space for life, joy, sensuousness and interconnection in a time shaped by fear. The sixth edition follows a path opened by Autostrada Biennale’s founders, Leutrim Fishekqiu, Vatra Abrashi, and Barış Karamuço, and sustained by the extraordinary curators of previous iterations. Autostrada Biennale is unique: as its editions come and go, what is built endures. Crucial cultural infrastructure remains and grows. This is a model for temporary festivals committed to supporting the wider cultural ecosystem. I am honoured to be stewarding the next two years of its continued evolution.”

Autostrada co-founders Leutrim Fishekqiu, Vatra Abrashi, and Barış Karamuço added: “We are pleased to share the news that Lucia Pietroiusti will curate the sixth edition of Autostrada Biennale in 2027. Lucia’s long-standing engagement with contemporary art and ecological thinking resonates deeply with the questions we have been exploring over the years. Her way of working across institutions, disciplines, and contexts aligns closely with Autostrada’s commitment to art as a space for connection, care, and shared responsibility.”

Lucia Pietroiusti (based between London and The Netherlands) stewards research and experimentation at the intersection of art, ecology and systems. She is Head of Research & Emergence at Hartwig Art Foundation, Amsterdam, working towards the opening of the new Hartwig Museum in 2028. Until August 2025, she was Head of Ecologies at Serpentine, London, where she founded the General Ecology project (2018-2025). Pietroiusti is the curator of the Golden-Lion winning opera-performance, Sun & Sea by Rugile Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė (58th Venice Biennale and 2019-2025 tour). Recent publications include The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (2025, with Filipa Ramos). Also with Filipa Ramos, Pietroiusti was a curator of Songs for the Changing Seasons, Vienna Klima Biennale (April-July 2024) and Persones Persons, 8th Biennale Gherdeïna, 2022. She was a curator of Bodies of Water, the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2021, with Andrés Jaque, Marina Otero Verzier, Filipa Ramos and You Mi), and an editor of More-than-Human (ed. with Andrés Jaque and Marina Otero Verzier, 2020). Pietroiusti is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Forma, London and serves on the board of the Gallery Climate Coalition. 

As the only contemporary art institution in Prizren, Autostrada Biennale operates both as an international contemporary art exhibition, held every two years since 2017, and as Autostrada Hangar – Center for Contemporary Art, established in 2021 as the Biennale’s permanent home. Located in a former German KFOR military base, now part of the Innovation and Training Park in Prizren, Autostrada Hangar functions as a year-round space for production, education, artist residencies, exhibitions, and public programs, and is open every day to the public.

Previous curators of the Autostrada Biennale
2017: Manray Hsu
2019: Giacinto Di Pietrantonio
2021 and 2023: Joanna Warsza and Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu
2025: Erzen Shkololli

For international media information contact: Nicola Jeffs, nj@nicolajeffs.com
For local media information contact: Erza Bata, info@autostradabiennale.org