To hold, to give, to receive

Anozero—Bienal de Coimbra presents its 2026 edition, To hold, to give, to receive, on view from April 11 through July 5, 2026, across multiple venues in Coimbra, Portugal. Curated by Hans Ibelings and John Zeppetelli, with Daniel Madeira as assistant curator, the biennial brings together artists, architects, filmmakers, and research-based practitioners in a project that reconsiders the exhibition as a space of encounter, reciprocity, and transformation.

Taking as its conceptual point of departure the Proto-Indo-European root ghabh—the origin of the word “habitat”—Anozero’26 explores the gestures of holding, giving, and receiving as fundamental conditions of both artistic practice and social life. The exhibition is conceived not as a fixed display but as a living environment, in which artworks, architecture, audiences, and ideas coexist and interact. In this sense, the biennial positions itself as a spatial and relational structure, foregrounding the ethical and material conditions through which cultural production takes place.

Drawing on Peter Kropotkin’s concept of mutual aid, the curatorial framework emphasizes collaboration, interdependence, and horizontality as alternatives to the individualism and polarization that characterize contemporary social and political life. Rather than isolating artistic practices, the biennial stages forms of proximity and exchange, proposing art and architecture as sites capable of imagining and articulating other ways of living together.

At the centre of the project is the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, whose monumental architecture and layered history, from seventeenth-century religious sanctuary to military barracks and now a contemporary art venue, serve as a key interlocutor for the exhibition. The monastery is not treated as a neutral container but as an active participant, shaping the reception and meaning of the works it hosts. Its spaces resonate with projects that engage themes of memory, testimony, grief, extraction, and resistance, situating the exhibition within a broader temporal and political continuum.

For this edition, the biennial extends beyond the monastery across a network of sites throughout Coimbra, activating the city itself as a landscape of circulation, memory, and transformation. Each venue contributes to a wider constellation in which artworks interact with the urban fabric and historical context of the city. In this distributed format, Coimbra becomes both context and medium, a site in which the boundaries between exhibition, architecture, and public space are continuously negotiated.

Its participants reflect the biennial’s expanded field of inquiry, encompassing artists and architects whose practices engage critically with the political, social, and spatial conditions of the present, whose projects range from large-scale installations and moving-image works to research-driven investigations and architectural propositions.

Participating artists, architects
Chantal Akerman, Christian Andersson, Jonathas de Andrade, Vasco Araújo, arquivo mangue, Lina Bo Bardi, Taysir Batniji, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Arno Brandlhuber e/and Constanze Haas, Inês Brites, Adam Broomberg e/and Rafael Gonzalez, Alberto Carneiro, Centrala, Rui Chafes e/and Candura, Julian Charrière, Sandro Chia, Colectivo SEM-FIM, Luisa Cunha, Eva Davidova, Thomas Demand, Forensic Architecture, Arturo Franco, Nan Goldin, Shilpa Gupta, Inside Outside, Kosmos, Juha Lilja, Mário Macilau, Fina Miralles, Adriana Molder, Office of Adrian Phiffer, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, João Salema, Taryn Simon, Charles Stankievech, Mungo Thomson, Maria Trabulo, Pedro Vaz, Carlos Ferrand Zavala, Anarchism and Planning, Three rooms, Xenia — aNC, Atelier Local, Ateliermob, Colectivo Warehouse, Fala, fr-ia, JQTS, Nuno Valentim, Paula Santos, Pedra Líquida,

Venues
Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Nova
Círculo Sede
Círculo Sereia
Sala da Cidade
Edifício Chiado — Museu da Cidade de Coimbra
Convento São Francisco
Jardim Botânico
MUSEU

Established in 2015 by the Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra, the Coimbra City Council, and the University of Coimbra, Anozero was conceived by director Carlos Antunes in response to the UNESCO classification of the University of Coimbra, Alta, and Sofia. Since its inception, the biennial has focused on activating and critically reflecting on heritage spaces, positioning contemporary art as a means of engaging with the historical, cultural, and political dimensions of the built environment. With an average of 100,000 visitors per edition, it has become one of the most widely attended contemporary art events in Portugal.

For press queries, please contact:
National: Isabel Campante, Anozero, isabelcampante@anozero-bienaldecoimbra.pt
International: Amanda Kelly, Pickles PR, amanda@picklespr.com