13th General Assembly
June 9–14, 2026
The 13th General Assembly of the International Biennial Association (IBA) will take place from June 9-14, 2026 in Sydney, Australia during the closing days of the 25th Biennale of Sydney and is organised in partnership with the Biennale of Sydney, Chau Chak Wing Museum (the University of Sydney), Creative Australia, The Power Institute (the University of Sydney), and Global Studies University, Sharjah, bringing together biennial practitioners from across the globe under the title, Rememory: Living Solidarities, Embodied Futures.
Rememory, the title of this year’s 25th Biennale of Sydney, is adopted as reference by the IBA General Assembly as a living and active process bringing about a reassembly of histories, bodies, and a re-categorisation of relations within the present. Moving beyond the idea of the past as concluded, it becomes a method for engaging both with the long reach of twentieth-century solidarity movements and networks and with the urgent ethical and ecological conditions shaping our world today.
The programme takes as its point of departure from historical formations of transnational exchange - political or cultural gatherings such as Bandung or FESTAC, and artistic platforms such as the Alexandria Biennale, Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, or Bienal de la Havana - not as closed episodes, but as unfinished projects. These sites of encounter, translation, and collective imagination are understood as living archives whose echoes continue to inform contemporary practices of solidarity today.
From here, the focus shifts toward the present: toward solidarities emerging among First Nations, diasporic, and other communities (both human and non-human) that for long have been marginalised by colonial structures of power. Memory is understood as embodied knowledge, carried through land, storytelling, and communal practices, and as a force capable of resisting extractive, colonial, and neoliberal systems. In this sense, to remember collectively is not simply to look back, but also a tool to activate histories of gathering as strategies for sustaining life, justice, and continuity, while rethinking the role of biennials as sites where solidarities can be enacted as much as represented.
The programme will include a public day of panels, conversations, and talks, alongside a series of focus groups for IBA members and invited guests, creating spaces for both collective reflection and more focused, experience-based exchange.
Why participate?
IBA is first and foremost a community, and as such, its most important quality lies in the possibility of gathering and discussing together to provide support, advice and collaborative structures to each of its member organisations. Throughout the last decade and together with its members, IBA has developed cooperation programs between biennials, acted as an advocacy platform for biennials in need, and provided a platform for biennials to showcase their projects while at the same time building a valuable archive.
We invite biennial professionals from around the world to consider becoming members of IBA and attending our 13th General Assembly in Sydney. Details about our program and how to RSVP may be found on our website.
