On Practices of Encounter, Negotiation and Cooperation
October 30–November 2, 2026
Essen 45327
Germany
We are witnessing a present in which our coexistence is increasingly drifting away from a shared reality. In economic, technological, and administrative systems, decisions are often made in isolation, regardless of their consequences. This decoupling separates realities that nevertheless remain inextricably linked.
As places become locations, bodies become data, matter becomes resources, and life forms become manageable quantities, it is often only in moments of disruption, exhaustion, or detriment that we come to experience how our social and planetary web of relationships are interconnected.
›IMPACT26 – Friction Energy‹ addresses this point of rupture and is dedicated to transformative practices of coexistence in an era in which our relationships are deeply shaped by competition, exploitation, the ideology of progress, power, and social recognition.
The transdisciplinary symposium explores the following questions: Can art—as a field of tension where all these logics converge—facilitate unexpected forms of cooperation? How can strategies be developed despite of, within, and even aslant to these prevailing systems? How do we learn from other actors and fields of knowledge when human and non-human participants acknowledge one another as collaborators?
This call for proposals welcomes projects, practices and research approaches rooted in artistic, scientific, social, activist or technological fields. Participants are invited to share their work in open exchange with other international contributors.
IMPACT brings together practices and blueprints from the arts, sciences, urban space, architecture and other fields of research. This year’s edition will unfold in two phases: the first two days will be open to the public and will include brief presentations of the selected projects. These will be followed by two days of closed sessions devoted to exchanging ideas.
Details of the public programme will be online shortly. Visit here to apply.
Closing date: August 13, 11:59pm, CET.
Participation: To participate, you can submit your contribution through the call for proposals. If selected, you are invited to share and discuss it with other international experts during IMPACT26’s assembly (with remuneration). Travel costs will be covered and local accommodation will be provided.
Contact: Juliane Beck, impact@pact-zollverein.de
