Developed by TBA21–Academy and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Organismo: Art in Applied Critical Ecologies developed by TBA21–Academy and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, January–July 2027. Registration deadline: November 15, 2026.
Organismo: Art in Applied Critical Ecologies is an experimental applied research program developed by TBA21–Academy and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. It weaves together situated investigation, critical theory, and speculative practices through a series of applied case studies developed in alliance with cultural, academic, and civic actors. Since its pilot edition in 2024, the program has brought together artists, scientists, and other entities to address urgent challenges facing our societies through situated case studies. Each case study is led by an artist or collective, known as the “pulso”, and developed in collaboration with a network of partner organizations. The 2027 edition features Nicolay Boyadjiev, Mayte Gómez Molina, and Kent Chan as artistic pulsos, alongside thinkers such as Alex Quicho, Benjamin Bratton, Nicole L’Huillier, and Fernando Cucchietti, among others, and in partnership with Antikythera, The Creative Intelligence Lab at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Parque de las Ciencias, and many more.
Rooted in the long-standing commitment of TBA21–Academy—the unorthodox research and advocacy arm of TBA21—to promote artistic experimentation and collective work as forces for systemic transformation, Organismo operates on the hypothesis that the work of artists guiding interdisciplinary projects can operate as a form of infrastructural activism, reaching beyond critical reflection to activate tangible processes of ecological reparation. To this end, Organismo proposes testing methodologies through diverse practices and configurations across governance frameworks, forms of knowledge, and communities to build prototypes that could effectively intervene in real-world contexts.
The 2027 edition takes on three pressure points reshaping public life. Universal Basic Agency asks how agency can be shared as AI agents multiply faster than institutions can adapt. Thermal Futures treats extreme heat, which hits the poorest hardest, as a question of justice and community. Radical Soundness imagines the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza’s future extension as a public health infrastructure.
Case study: Thermal Futures. Communal Blooms Amidst Climate Jeopardy
In collaboration with: Parque de las Ciencias*, BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change, Directorate-General for Sustainability and Environmental Control of the Madrid City Council, Hábitat, Energy and Architecture in Transition (HEAT)—Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and Spanish Office for Climate Change (OECC)—Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO). Pulso: Kent Chan.
Rooted in Granada and Madrid, two of Spain’s cities intensely vulnerable to urban heat, Thermal Futures looks at how cities are adapting to extreme temperatures, from climate shelters to summer energy poverty, and asks whether these measures could also build community, solidarity, and collective responses to global warming.
*Parque de las Ciencias will work in collaboration with local and regional stakeholders: the Regional Government of Andalusia, the Provincial Council of Granada, Granada City Council, the University of Granada, and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Case study: Radical Soundness. Restorative infrastructures for longlife
In collaboration with: University Carlos III de Madrid—the Aging Research Group at the Center for Human and Social Sciences (CSIC), Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, and TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Pulso: Mayte Gómez Molina.
In October 2025, the Spanish Ministries of Health and Culture agreed to bring the arts into public health policy. Radical Soundness departs from this consensus to imagine what a museum might look like when well-being guides the design of its programs and spaces.
Case study: Universal Basic Agency. Composite Relays for a Para-Society of Trillions
In collaboration with: Antikythera and The Creative Intelligence Lab at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. Pulso: Nicolay Boyadjiev.
Within a few years, the world's eight billion people may share the planet with hundreds of billions of AI agents. Working with Barcelona Supercomputing Center and its MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, Universal Basic Agency asks what happens when the power to act becomes increasingly distributed across human–AI networks.
How to join
Researchers can join Organismo 2027 through this international open call by choosing one of three case studies. Successful applicants will work within the corresponding working cell throughout the program. Over the course of seven months, the selected researchers will engage in a hybrid program that combines weekly online sessions with three in-person encounters. The program requires a tuition fee (550 €), with researchers covering their own travel, accommodation, and meals for the in-person meetings (grants are available—see the full open call for eligibility details). Throughout the process, the researchers will be joined by an expanded network of experts, local actors, and representatives of the affiliated entities who will contribute to the collective discussion and methodologies.
Critical encounters
A wider audience can also apply through a separate call to join only the Critical Encounters (February 2–March 2, 2027) online study module, featuring Marina Otero, Metahaven, and Jiat-Hwee Chang, among many others. The tuition fee for this program is 190 EUR.
Partners
Partners for the 2027 edition of Organismo are: Antikythera, BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change, The Creative Intelligence Lab at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Caja Negra, University Carlos III de Madrid, The Center for Human and Social Sciences (CSIC), Directorate-General for Sustainability and Environmental Control of the Madrid City Council, Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), Spanish Office for Climate Change (OECC)—Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO), Parque de las Ciencias, Hábitat, Energy and Architecture in Transition (HEAT)—Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and Network of Associations of Spanish Researchers and Scientists Abroad (RAICEX).
See the full open call here.
