Industrial Art Biennial

The Industrial Art Biennial (IAB) is a festival of contemporary art practices launched in a pilot edition in 2014 by the art collective Labin Art Express XXI, in Labin, Istria/Croatia, as an experimental art platform for the development and implementation of their fundamental project Underground City XXI - the building the construction of a futuristic city 150 m below the ground. This will be located the in the former Istrian coal mines in at Labin and Raša. The IAB was designed to be a powerful alternative to the globalized context, which through the dominance of stronger cultural environments, changes most local characteristics. These dominant contexts systematically impose certain conventions in contemporary culture and art, changing the cultural landscape. Moreover, IAB was founded based on the belief that art can affect positive social change and that the format of major international exhibitions of contemporary art in a peripheral context can attract not only a larger audience, but can target those social groups that do not regularly consume frequently contemporary art in general. IAB also aims to bring contemporary, critically engaged art to smaller, peripheral communities (Labin, Raša, Vodnjan) in Istria, where such art is far less present and available, as well as to attract public from the regional capitals (Pula, Rijeka, Zagreb) to Labin and its main exhibition space, DKC Lamparna. To date, over 120 artists have participated in the previous editions. The 5th edition takes place from October 24 - November 30 2025 and is curated by Bani Brusaddin in collaboration with Giulia Colletti.