Running from June 11 to 14, 2026, the Opening Weekend will offer performances, guided tours, book presentations, workshops, and more, spread across three venues and two cities—Prague and Pardubice, Czech Republic. The event marks the beginning of the 2026 Biennale Matter of Art, which will feature more than thirty artists and collectives, including six new commissioned projects. The fourth edition of the biennale, entitled Necessary Wishes, foregrounds art that is born out of necessity and shaped by a reflexive, embodied engagement with the conditions people inhabit every day.
List of Artists – Biennale Matter of Art 2026
AntiGonna, Noor Abed, Szymon Adamczak, Željka Aleksić, Gleb Amankulov, David Apakidze, Yana Bachynska / Jan Bačynsjkyj, Jürgen Baldiga, Leila Basma & Zaher Jureidini, Rufina Bazlova / Stitch It Collective, Ștefan Bertalan, Cezary Bodzianowski, Tina Bxtq, Michal Durda, Jan Durina, Fůd, GALAS (Галас), Hana Garová, Laďa Gažiová, Davyd Chychkan, Nosrat Karimi, Seba Kayan, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Adrián Kriška, Běla Kolářová, kroužek intersekce, Isadora Neves Marques, Nadia Markiewicz, Zoi Michailova, Shabu Mwangi, Aron Neubert, Aliza Orlan, Bronislava Orlická & Zuzana Smrkovská, Taring Padi, Cezary Poniatowski, Publik Universal Frxnd, Margaret Raspé, Nour Shantout, Shella Radio, Alex Sihelsk*, Felipe Steinberg, StonyTellers, Alina Sokolova, Tadamun Kolektiv, Fedir Tetyanych, Huda Takriti, Liliana Zeic, Jiří Žák
The Opening Weekend
Marking the beginning of the biennale, the long weekend features more than a dozen items in its program. All of the events of the Opening Weekend are accessible free of charge, as is the entire biennale exhibition. This initiative reflects the Biennale Matter of Art’s commitment to making culture accessible to everyone.
The program will begin on Thursday, June 11 at the principal venue of the biennale—the National Gallery Prague’s Trade Fair Palace. The opening ceremony will symbolically inaugurate the main section of the biennial exhibition at the Trade Fair Palace, which “proposes artistic form as a vehicle for solidarity and compassion, functioning as a carrier, proxy, and instrument for strengthening insurgent communities as much as addressing personal urgency.” The night will unfold with two performances. Warsaw-based artist Nadia Markiewicz will perform as The Lonesome Wing—a character “born with the wing of a white bird instead of one arm.” Emerging Czech artist Michal Durda will present the group performance Looks Like a Calf at a New Door. Drawing from the fluid symbolism of bulls, cows, and calves, the performance explores the notion of queer shame and self-acceptance. An afterparty with DJs from the local community platform Shella Radio will cap off the evening.
The program on Friday, June 12 will begin with a guided tour of the biennale exhibition at the National Gallery, conducted by the curators and participating artists. This will be followed by a performative presentation of a new book published by the tranzit.org network to mark its 20th anniversary, and then interdisciplinary artist Felipe Steinberg will take the stage for a performative lecture.
In the late afternoon, our attention will shift to Pardubice, a city situated an hour by train from Prague. The local City Gallery Pardubice (GAMPA) will host the opening of the second part of the biennale exhibition. A guided tour led by curators and participating artists will explore this distinct section of the biennale, which presents art as a form of world-making, where a multitude of visions, speculations, and imaginaries come together in an intergenerational dialogue. To wrap up the evening there will be a performance by artist and DJ Seba Kayan, who blends European and Kurdish roots.
The program for Saturday, June 13 starts in the National Gallery with the inaugural collective reading of kroužek intersekce—a grassroots collective providing space for mutual learning and radical imagination.
The afternoon program is dedicated to a project by the StonyTellers collective at the third venue of the biennale—the Tusculum studio and residency center, which the cultural and artistic platform Petrohradská kolektiv has been developing since 2023 on the grounds of the historic Chittussi Hospital. The project “In the Garden” builds on the StonyTellers collective’s long-standing community practice. It involves a newly established vegetable garden that is part of the outdoor space at the Tusculum complex. As part of the third opening day of the biennale, Tusculum will host the first in a series of workshops which will take place here over the course of the biennale’s three-month program. The workshop will be followed by a happening featuring food and music by the Warsaw-based collective GALAS, which is composed primarily of Ukrainian artists. The collective’s formation in response to the war can be seen as an intuitive response to involuntary displacement and separation.
The weekend program culminates in a Sunday morning guided tour of the exhibition at the National Gallery. Besides the events of the opening weekend, the biennale exhibition will be accessible during regular opening hours across all venues of the biennale starting Thursday, June 12.
Booking kroužek intersekce’s The Tent
Groups, collectives, as well as individuals seeking a temporary space to host events in Prague are invited to use The Tent, which can be found within the Biennale Matter of Art exhibition in the Great Hall of the National Gallery Prague’s Trade Fair Palace. Initiated by the grassroots reading platform kroužek intersekce, The Tent is a multi-use space for hosting community meetings, educational events, discussions, and more. Equipped with chairs, a loudspeaker, a microphone, a copy machine, and stationery, the space can be borrowed free of charge by anyone. At a time when public spaces are gradually shrinking and access to them is being restricted, The Tent at the Biennale Matter of Art in Prague is a gesture of radical hospitality and openness, demonstrating possible ways to transform public institutions like museums and galleries for the common good.
The Biennale in a Nutshell
The three-month exhibition and program of events will take place from June 12 to September 13, 2026, at the National Gallery Prague – Trade Fair Palace, GAMPA – City Gallery Pardubice, and the Tusculum Prague arts center. The project is cocurated by Jaroslava Tomanová, Jakub Gawkowski, and František Fekete.
Photo: Michal Durda.