Institutions strive to organise volatile relations, such as power, work, privileges, language and emotions, as efficiently as possible, in order to establish a permanent order. What benefits do they offer, to whom, and at whose expense? And under what conditions are they prepared to change this order once it has been established? These questions also arise in relation to the role and responsibility of cultural institutions. Not only have massive attacks on artistic freedom called into question the legitimacy of these institutions, but they have also revealed the inequalities and exclusions within the cultural landscape. It can be assumed that the codes of conduct, mission statements, and other written commitments with which an increasing number of cultural institutions present themselves to the public articulate an external pressure to clarify their ethics and programmes, as well as an internal uncertainty within the institutions themselves. Is there a world beyond institutionalisation, or an alternative set of codes, agreements and forms of assembly? How might these play out in the context of art and cultural work?
As part of this year’s thematic focus, An Incomplete Assembly, we will use a variety of events, including talks, exhibitions, film programmes, performances, and workshops, to explore the capabilities of institutions: what statements, attitudes and actions they enable, but also what they overlook, ignore or actively prevent; how the standardisation of language, bodies, spaces, and time reinforces existing structures, and how artistic and non-artistic movements respond to these normative demands.
Curated by Inga Seidler, the exhibition views institutions as “performative ensembles,” choreographed processes, and collective entities comprising roles, rhythms, and unspoken agreements that can be interpreted, modified, interrupted and improvised. The presented works use movement, music, and communal situations to reveal these structures, rendering them physically and temporally tangible. They explore the spaces and possibilities that arise when processes come to a standstill, roles are challenged, and codes are interrupted or changed. In doing so, they demonstrate how institutional systems standardise behaviour and organise affiliations, yet remain malleable and susceptible to disruption.
The film programme on this theme, curated by Ana Vaz, thinks beyond the confinement of the cinematic to its reception in the form of finalised works. It is devoted to investigating practices that assume and question processes of making not as a means to an end, but rather as constitutive to the works. It is a series that aims to look beyond representation into the very conditions of the apparition of moving images — be they cinematic or performative. It considers the agency of its makers, participants and users, establishing connections between on and offscreen, the stage and the backstage. Here, cinema becomes rather a mode of attention, of attunement, and of collective making, a means for the rehearsal of desirable and furious futures.
This year’s talks and workshops, curated by Franziska Pierwoss, take a hands-on look at the everyday realities of cultural work. Aimed at filmmakers, curators, organisers, and students alike, the programme focuses on how we work – on the ground, in process, and in relation to one another. While we are well-versed in critiquing the counter productivity of institutions – rightly so – this programme asks a different question: what might productive responses look like? To censorship, institutional cowardice and collective fatigue? Highlighting practices that intervene directly – such as digitally claiming public space and confronting entrenched hegemonies – the programme invites audiences to organise within existing frameworks while also bending them.
In their series “What Is Needed,” Raquel Schefer and Philip Widmann explore the “Mostra Internacional de Cinema de Intervenção,” a festival that took place in post-revolutionary Portugal in 1976. It was a unique effort to connect movements of liberation and emancipation. The festival’s combination of militant films from the Global North and South suggests that cinema’s potential for intervention was essentially indebted to Third-Worldist networks of audiovisual independence. Through the lens of the five decades that have passed since the Mostra, “What Is Needed” looks at the contradictions of integrating “intervention” into the institutions of a post-fascist, liberal democratic society that, contrary to all claims, sustains Western supremacy. The series is a collaboration with Doc’s Kingdom and the Paranational Cinema – Legacies & Practices project at the University of Zurich.
The 39th European Media Art Festival will take place from 22 to 26 April 2026. The exhibition at Kunsthalle Osnabrück will continue beyond the festival, closing on 25 May 2026.