Braga Biennial 2026: Index Art and Technology opens

The Braga Biennial 2026 has opened and runs until the 17th. With art on show across numerous cultural venues, including the newly opened Muzeu, there is plenty to discover.

From Gnration to the Monastery of Tibães, via the brand-new Muzeu, Theatro Circo and Fórum Braga, the exhibition programme unveiled on Thursday to the large audience attending the opening event is the centrepiece of the Art and Technology Biennial – Index. The Braga festival seeks to encourage reflection on the many power relationships between artistic creation and new technological possibilities – and responsibilities.

Running until the 17th, the Index 2026 programme also features performances, talks and mediation activities, helping audiences develop responses to the dilemmas raised by “Power”, the central theme chosen for this third edition of the thinking initiative.

Curated by Italy’s Joel Valabrega, the exhibitions are spread across several locations in Braga. An opening tour of the venues marked the official start of the programme.

Also included in Thursday night’s opening event at Theatro Circo is Bill Kouligas’s performance “The drum and the bird”, a multisensory piece based on research by the Forensic Architecture collective into the abuses of German colonialism in Namibia.

The overwhelming power of Index 2026

For Valabrega, power – a “word of overwhelming dimensions” – provides the exhibition’s starting point and “defies any easy categorisation”. The Italian curator stresses that the “vastness” of the concept “makes any attempt at a total approach impossible”.

“This exhibition operates through intuition rather than hierarchy,” Joel Valabrega said at the opening ceremony at Gnration, where works by Cemile Sahin are on display.

From there, the visitors’ group, which included many international guests, went on to Muzeu. Opened at the end of April, this exciting new Braga venue for contemporary art and thought is hosting an exhibition by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz.

Theatro Circo, also part of the exhibition programme, presents works by Pedro Gossler and Shuang Li. Fórum Braga features pieces by Jonna Kina, Gabriel Abrantes and Stine Deja, while the Monastery of Tibães displays works by Raven Chacon, P. Staff, Hito Steyerl and Mira M. Yang.

Talking before taking action

However, Index 2026 is not solely about exhibitions. The coming days’ schedule includes a talks programme featuring figures such as McKenzie Wark (Saturday, 17:00, Gnration), Yves Citton (16th, 15:00, Muzeu) and José Gil (16th, 17:00, Muzeu).

The purpose remains the same: to question, examine, debate – and act. “Giving citizens back their capacity to make decisions, through transparency, democratic participation and collective responsibility in technological design, is one of the most urgent political tasks of our time,” says Joana Miranda, coordinator of Braga UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts. That is precisely what Index aims to do.

Performances to watch

Visual artist and sound researcher Lawrence Abu Hamdan joins forces with post-jazz band Supersilent around work undertaken by Earshot. The resulting piece will be presented on Friday at 21:30 at Theatro Circo.

Meanwhile, Arkadi Zaides presents “Talos” on Saturday at 21:30 at Theatro Circo. It aims to question the relationship between movement, advanced technologies and the future of existing geographical borders.

On 15 May at 21:30, in the Blackbox at Gnration, the ZABRA collective will unveil the outcome of its artistic residency: a new work developed from the Index 2026 theme, “Power”.