Borås Art Museum presents Borås Art Biennial 2026

From 30 May to 27 September 2026, the biennial unfolds across our shared public spaces in the city as well as in both museums. Twelve international artists present works in a variety of materials and techniques, exploring how people, knowledge, and materials move across the Nordic region and Europe, as well as how waterways around the world have connected distant parts of the world. 

Visitors are invited to reflect on how textile production shapes society and the environment, and how the past continues to influence possible futures ahead.

The biennial is curated by Taru Elfving, based in Helsinki and working internationally. Her practice focuses on cross-disciplinary and site-sensitive approaches and explores the intersection of ecological, feminist, and decolonial perspectives. Elfving holds a PhD in Philosophy from Goldsmiths University of London and has previously curated the Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2015).

The art works in the exhibition attend to the lives and labours that have been foundational for industrial development, like warps in a loom, yet which often remain overshadowed by the roar of technological progress. The exhibition weaves narrative and material threads across time and space between the migration of people and knowledge, women’s work and movements for social justice, and the vital more-than-human labourers making it all possible. - Taru Elfving, Curator Borås Art Biennial 2026

Over the years, Borås Art Biennial (BAB) has attracted growing attention and helped place Borås on the art map, in Sweden and internationally. Some artworks become part of the city’s permanent collection, while others are presented temporarily, creating unexpected encounters in public space.

During BAB 2026, visitors can experience art in many forms – from textiles, video, and photography to mural, installations, and sculpture. Artworks across the city are accessible at all hours, and admission to exhibitions at both museums is free.

This year, the city’s flower program is also part of the biennial, with one of the participating artists responsible for its design. Through a series of diverse plantings, living and growing elements are integrated into the biennial’s theme, making the city’s greenery part of the artistic exploration of place, nature, and cycles.

Warps and Waves in the Fabric of Time unravels and mends the fabric of time that stretches between river and factory, between here and there, then and now. The planet’s water cycles shape the exhibition, while rivers guide us through different layers of time. Winds and ocean currents remind us how closely connected our world is, even across vast geographical distances.

Artists:

Sampson Addae (GH/NO)

Petra Bauer (SE)

Nanna Debois Buhl (DK)

Michelle Eistrup (DK/JM)

Terike Haapoja (FI)

Kalle Hamm (FI) (Collaboration, sound piece: Lauri Ainala)

Marcia Harvey Isaksson (ZW/SE)

Dzamil Kamanger (FI/IR)

Maria Kapajeva (EE)

Sohorab Rabbey (BD/DE)

Yasmin Smith (AU)

Paola Torres Nuñez Del Prado (PE/SE)