Netherlands | ELIA Biennial Conference 2026 call for contributions

Hosted by ArtEZ University of the Arts in Zwolle, the Netherlands, the 2026 ELIA Biennial Conference will be held from 18 to 21 November on the theme of ‘Going Off Centre’.

ELIA (European League of Institutes of the Arts) is now calling all artistic practitioners, performers, philosophers, researchers, educators, students, pedagogues, administration staff, technicians, leaders and makers to submit a contribution.

ELIA Biennial 2026 invites applicants to explore what forms of knowledge, practice, art and paradoxes emerge when we decentre dominant narratives, disrupt habitual hierarchies, and shift attention toward the marginal, the local, the peripheral.

They welcome contributions that go off centre. Seeking forms of Community, Counterculture, Courage, and Criticality, they look for alternative methodologies and modalities, moments of failure and resistance, that move towards new possibilities of a shared becoming as a body of knowing.

At the ELIA Biennial 2026, a wide variety of formats are welcome, including academic papers, artistic and performative interventions, creative poster presentations, experiments, and workshops.

They also welcome student-led contributions that amplify student voices and explore the Biennial theme. Selected students from ELIA member institutions will receive bursaries covering the cost of travel to and from Zwolle, as well as accommodation for the duration of the event.

ELIA Biennial Conference 2026 application guidelines

Deadline: 16 January 2026