This year, OFF-Biennale celebrates ten years of grassroots collaboration and independent artistic action. With each edition, it continues to energise Hungary’s independent art scene and spark public conversations around social, political, and environmental issues—always with the aim of nurturing a culture of democracy through art.

The fifth edition unfolds across Budapest until 15 June 2025, and then travels to Vienna, Amsterdam, Oldenburg, and Limerick through a network of partnerships.

This year’s theme, »security,« invites us to reflect on a word often misused in public discourse—especially by right-wing populist narratives. Titled Poems of Unrest, after a work by artist and activist Robert Gabris, the Biennale explores how collective imagination and creative practices can help us navigate today’s uncertainties. Expect a rich mix of exhibitions, performances, screenings, walks, and public actions.

As we face overlapping crises—wars, far-right politics, economic hardship, and climate breakdown—many of us feel a growing sense of unease. But we don’t all experience these challenges in the same way. Our lives are shaped by different layers of privilege and disadvantage, and by how we’re positioned within global systems of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism.

So how do we stay connected? How do we build inclusive agendas, amplify voices that often go unheard, and foster resilience and solidarity in uncertain times?

Poems of Unrest brings together deeply personal and diverse perspectives. The works on view engage with the idea of security while touching on themes like systemic inequality, migration, decoloniality, queer ecologies, feminist resistance, and more. Through humor, pleasure, and playfulness, they reflect on our shared urgencies—and draw from civic knowledge and collective practices to imagine more just and joyful ways of living together.

Curatorial team: Nikolett Erőss, Rita Kálmán, Eszter Lázár, Edit Molnár, Veronika Molnár, Kata Oltai, Lívia Páldi, Hajnalka Somogyi, Borbála Soós, Katalin Székely

Click here for all exhibitions, venues and visitor information.

Header image: Robert Gabris: »Asylum – A Poem of Unrest« (2024) / Photo: Gregor Hofbauer, courtesy of the artist