TBA21-Academy

TBA21-Academy TBA21-Academy is the exploratory soul of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, and an itinerant site of cultural production and interdisciplinary research.

Bringing together thinkers from all fields it is conceived as a moving platform on the oceans.

26/08/2026

A new UNI semester dedicated to the cultural, technological, and mythological histories of weather modification starts soon! Curated by FAST (Eva Franch i Gilabert and José Luis de Vicente) and TBA21–Academy (Aleksandra Czerniak and Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa).

The semester asks a central question: if the atmosphere is a commons, who has the right to change the weather?

From rainmaking rituals, anti-hail infrastructures, and cloud seeding to weather militarization, atmospheric simulation, AI forecasting, and geoengineering, the semester examines how societies have imagined, manipulated, governed, and contested the weather not as an immutable force, but as a field of intervention, power, and possibility.

Rather than asking only whether weather modification works, it asks who benefits, who is exposed to risk, and what forms of accountability are needed.

The full program, along with the registration process, will be released in September. Stay tuned!

Graphic design: always

17/07/2026

How do industrial processes intersect with fragile marine ecosystems?

Explore this coexistence through ‘Sediment Lab’, a field video diary by Hypercomf filmed during a visit to the Port of Koper in 2024 and created as part of their S+T+ARTS4Water II research project featured on Ocean-Archive.org.

Moving between the port, the laboratory, and the seafloor, the film explores the relationship between dredging, marine life, and marine sediments as living matter.

Created in collaboration with the National Institute of Biology – Piran Marine Station, Piran Aquarium, and the Port of Koper as part of the S+T+ARTS4Water II programme, hosted by PINA and funded by the European Union.

29/05/2026

“With the swelling of rivers and the heating of the ocean waters, Sri Lanka is in a precarious condition in the Indian Ocean World, a space that has for long been hospitable to ancient cosmopolitanism, but also the influx of colonial empire over centuries.” – Natasha Ginwala, curator of The Current V: Ancestral Ocean

Bringing together artists, thinkers, conservationists, students, and local organizations, the first Convening of The Current V: Ancestral Ocean opened a space to reflect on Sri Lanka’s position within the Indian Ocean World: a territory shaped, colonial histories, and long-standing Afro-Asian connections.

Through this interdisciplinary encounter, the program begins to trace broader oceanic kinships and slower, more conscious ways of carrying out research across islands, coastlines, and shared waters.

Video: TBA21—Academy |

18/05/2026

The Current V: Ancestral Ocean is the new edition of TBA21–Academy’s curatorial fellowship program. This cycle, led by Natasha Ginwala, traces oceanic kinships, cultural languages, embodied legacies, ancestral memory, and marine historiographies resonant across the Indian Ocean World.

Between 2026 and 2028, the program brings together artists, researchers, and musicians through a series of gatherings, research processes, and public moments, including the recent first Convening, which took place during the Colomboscope Festival in Sri Lanka in January 2026.

Discover the full video on our YouTube channel.

Video:

05/05/2026

Creating with the Ocean means embracing instability as an essential condition.
In “a spoonful of salt and a spoonful of Sugar: solutions for a feverish ocean”, Licida Vidal investigated the changing coastal waters of Salvador and Ubatuba, crafting a floating assembly where winds, waves, currents, algae, people, plankton, and contaminants meet.
Conceived as a living installation, Vidal created structures of porous ceramic bodies that invite macroalgae and bacteria. These organisms form a station for ocean care, drawing on marine life’s inherent capacity to filter and remediate surrounding waters.
The project is developed in the context of “Shifting Shores”, an artistic residency program in Brazil, developed by TBA21–Academy, Pivô, and LACO IOUSP, supported by the S+T+ARTS Buen-TEK initiative of the European Union.

07/04/2026

Organismo 2026 | Commission for Crimes Against Reality (C.C.C.R.)

What if reality itself were put on trial? This second public event is set as a fictional commission to literally collectively reflect on the mechanisms by which truth is produced, circulated, and legitimized in contemporary society. The interactive activity will take place in the auditorium of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza on Thursday, April 16, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

The commission will be constituted by two auditors, who will present concrete “events” illustrating the contemporary erosion of shared truth: Máriam Martínez-Bascuñán, trained in Political Science and Law, Lecturer in Political Theory and Feminism at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and author of ‘El fin del mundo común’(2025); and Loreto Corredoira, PhD in Information Law, lawyer (not currently practising), journalist and Director of the Observatorio Complutense de la Desinformación.
Gabriel Ventura, poet and author of ‘El mejor de los mundos imposibles. Un viaje al mundo del reality shifting’(2025) will act as the observer, responsible for responding to and critically examining the cases presented by the auditors.
In the role of secretary of the session, the commission will be convened by architect, professor and researcher Uriel Fogué, author of ‘Las arquitecturas del fin del mundo’ (2021).

Free tickets and info in the link in bio.

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