BUDAPEST.- This year, OFF-Biennale marks a decade of collaborative efforts as a grassroots organization, having established and maintained an independent platform that challenges the illiberal cultural status quo in Hungary.

The 5th anniversary edition will take place across various venues in Budapest from May 8 to June 15, 2025, followed by events in several European cities—Vienna, Amsterdam, and Limerick—through various partnerships.

This year’s theme revolves around the concept of “security”—a term often invoked and distorted in public discourse, largely shaped by populist right-wing rhetoric. The title of the Biennale, Poems of Unrest, references a work by artist and activist Robert Gabris, which introduces new techniques for collective productivity and imagination to help navigate the present. The Biennale comprises numerous projects at different locations, primarily as exhibitions and accompanying events (performances, screenings, walks), but also featuring collective actions in public spaces.

As multiple crises intensify and converge—fueled by far-right political agendas, wars, the cost-of-living and housing crises, and the anthropogenic climate crisis—we find ourselves on shifting ground, grappling with persistent feelings of unrest and anxiety.

However, we must acknowledge that not all of us are equally affected. We each experience different privileges and disadvantages, and our awareness of global systems of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism varies. These systems shape our lives, positioning us as both beneficiaries and those marginalized by them, often simultaneously and to varying degrees.

Our fate, as social beings, is inextricably linked to the world around us—human and non-human alike. In this context, how can we build and sustain meaningful connections, develop inclusive political and social agendas, amplify often unheard voices, and foster resilience and cooperation in times of insecurity?

Poems of Unrest draws on diverse experiences and offers profound, personal perspectives, capturing emotional complexities where the poetic manifests in many forms. The selected works engage with the theme of security while addressing interconnected issues such as systemic inequality, control, marginalization, the impact of armed conflicts, migration, decoloniality, the climate crisis, queer ecologies, domestic violence, bodily autonomy, and feminist resistance. The works on display employ a range of strategies, including absurd humor, practices of pleasure, and playfulness, to reflect on our current condition, urgencies, and challenges. At the same time, they look to a wealth of knowledge and civic practices for building alliances, solidarity, and sustainable, meaningful ways of living together.

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