TIMIșOARA.- The Art Encounters Foundation announces the 15 artists and collectives commissioned to produce new work for the seventh Art Encounters Biennial, opening in Timișoara, Romania, from May 21 to July 4, 2027. Curated by Philippe Van Cauteren, Director of S.M.A.K. in Ghent, the Biennial gathers 60 artworks across six venues: 15 new commissions, 40 works from the S.M.A.K. collection, and a selection of existing works, all shown for the first time in Romania.

For more than a decade, the Art Encounters Biennial has built an expanding space for dialogue and social awareness—a platform that has catalyzed an ongoing exchange between local, national, regional, and international art contexts. At its core lies an educational mission, together with a commitment to bringing forward the historical richness and socio-cultural texture of Timișoara. The city becomes at once a source of inspiration and an invitation to new conversations. Located in western Romania, at the heart of the historic Banat region, Timișoara has recently seen a revival of the experimental spirit that animated it in the 1970s and 1980s, through groups such as 111 and Sigma—artists engaged with constructivism, abstraction, new media, land art, and performance.

Each commission approaches Timișoara from a different vantage point, by artists and collectives based in Romania, Belgium, France, Poland, Nepal, Germany, and Iran: Apparatus 22 (Romania/Belgium), Răzvan Anton & Mihai Iepure-Górski (Romania), Sergey Bratkov (Ukraine/Germany), Ciprian Ciobanu (Romania), Nico Dockx (Belgium), Marcin Dudek (Poland), Serena Ferrario (Germany/Italy), Amrit Karki (Nepal), Susanne Kriemann (Germany), Alexandra Mocan (Romania), musz (Romania), Armineh Negahdari (Iran/France), Miklós Onucsán (Romania), Pusha Petrov (Romania), and Ioana Stanca (Romania). Most have already spent time in Timișoara researching their projects, and have been meeting local audiences since August through the Biennial's “Meet the Artists” series. The works they are developing answer to the city—and the Foundation accompanies them throughout, from the first conversations to the final installation.

The 2027 edition emerges from the long-term strategic partnership between the Art Encounters Foundation and S.M.A.K., announced in February 2026 and structured around artistic co-production and professional exchange. For Philippe Van Cauteren, whose practice is grounded in sustained dialogue with artists, the Biennial offers an occasion to examine how artistic production, museum collections, and the specific cultural context of Timișoara may enter into conversation.

Distributed across six venues, the exhibition invites visitors to traverse the city in pursuit of the new commissions and the wider body of works. An opening programme, May 21–23, inaugurates just over six weeks of contemporary art in Timișoara.

Further information about the commissions, venues, and public programme will be announced in the coming months.

Project funded by the Municipality of Timișoara through the Timișoara Project Centre, as part of the Repere în cultură 2026–2027 programme. Organised in partnership with S.M.A.K. Ghent.