Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement coming to Africa in 2026

Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and Kamel Lazaar Foundation in Tunisia have partnered to organize the 2026 edition of Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement (BIM), which will open in Tunis in October 2026. BIM will open concurrently with Jaou Tunis, a local biennial organized by Kamel Lazaar Foundation since 2013. The unprecedented nature of this collaboration hints at new horizons in the development of international moving image art in the Middle East and North Africa.

BIM heralds a new chapter in its forty-year history by its presence at Jaou Tunis. Initiated in 1985 by André Iten under the name International Video Week, BIM became a trailblazer on the European contemporary art scene as one of the first manifestations to highlight the importance of the moving image in art. From 2014 on, BIM shifted its focus to commissioning new works of art as a means of encouraging a plurality of perspectives.

Jaou Tunis will be holding its eighth edition in 2026. An international committee, consisting of Adam HajYahia, Fatma Cheffi, Shumon Basar, Mohamed Almusibli, Xue Tan, and Eyal Weizman, alongside BIM directors Andrea Bellini and Lina Lazaar, selected the list of participants at the event.

Selected artists include: Tabarak Allah Abbas, Younès Ben Slimane, Mona Benyamin, S.A. Chavarría, Leena Habiballa, Roman Selim Khereddine, Zein Majali, Alaa Mansour, Paulo Nazareth, Diane Severin Nguyen, Liv Schulman, Hildegard Titus, Natasha Tontey, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Hajra Waheed, and Sarah Zeryab. They will produce new works for this occasion, for which they will receive a production budget and an honorarium from BIM and Kamel Lazaar Foundation.

The upcoming edition will encompass an exhibition in Tunis, public programs throughout the city and a co-edited publication. Andrea Bellini, the director of Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, has noted that the participants “could well be the most diverse group to date in BIM's history.” He also pointed out that “the strong presence of sixteen artists from across the Middle East and North Africa, of which thirteen are female, reflects a deliberate commitment to bold, diverse voices.”

Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement was founded as a meeting ground where curators, artists and the general public could gather to discuss questions surrounding videos and films. Since its inception it has been focused around four main objectives: spreading and promoting videos by artists; educating the public; producing and co-producing new works; fostering international collaboration and exchange. Over the intervening decades, BIM has acquired international renown as a platform where the broader global audience can contemplate the relevance of the moving image in contemporary art.

Kamel Lazaar Foundation was established in 2005 with the goal of propagating the significance of art as a cultural right in the MENA region. It promotes intercultural dialogue as a means of raising awareness in the region of the richness and differences that characterize the African continent, while also playing an important role in the resolution of conflict and in presenting an image of the region's artistic vitality and plurality that refutes ensconced stereotypes.

More information on the activities of Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and Kamel Lazaar Foundation can be found on their respective sites.