arts & culture

The Biennial of Thought returns with six days of talks, debates, performances and public conversations asking what it means to live in the present. Under the slogan “Unleashing the Present,” the 2026 edition turns away from nostalgia for the past and anxiety about the future to focus on the urgent questions facing cities now.

This year’s programme looks at the city as a space of resistance and possibility. It explores how to build solidarity under neoliberalism, defend democracy against authoritarianism and improve the material and symbolic conditions of urban life. Speakers and sessions include: Omar El Akkad and Fatima Bhutto on decentring the West; Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Gautam Bhan, Edgar Pieterse and Teresa Caldeira on cities of the Global South; Patrick Radden Keefe on London’s hidden city; and Mariana Enriquez on the city at night.

There is also literature, theatre and performance threaded throughout the week, with names including Angélica Liddell, Luna Miguel, Alessandro Baricco, Xiaolu Guo and Maryam Madjidi.