Press Release

Matter of Art Biennial 2026: Necessary Wishes

curated by Jaroslava Tomanová, Jakub Gawkowski, František Fekete

June 12 - September 13, 2026

The fourth edition of the Biennale Matter of Art, entitled Necessary Wishes, foregrounds art that is born out of necessity and shaped by a reflexive, embodied engagement with the conditions people inhabit every day. The biennale is cocurated by Jaroslava Tomanová, Jakub Gawkowski, and František Fekete. All of the exhibition venues and events will be open to the public free of charge. The biennale comprises a three-month exhibition, a program of events, and long-term activities that examine forms of artistic and civic endurance, solidarity, and collective practice. The main exhibition will run from June 12 to September 13, 2026, at the National Gallery Prague – Trade Fair Palace and GAMPA – City Gallery Pardubice. The third main venue, the Tusculum Prague art center, is dedicated to an ongoing community-oriented practice that defies the three-month time frame.

The curatorial approach draws on the notion of necessity as the vital force and political guiding principle behind one’s decisions. Art as a necessity appears as neither an aesthetic choice, a commodity, nor a professionalised activity but rather as an instinctive, embodied response to lived conditions—something unavoidable and embedded in the very structure of daily life and its politics. “Necessity may take the form of protest—as a means of survival and a manifestation of life—but it may also appear as an intimate gesture, an escape from visibility, or a turning inward toward the self. This year’s biennale proposes artistic form as a vehicle for solidarity and compassion, functioning as a carrier, proxy, and instrument for strengthening insurgent communities as much as addressing personal urgency. These practices sustain relationships from within, amplify silenced voices, and nourish hope by calling allies to action in response to oppression. Necessity is about learning to live with contradictions, embracing an irresistible rhythm, and navigating the choreographies of limitations. Art born of necessity is thus also an art of the poetics of reduction, involving not-doing as well as practices of restraint, refusal, boycott, and withdrawal,” the curators say in a joint statement. 

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