The Contemporary Art Festival – Ruse 2026 transforms the city and its partner locations into an open platform for contemporary artistic practices, experiments, and interventions. The 2026 edition builds upon the successful pilot format of 2025 and establishes Ruse as an active meeting point between contemporary art, audiences, and cultural communities.
The festival is realized with the financial support of the National Culture Fund, under the programme “Creation and Dissemination – Large Projects” 2025, taking place from May 16 to June 16, 2026, under the theme “Space”.
The theme explores the physical, social, and imaginary dimensions of the environments in which we live and create. Through a wide range of media and formats – visual arts, new media, video art, sound, performance, site-specific projects, and educational initiatives – the festival generates conditions for new artistic situations, with all works developed specifically for the context of the event.
Events take place across various locations in Ruse – galleries, museums, industrial and public spaces – as well as in the wider region (Popovo, Isperih, the villages of Nisovo and Bessarbovo), aiming to expand cultural presence and support the decentralization of contemporary artistic life.
The festival includes a curatorial programme, invited participants, and an international open call, bringing together Bulgarian and international artists, curators, and specialists. In this way, it builds a sustainable platform for artistic exchange, experimentation, and the creation of new connections between artists, audiences, and contexts.
The organizer of the event is the Art Gallery – Ruse.
Media and Formats
- Contemporary visual art: painting, sculpture, printmaking, objects, installation
- New media: video, sound, digital and interactive technologies
- Urban interventions and site-specific projects
- Performances
- Video screenings
- Artist–audience encounters, discussions, lectures, and workshops
Who can apply
Professional and emerging contemporary artists (individually or in groups) from all countries, over 18 years of age, who accept the Festival’s statutes.
The call is open to artists working with conceptual, experimental, and multidisciplinary practices, as well as those seeking engagement with specific sites and local communities.
Participation Conditions
There is no application or participation fee.
The festival provides:
- space for realization and presentation
- technical assistance and available equipment (according to feasibility and previously stated needs)
- up to 3 nights of accommodation in Ruse for participating artists
- curatorial and professional support in project realization
- participation in an international and interdisciplinary environment
- online and onsite presentation formats
- media visibility through the gallery’s channels and partner networks
- inclusion in an online catalogue of selected participants
- professional photo and video documentation for archive and portfolio purposes
Copyright
By submitting an application, artists confirm authorship of the submitted materials and grant the Festival the right to use images and documentation solely for communication and promotional purposes related to the present edition.
