ARTISTIC RESEARCH EXHIBITION ARE 2027 | Nová tržnica (New Market Hall), Bratislava, Slovakia, 20 April – 5 May 2027
Online through 2027 | are.filmeu.eu
Deadline for submissions: 13 December 2026
The Artistic Research Exhibition (ARE) is an international exhibition dedicated to contemporary artistic research developed within higher education institutions. Organised annually under WIRE by FilmEU (currently formed by eight European HEIs), ARE brings together artistic research from across Europe and beyond, creating a space where artistic practices, research processes and new forms of knowledge can meet, intersect and reach audiences beyond the academy.
The exhibition reflects the diversity of media-based artistic research – from film, animation and documentary to experimental moving image, media arts, installation and emerging interdisciplinary practices. It offers a platform for work that challenges established ways of producing and communicating knowledge, and that responds to urgent cultural, social, political, ecological and technological questions. More than a showcase of finished works, ARE brings research from academic environments worldwide into an international context and opens it to exchange between artists, students, cultural professionals and the wider public.
Now entering its fourth edition, ARE exhibition will take place in Bratislava, hosted by the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU), alongside the SAR Conference and WIRE summit. Together, the three events will strengthen connections within the international artistic research community and foster new possibilities for collaboration.
This year's theme: OFF GRID
To withdraw from view is not a neutral act. Stepping outside the systems that register, track and connect us can be a deliberate gesture of refusal, yet the ability to disappear remains unevenly distributed, and privacy itself has quietly become something to be bought. Being off-grid is also inherently paradoxical: the very act of disappearing can make one newly visible, exposed or vulnerable, particularly under conditions of ever-present surveillance and AI-driven tracking that continually erode personal freedom.
The theme OFF GRID invites research exploring the reasons, conditions and consequences of invisibility – including moments when the decision to be out of system is made for us by someone else, when withdrawal becomes a strategy of self-preservation or defence, and when isolation, whether chosen or imposed, echoes the wider epidemic of loneliness across Europe. Loneliness is not only a condition of disconnection – research increasingly links it to the very systems originally designed to keep us connected, with sustained presence on the grid (social media foremost among them) generating its own form of isolation.
We welcome both completed works and proposals for new work that engage with technology, ecology and social life, from individual retreat to collective and infrastructural forms of disconnection.
Who can submit
Any applicants whose practice engages with artistic research. Affiliations with academic institutions and being on postgraduate research track are preferred but not required.
The call is open for applicants outside WIRE by FilmEU Alliance. However, some places at the exhibition are reserved for the internal research projects developed by WIRE.
What we offer
Participants attending the exhibition in person will be reimbursed for travel and accomodation costs up to 300€ per project.
Guidelines for submitting your work
- Works must be audiovisual or media-based, resulting from an artistic research practice, or work resulting from a practice that is informed by artistic research.
- Submissions must be completed works. As exception, you may submit work in progress, if you guarantee that it will be finished by the time of the exhibition.
- Please submit a proposed technical solution for the installation of your work, including the required format (single / multi-screen / VR, etc.), equipment, and spatial requirements.
- Note: The final technical setup will be discussed and agreed upon with the selected artists. We reserve the right to adjust the proposed solution according to the technical and spatial possibilities of the venue.
- Works must be no more than 2 years old.
- Each application must include:
- Applicant’s CV
- Abstract (maximum 400 words),
- Link for the artwork in a preview format
- Brief technical description (maximum 120 words) and any sketches or diagrams required for display, if necessary
Deadline for submissions is December 13. 2026.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent in January 2027.
Please submit your application using the form:.
Selection committee and curatorial team:
- Adam Straka, Žofia Ščuroková – VŠMU, Slovakia
- Aleksandra Ianchenko – Tallinn University, Estonia
- Elena Trencheva – NATFA, Bulgaria
- Érica Faleiro Rodrigues – Lusófona University, Portugal
- Lina Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė – LMTA, Lithuania
- Lies Van de Vijver – LUCA School of Arts, Belgium
- Martina Mullaney – IADT, Ireland
- Michelle Kranot – VIA University College, Denmark
Have any questions? Contact us at are@filmeu.eu