In October 2026, the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement will exceptionally be presented outside Switzerland for the first time. Conceived as part of Jaou Tunis, BIM’26 involves a large-scale collaboration between the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, including the exhibition in Tunis, a public program and a publication.
There are moments in history when systems do not simply decline. They intensify. Political orders cling more fiercely to exhausted certainties. Borders harden. Surveillance expands. Ecological collapse accelerates. Colonial logics return in new forms. What appears as stability often reveals itself as a desperate attempt to preserve a world already slipping away. Psychologists describe this phenomenon as an extinction burst: the moment a behaviour intensifies just before it loses its power.
Becoming the Ocean unfolds from within this condition. Bringing together sixteen newly commissioned artists from across Africa, the Arab world, Latin America, Asia, and their diasporas, the exhibition explores how people live through moments when inherited structures no longer provide orientation and the future remains difficult to imagine.
Presented within the Quechlet El Attarine, a nineteenth-century military barracks in the Medina of Tunis, the exhibition brings together practices shaped by war, migration, ecological devastation, political struggle, ancestral knowledge, technological transformation, and the persistent contest over memory itself. Bodies become archives. At a moment when inherited structures appear increasingly incapable of responding to the crises they have produced, the exhibition approaches transformation not as resolution but as a practice: carrying memory forward while entering forms of relation not yet fully known.
The intercontinental collaboration marks a new chapter in BIM’s forty-year history. Founded in Geneva in 1985, BIM was among the first events devoted to artists’ moving images. Since 2014, it has focused on commissioning original new works rather than following an overarching theme, celebrating a plurality of perpsectives.
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The intercontinental collaboration marks a new chapter in BIM’s forty-year history. Founded in Geneva in 1985, BIM was among the first events devoted to artists’ moving images. Since 2014, it has focused on commissioning original new works rather than following an overarching theme, celebrating a plurality of perpsectives.
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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
Sarah Zeryab
The artists selected for BIM’26 represent a new global avant-garde. They are:
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
Sarah Zeryab
At the heart of the Medina, Quechlet El Attarine has lived many lives. Built in 1813-14 as a military barracks under Hammuda Pasha, it later became a prison, then a library, and eventually part of Tunisia's National Library. Today, its old rooms and central courtyard are finding a new life as spaces for art and culture, hosting festivals and exhibitions including Jaou Tunis. Once built to house soldiers and later filled with books, the Quechla now welcomes artists, ideas and audiences, continuing its long story of transformation.
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"},"settings":[],"id":"be467ded-9beb-44c6-bdb5-3837f3e08ca0","anchor":"","anchorlabel":""}]},"settings":[],"id":"e95adb71-48c2-4966-82b5-38f295fe0020","anchor":null,"anchorlabel":null},{"type":"dropdown","content":{"title":"Selection committee","maincontent":"[{\"content\":{\"anchor\":\"\",\"anchorlabel\":\"\",\"size\":\"regular\",\"alignment\":\"left\",\"text\":\"The selection committee consisted of Adam HajYahia, Fatma Cheffi, Shumon Basar, Mohamed Almusibli, Xue Tan, and Eyal Weizman, alongside Andrea Bellini and Lina Lazaar.
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"},"settings":[],"id":"af2dba32-4320-462a-8d9d-b7276585bf68","anchor":"","anchorlabel":""}]},"settings":[],"id":"4cede501-4f20-451a-aaed-0ca95ff3d862","anchor":null,"anchorlabel":null},{"type":"dropdown","content":{"title":"Tour","maincontent":"[{\"content\":{\"anchor\":\"\",\"anchorlabel\":\"\",\"size\":\"regular\",\"alignment\":\"left\",\"text\":\"The Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement 2026 will continue its tour across Europe:
Venice, at Palazzo Diedo – Berggruen Arts & Culture, from 19 to 22 November 2026
Brussels, at La Loge, from 18 to 20 December 2026
Geneva, from 14 January to 30 April 2027
London, at Ibraaz, in winter 2027
The Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement 2026 will continue its tour across Europe:
Venice, at Palazzo Diedo – Berggruen Arts & Culture, from 19 to 22 November 2026
Brussels, at La Loge, from 18 to 20 December 2026
Geneva, from 14 January to 30 April 2027
London, at Ibraaz, in winter 2027
Opening in presence of curators and artists in Tunis.
Saturday, October 24, 2026
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Saturday, October 24, 2026
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