The 5th edition of BoCA - Biennial of Contemporary Arts, which takes place simultaneously in Lisbon and Madrid, proposes a journey across Iberia that challenges the boundaries between geographical territories, cultures, imaginations and artistic practices. Curated by John Romão, BoCA 2025 arrives as the cultural event that best represents the Iberian art scene, encompassing diverse artistic disciplines — performance, visual art, music and cinema — and over 30 cultural institutions across Lisbon and Madrid — theatres, museums, cultural centres, cinemas and heritage sites. Through this borderless cultural and geographical reconfiguration, the Biennial builds a stage that is both singular and plural, reflecting voices from the artistic and cultural fabric of both countries and fomenting contemporary artistic production in an international context. By inviting artists from diverse backgrounds to try out new collaborations and formats, enter into dialogue with communities and journey across artistic terrain, BoCA embraces the encounter with the “other” as a political and artistic practice of alterity. It is in this context that BoCA has commissioned and presents unique projects — including world and national premieres — that challenge borders, be they geographical or political, creative or experimental.
Next events
- Lisboa
-
10 September – 26 October
Installation
Espaço BoCA
Free admission
Os Espacialistas
Mappa: Concetto Spaziale
Designed for Espaço BoCA in Lisbon, the Espacialista scenographic installation entitled “Mappa: Concetto Spaziale” was created to be the biennial’s meeting point, a space that hosts concerts, performances, talks, workshops, a store and moments of conviviality. -
9 – 15 October
Installation, performance
Estufa Fria
El Conde de Torrefiel
Yo No Tengo Nombre
The performative installation Yo No Tengo Nombre, features an LED screen cutting through the landscape, projecting a text that oscillates between the poetic and the prophetic. This discourse questions the relationship between humans and nature, reversing the role of the observer: what if it were nature looking at us — and naming us? -
Deborah Krystall
Romi Ibérica
At BoCA Bienal, Romi Ibérica is presented as a concert-performance, revealing the rigour and inventiveness that Deborah Krystall has been asserting for decades at the iconic Finalmente Club in Lisbon. An invitation to breathe in the living memory of the Iberian axis, where every song and every gesture carries the indomitable beauty of a destiny that is sung to continue to exist.
- Madrid
-
Pedro G. Romero, Niño de Elche
Descomposición/Choro
This conference-performance assumes itself as a listening to the border that refuses its connotation as a line of separation, but embraces it as a vibrant zone of encounters and tensions, where music, language and collective practices continue to (re)write stories to come. -
Niño de Elche, Pedro G. Romero
El cante rasgueado
In the ‘stripe’ that separates — or unites — the south of Portugal, Huelva and Extremadura, sound operates as a link in a chain between geographies and histories. There we hear the cante alentejano with its viola campaniças, the fandango cané in Alosno chanted by groups of men over the incessant strumming of guitars, or even the luso-extremaduran tangos and jaleos handed down by Portuguese Romani communities. -
11 October
Installation, visual arts, performance
Esta es una plaza
Free admission
Gabriel Chaile
Alcindo Monteiro
The oven-sculpture “Alcindo Monteiro” by Gabriel Chaile pays tribute to the Portuguese youth of Cape Verdean origin who was murdered in 1995, in Lisbon, in a racist attack that became a symbol of the anti-racist struggle in Portugal. The installation will be on display from September 13 to October 13 and activations will take place on September 13, 20 and October 11.
Mappa: Concetto Spaziale, new Espacialista installation for Espaço BoCA
Designed for Espaço BoCA in Lisbon, the scenographic installation entitled “Mappa: Concetto Spaziale” was created to be the biennial’s meeting point, a space that hosts concerts, performances, talks, workshops, a store and moments of conviviality.
Performance cycle “I Want to See My Mountains” returns in the 5th edition of BoCA Biennial
With Isabel Cordovil, Gemma Luz Bosch and Janet Novás
Camino Irreal is the title of the 5th edition of the BoCA 2025 biennial
Check out the programme
BoCA revealed in Lisbon and Madrid, on July 15 and 16, respectively, the first confirmations of the artists and projects that make up its 5th edition.
BoCA Sub21
Participatory project for artistic thought and creation in Lisbon and Madrid
BoCA Sub21 is a participatory and experimental project that was born during the first edition of the BoCA contemporary arts biennial. For young people aged between 16 and 21.