Gameplan Foundation brings Bengal Biennale 2026 to Shantiniketan and Kolkata
Bengal Biennale 2026 is bringing a fresh wave of art to Shantiniketan from November 25, 2026, to January 2, 2027, and to Kolkata from November 28.
Organized by the Gameplan Foundation, this festival draws inspiration from Jibanananda Das's poem Banalata Sen and dives into themes like memory, displacement, and belonging.
Ritika Biswas outlines Biennale vision
Events will pop up at spots like Nandan Art Museum in Shantiniketan and Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata.
Expect to see works by legends like Rabindranath Tagore as well as contemporary names such as Jitish Kallat, plus emerging global artists.
Co-curator Ritika Biswas says, "I envision the second Bengal Biennale as a slightly strange slightly dissonant slightly dark ecology which embraces the full spectrum of being alive in and to a burning world," and "Banalata foregrounds emotion rest and poetics as modes through which we might critically examine the systems and selves within which we are entangled. It endeavors to create new knottings of kinship and solidarity across Bengal and beyond. This Biennale attempts to hold poetics and politics as inherently and generatively entwined forces."