Sonsbeek 2026: Europe’s Oldest Public Art Exhibition Returns
From July 2 through October 11, 2026, Arnhem will host the thirteenth edition of Sonsbeek, curated by Amira Gad and Christina Li with assistant curator Berber Meindertsma, and directed by Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg.
Taking place at Park Sonsbeek, partner institutions, and various locations across the city, Arnhem will become the stage for newly commissioned and existing works by 18 artists from the Netherlands and abroad. Featuring 12 new commissions, the works encompass site specific installations, sculptural presentations, and performances that expand one’s understanding of art in public space.
Sonsbeek 2026 approaches memory as a dynamic space, shaped by what we choose, inherit, or must share—especially when memories are vulnerable, contested, or fading. The exhibition unfolds amid persistent conflict and global crisis, in stark contrast with Sonsbeek's founding after the Second World War, a period of reflection and rebuilding.
Park Sonsbeek, 2025. Photo: Sonsbeek art projects
In Arnhem’s layered history, traces of war persist in architecture, landscape, and collective consciousness. The exhibition unravels memory as a space where forgetting and remembering interact; where loss and preservation act as complementary forces, enabling both rupture and renewal. Today, the question is no longer how to represent the past, but how to live with it.
For Sonsbeek 2026, we see memory as a living, generative force—an action that resists erasure, transforms histories, and shapes possibilities for tomorrow. It is through this lens that this edition’s artists will engage with Arnhem, a city where history is deeply embedded in the landscape.—Amira Gad & Christina Li, Sonsbeek 2026 curators.
The participating artists and collectives in Sonsbeek 2026 are:
Larry Achiampong (b. 1984, London)* Korakrit Arunanondchai (b. 1986, Bangkok)* Alvaro Barrington (b. 1983, Caracas)* Fanja Bouts (b. 1997, Nijmegen, the Netherlands)* Forensic Architecture (est. 2010, London) Femke Herregraven (b. 1982, Nijmegen, the Netherlands)* Afaina de Jong (b. 1977, Amsterdam)* On Kawara (29,711 days) Loesje (est. 1983, Arnhem)* Jumana Manna (b. 1987, Princeton, NJ) Jota Mombaça (b. 1991, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)* nasa4nasa (est. 2016, Cairo) Ipeh Nur (b. 1993, Yogyakarta) Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo, b. 1989, Dallas, TX)* Sahej Rahal (b. 1988, Mumbai)* Mounira Al Solh (b. 1978, Beirut)* Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven (b. 1951, Antwerp)* Esma Yiğitoğlu (b. 1944, Zincidere, Türkiye; d. 2009, Rotterdam)
Sonsbeek art projects is an international platform for art in public space, based in Arnhem. With its first edition opening in 1949, just after the Second World War, Sonsbeek is the oldest large-scale public art exhibition in Europe. From its home of Park Sonsbeek the periodic exhibition has featured multiple groundbreaking editions that have set the international agenda for contemporary art, while always maintaining a unique connection with its local audience. Sonsbeek is a place where knowledge production, experimentation, and sharing art with a diverse public go hand in hand.
Upper image: From left to right: Sonsbeek 2026 assistant curator Berber Meindertsma and Sonsbeek 2026 curators Christina Li and Amira Gad, 2025. Photo: Marieke Wijntjes
