Birke Gorm

FUTURE

7 Jan

18th Biennale de Lyon, France
18 September - 31 December 2026

Founded in 1991, the Biennale de Lyon is the most important large-scale festival of contemporary art in France. The 18thedition in 2026 is curated by Catherine Nichols. Her curatorial concept emphasises storytelling, transformation and the role of art in addressing complex social, political and environmental issues.

For Lyon, Birke Gorm will create a new site-specific installation that deepens her ongoing exploration of material, memory and social history. Drawing on Lyon’s legacy as a centre of silk production and labour movements, it will incorporate discarded materials, sourced locally. Textiles will serve as symbolic carriers of both wealth and exploitation, weaving together themes of resistance and remembrance. Through assembled figures and fragments, the work reflects on systems of waste and labour.

Birke Gorm (born 1986 in Hamburg, Germany) lives and works in Vienna. She is known for her powerful installations made from discarded everyday materials. Her work explores themes of memory, identity and the impact of capitalism, often highlighting overlooked stories – especially those of women. Collecting scrap metal, cardboard, broken ceramics and jute sacks, she creates fragile yet monumental figures and installations.

This is her third collaboration with Phileas, following the publication entitled First Monograph, which provides the first comprehensive overview of her work, and the Austrian Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea in 2026.

This project was aided by a research trip to Vienna by the curator Catherine Nichols in March 2025.