27 – 31 March, 2027, Lahore to host both the 14th General Assembly and the Regional Meeting of the International Biennial Association during the opening days of Lahore Biennale 04

Lahore Biennale 04 scheduled for 27 March through 25 April, 2027

Following an open call issued after the conclusion of the 13th General Assembly — held in Sydney, Australia, in June 2026 — the IBA board elected Lahore as the host of the 14th General Assembly, after having carefully considered the multiple proposals received. The decision reflects the Association’s continued commitment to ensuring that its assemblies are shaped by the diverse cultural, political, and social contexts in which biennials operate around the world.

The International Biennial Association is a non-profit platform established to research, exchange, and advance knowledge among institutions and professionals working across the world’s biennials, triennials, and related periodic art events. Its General Assemblies — held annually in a different member city — have previously taken place in cities including Sharjah, Venice, Istanbul, Karlsruhe, Liverpool, and, most recently, Sydney. The 2027 Assembly will be the first held in Pakistan and among the first held in South Asia, positioning Lahore within a lineage of cities recognised as centres of critical dialogue on the biennial form.

The General Assembly will coincide with the inaugural IBA Regional Meeting, a newly instituted regional gathering intended to rotate among host countries across Asia broadly. While many sessions will be shared across both formats, the Regional Meeting will place particular emphasis on workshops and discussions addressing the specific opportunities, challenges, and institutional realities shaping biennial practice across Asia. Bringing the two formats together in Lahore reflects the IBA’s growing commitment to strengthening regional networks within its broader mission of bringing the world’s biennials into closer dialogue.

Taking place during the opening days of LB04, both gatherings will allow IBA members, partners, researchers, artists, and the wider public to experience the Biennale’s exhibition and public programme first-hand through a shared schedule of conferences, round tables, workshops, and public events.

The Lahore Biennale Foundation warmly invites universities, cultural institutions, civic organisations, artists, researchers, and other partners from across Asia broadly, and the wider international community to take part in the inaugural IBA Regional Meeting. Conceived as a platform for exchange, collaboration, and new forms of regional connection, the Meeting welcomes organisations and individuals interested in contributing to its conversations, programmes, and partnerships.

LB04 is curated by Nav Haq, Associate Director at M HKA, Antwerp, under the title The Shape of Coexistence. The Biennale builds on three prior editions — directed by Qudsia Rahim for the inaugural edition (2018), curated by Hoor Al Qasimi (2020), and curated by John Tain (2024) — through which the Lahore Biennale has drawn sustained international attention for its ability to bring leading artists and curators into dialogue with the city’s distinctive historic and modern sites.

Responding to a multipolar world, LB04 positions Lahore as a historic and contemporary artistic and intellectual centre from which to imagine new ways of building internationalisms that are relevant for the twenty-first century. The exhibition and its accompanying programme will explore new solidarities and forms of exchange, drawing on the histories and engagements that connect Lahore with wider regions across Asia and beyond while foregrounding questions of plurality and social equality.

Notably, the gathering falls in 2027 — the eightieth anniversary of Pakistan’s Independence and the Partition of the Sub-Continent in 1947 — lending the biennale, Assembly and Regional Meeting a particular historical resonance for Lahore and for the wider region.

The Lahore Biennale Foundation warmly invites institutions, universities, cultural bodies, and civic partners across Lahore and Pakistan to join in co-hosting elements of the General Assembly and Regional Meeting, and to participate in the collateral events running alongside LB04. LBF is pleased to facilitate these partnerships and welcomes interested organisations to reach out directly.