Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos Announced as Convenors of Bergen Assembly 2028

Bergen Assembly 2028 has announced the appointment of Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos as convenors for its sixth edition, set to take place across the Norwegian city in 2028.

Pietroiusti and Ramos have collaborated for several years across exhibitions, publications, performances, seminars, and interdisciplinary research projects. Their shared practice explores connections between contemporary art, ecology, science, mysticism, and more-than-human perspectives. Together, they often engage with questions of consciousness, coexistence, perception, and systems of knowledge.

In a newly released curatorial statement, the duo describe their vision for Bergen Assembly 2028 as an evolving and “shape-shifting” platform. The edition will experiment with new ways of bringing together people, objects, stories, and ideas. Their approach combines historical, biological, philosophical, and speculative perspectives, connecting both “planetary” and situated forms of thinking.

“Gardens and winds to tickle them. Feelings and stomachs to feel them. Stories and songs to remember them. Spirits and their animals,” the statement reads. The text continues through a poetic sequence of references to rituals, myths, robots, snakes, sleep, and ecstasy.

The convenors plan to investigate relationships between art, craft, language, memory, ecosystems, and technology. They will also reflect on forms of consciousness across both living beings and machines. Topics outlined in the announcement include ancient understandings of technē, animal play, machine intelligence, and the “prosthetic capacity of the imagination.”

Their long-term collaborative research project, The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish, offers a strong indication of the conceptual direction of the upcoming edition. Developed since 2018, the project brings together artists, scientists, writers, and researchers through exhibitions, publications, and public programmes focused on consciousness and more-than-human intelligence. In 2025, the pair co-edited a publication under the same title.

Together, Pietroiusti and Ramos have also curated projects including Persones Persons at the 8th Biennale Gherdëina (2022), Songs for the Changing Seasons for the first Klima Biennale Wien (2025), and Bodies of Water for the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2020–21), alongside Marina Otero Verzier and Mi You under the artistic direction of Andrés Jaque.

As part of the lead-up to Bergen Assembly 2028, the convenors will work closely with the city of Bergen through ongoing research, collaborations, and public programming. Elements of the research process will take place publicly, beginning with a Prelude gathering in Bergen on 12 September 2026 focused on technology and ecstasy.