First Wave of Semibreve 2026 Artists Announced

Semibreve Festival 2026 has announced the first wave of artists participating in its 16th edition. Returning to Braga from 22–25 October, the upcoming programme spans sound, moving image, installation and performance. Over the past decade and a half, the Portuguese festival has developed a unique reputation within contemporary audiovisual culture for offering a structured environment for artists to present ambitious projects while challenging the boundaries between concert, exhibition and digital art.

Taking place across venues including the historic Theatro Circo, the contemporary arts centre gnration and the Capela Imaculada, the Semibreve festival spotlights site-responsive and technologically mediated practices within Braga’s architectural landscape. Braga, one of Portugal’s oldest cities, was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts in 2017 thanks to its baroque architecture and religious heritage, qualities that no doubt inflect the festival’s spatial choices. This year’s programme in particular places an emphasis on world premieres and newly commissioned works exploring audiovisual artistic forms and sonic experimentation.

Christian Fennesz and Oscar Jockel with Saffron on Grey feature among the first artists announced, alongside new collaborative works by PYUR and Tarik Barri, Qasim Naqvi and Steven Wendt, and Malcolm Pardon with Gustaf Broms. The line-up also includes performances and installations by Noémi Büchi, Sam Slater, TYGAPAW, Azu Tiwaline and João Carlos Pinto.

Semibreve’s scale continues to be intentionally contained. The festival consolidates its programme into a focused sequence of encounters across only a handful of venues, a feature which distinguishes it from larger international events and allows for closer engagement between artists and audiences.