Brazilian artist Laura Lima’s first solo exhibition in London and the first major UK retrospective of the cinema of Werner Schroeter will be part of the Institute of Contemporary Art's January to March programme.
Also in the cinemas, the London venue's In Focus season will present the work of directors united by their commitment to socially and politically engaged cinema; and Off-Circuit will present UK and London premieres by innovative and overlooked contemporary filmmakers.
On the ICA’s Stage, an expanded In the Round series brings artists and audiences into a unique sonic space using 360° audio technology. The Talks & Engagement programme turns to the next phase of ICA Creatives, PULSE and ICA Creatives × Diasporas Now.
Spanning exhibitions, film, live music and talks, the ICA’s interdisciplinary programme invites artists and audiences to come together to think with culture as it is being made.
Laura Lima: The Drawing Drawing will run from Tuesday, Janaury 27th to Sunday, March 29th bringing together new and existing performative installations with live components.
Lima’s new commission, The Drawing Drawing (2026), is an interactive sculptural installation that unsettles the conventions of the life-drawing class, recasting the relations between body, image and spectator.
Long Takes continues with Anguish & Ecstasy: The Cinema of Werner Schroeter (Thursday, February 19th to Sunday, April12th) featuring films that move between opera, melodrama, experimental narrative and political allegory, tracing how Schroeter’s cinema reshaped ideas of performance, queerness and image-making in post-war Europe.
In January and March, In Focus will cover three filmmakers whose work has shaped documentary and narrative cinema: Frederick Wiseman, Masao Adachi, and Andrzej Wajda.
In parallel, Narrow Margin presents a five-film survey of the pioneering French production company Diagonale (Thursday, January 8th to Tuesday, January 20th) to mark the launch of the second issue of the international film magazine.
ICA Stage opens with the live AV debut of Carrier’s Rhythm Immortal with visuals by Riyo Nemeth (Thursday, January 29th), is followed by a Lex Records label showcase (Friday, January 30th) curate a label showcase, and features ERASERHEAD XIU XIU on Friday, February 6th and Saturday, February 7th, a live exploration of David Lynch’s Eraserhead.
In the Round returns with Philadelphia post-rock band They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, a 99CHANTS showcase, a night with Flur and GAL GO, a double bill with feeo and Whatever the Weather, Tanya Tagaq, and a a jazz–electronic special presented by Goodness.
The talks and engagement programme opens on Wednesday, January 7th with Erotic Review: The Body: Digital/Real/Imagined, a multimedia event that uses readings, video and discussion to think through what it means to inhabit a body across digital, real and imagined spaces.
Also in the cinemas, the London venue's In Focus season will present the work of directors united by their commitment to socially and politically engaged cinema; and Off-Circuit will present UK and London premieres by innovative and overlooked contemporary filmmakers.
On the ICA’s Stage, an expanded In the Round series brings artists and audiences into a unique sonic space using 360° audio technology. The Talks & Engagement programme turns to the next phase of ICA Creatives, PULSE and ICA Creatives × Diasporas Now.
Spanning exhibitions, film, live music and talks, the ICA’s interdisciplinary programme invites artists and audiences to come together to think with culture as it is being made.
Laura Lima: The Drawing Drawing will run from Tuesday, Janaury 27th to Sunday, March 29th bringing together new and existing performative installations with live components.
Lima’s new commission, The Drawing Drawing (2026), is an interactive sculptural installation that unsettles the conventions of the life-drawing class, recasting the relations between body, image and spectator.
Long Takes continues with Anguish & Ecstasy: The Cinema of Werner Schroeter (Thursday, February 19th to Sunday, April12th) featuring films that move between opera, melodrama, experimental narrative and political allegory, tracing how Schroeter’s cinema reshaped ideas of performance, queerness and image-making in post-war Europe.
In January and March, In Focus will cover three filmmakers whose work has shaped documentary and narrative cinema: Frederick Wiseman, Masao Adachi, and Andrzej Wajda.
In parallel, Narrow Margin presents a five-film survey of the pioneering French production company Diagonale (Thursday, January 8th to Tuesday, January 20th) to mark the launch of the second issue of the international film magazine.
Off-Circuit, the ICA’s platform for adventurous and underseen contemporary cinema, features a series of premieres including Masao Adachi’s Escape, Lana Daher’s Do You Love Me?, Isiah Medina’s Gangsterism, Racornelia’s MACDO and the London premiere of Moroccan-American animation Bouchra.
From Sunday, January 11th, Jean-Luc Godard: Unmade and Abandoned continues to shine a light on the legendary filmmaker’s unrealised and unfinished projects.
The season also features film festivals: London Short Film Festival (Saturday, January 24th to Sunday, February 1st), Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme (Friday, February 6th to Sunday, February 15th), KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival (Thursday, March 5th to Thursday, March 26th), and Screen Cuba (Sunday, March 15th to Saturday, March 28th).
The season also features film festivals: London Short Film Festival (Saturday, January 24th to Sunday, February 1st), Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme (Friday, February 6th to Sunday, February 15th), KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival (Thursday, March 5th to Thursday, March 26th), and Screen Cuba (Sunday, March 15th to Saturday, March 28th).
ICA Stage opens with the live AV debut of Carrier’s Rhythm Immortal with visuals by Riyo Nemeth (Thursday, January 29th), is followed by a Lex Records label showcase (Friday, January 30th) curate a label showcase, and features ERASERHEAD XIU XIU on Friday, February 6th and Saturday, February 7th, a live exploration of David Lynch’s Eraserhead.
In the Round returns with Philadelphia post-rock band They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, a 99CHANTS showcase, a night with Flur and GAL GO, a double bill with feeo and Whatever the Weather, Tanya Tagaq, and a a jazz–electronic special presented by Goodness.
The talks and engagement programme opens on Wednesday, January 7th with Erotic Review: The Body: Digital/Real/Imagined, a multimedia event that uses readings, video and discussion to think through what it means to inhabit a body across digital, real and imagined spaces.
On Satrday, January 31st, the ICA, WePresent and The Messy Truth co-present Between Two Worlds: Photography’s Unfixed Future, a one-day salon examining the dual image worlds we navigate today. Hosted by Gem Fletcher, the day brings together artists and photographers including Rene Matić, Elle Pérez, Jack Davison, Hanna Moon and Ronan McKenzie to reflect on current conditions in photography and what might come next.
Further events trace the intersections of art, theory and publishing with highlights including And Then It Fades (Away) for a conversation on contemporary Lithuanian photography; the launch of HYPERPOLITICS, featuring Anton Jäger, Vincent Bevins and Nihal El Assar discussing the contradictions of our fragmented, hyper-political moment.
Further events trace the intersections of art, theory and publishing with highlights including And Then It Fades (Away) for a conversation on contemporary Lithuanian photography; the launch of HYPERPOLITICS, featuring Anton Jäger, Vincent Bevins and Nihal El Assar discussing the contradictions of our fragmented, hyper-political moment.
Speaking Futures × Diasporas Now culminates in a takeover on Saturday, March 7th, marking the end of the Diasporas Now year-long residency at the ICA with an afternoon of talks, screenings, performances and roundtable discussions.
Literature and film are brought into dialogue in New Canons: Readings from Independent Publishers on 11 March, which celebrates new writing from independent presses and authors working at the edges of contemporary literature, and in The Bed Trick, a combined talks and film programme running from 18 to 29 March that examines the enduring motif of disguise, desire and deception from ancient myth to modern cinema.
PULSE, the strand for experimental performance and new practice that responds to urgent social and cultural questions, returns with a collaboration between photographers Myles Bailey and Hayleigh Longman.
ICA Creatives: Young Artist Collective – Reimagining the Archive: Moving Image as Print Culture runs from February to July, offering paid opportunities for five 16–30 year-olds in collaboration with iniva, with a focus on how moving image might translate into print culture.
Alongside this, ICA Creatives: Term 2 – Translating Ideas into Artistic Practice, led by artists Paola Estrella and Joshua Woolford and developed with Diasporas Now, invites participants to carry personal and collective stories across different artistic mediums.
Literature and film are brought into dialogue in New Canons: Readings from Independent Publishers on 11 March, which celebrates new writing from independent presses and authors working at the edges of contemporary literature, and in The Bed Trick, a combined talks and film programme running from 18 to 29 March that examines the enduring motif of disguise, desire and deception from ancient myth to modern cinema.
PULSE, the strand for experimental performance and new practice that responds to urgent social and cultural questions, returns with a collaboration between photographers Myles Bailey and Hayleigh Longman.
ICA Creatives: Young Artist Collective – Reimagining the Archive: Moving Image as Print Culture runs from February to July, offering paid opportunities for five 16–30 year-olds in collaboration with iniva, with a focus on how moving image might translate into print culture.
Alongside this, ICA Creatives: Term 2 – Translating Ideas into Artistic Practice, led by artists Paola Estrella and Joshua Woolford and developed with Diasporas Now, invites participants to carry personal and collective stories across different artistic mediums.
For tickets and details go to ica.art.