180° - Laboratory for Innovative Art Festival 2026 - 13th Edition

180° returns to Sofia from 9 to 14 October 2026 for six days of art, music and unexpected collaborations. Alongside the 13th edition of 180° – Laboratory for Innovative Art, we are introducing shum°, a new format for experimental music and sound, running from 9 to 11 October at Mesmeric and Bobbina.

At 180°, artists from different disciplines meet and create new work together during the festival. They bring their own ideas and ways of working, but what happens next depends on the people they meet. A musical idea might become a performance; a conversation might change the direction of a whole project. This year, the focus is on emerging artists from Switzerland, Croatia and Bulgaria. Our continuing collaboration with Music Biennale Zagreb is part of this focus, helping us bring new artistic voices together and introduce their work to audiences in Sofia.

shum° brings artists from Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, Croatia and beyond to Mesmeric and Bobbina. We will hear their individual work and provoke them into new collaborations and musical experiments. Different sounds, instruments and approaches will meet, with room to improvise, follow an unfamiliar idea and see where it leads. It is a chance to discover artists through their own music and through what happens when they play together.

The two formats grow from the same curiosity. 180° brings music, performance, dance and visual art into a shared creative process, while shum° gives us more time to explore music and sound. What connects them is the pleasure of trying something together and sharing it with an audience.

We also welcome AlanJames Burns as part of a residency supported by EFFEA, the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists. Their project Unmasking Nature explores neurodivergent ways of experiencing the natural environment. Through site-specific work and audience participation, it invites us to pay attention to how we perceive and connect with the places around us. 180° leads the residency in partnership with festivals in Croatia and the UK.

Join us at Mesmeric, Bobbina, Vhod B and Travellers Club Sofia. Come for an artist you know, stay for someone you have never heard of, and see what happens when they meet.