PROGRAM:
2026
Welcome to Open Out 2026: Dreaming in the dark Queerness is a state of becoming that sometimes begins in the dark. If darkness is not an absence, could it then be a fertile condition for queer world-making - where bodies drift, shift, dissolve, and reassemble into new constellations of relation? Where magic can occur? Where dreams are the only light you see? In moments when we are blinded by an experience we have not learned to handle, we listen to our inner voice, and navigate our way through the dark towards the sparks of desire and love. We let go! Here in Tromsø, the dark season is not only a metaphor but a lived atmosphere, a slow, enveloping teacher that reshapes rhythm, perception, and relation. By embracing this darkness, we learn to listen more closely, to trust non-visual forms of knowing, and to attune to the subtle, queer capacities that emerge when light no longer dictates how we move through the world.In darkness and in dreams, things are complex, fluid, shape-shifting: places of possibilities, of new beginnings, of odd encounters. What are the dreams you dream in the dark? ★ September 5 - 12, 2026, Tromsø Kunstforening, Mellomvegen 82 ★ Open Out Festival is a queer art festival taking place in Tromsø, Norway since 2017. We are dedicated to hosting and showing queer artists for a week-long festival, aiming to create a sense of community: Coming together with a shared responsibility of taking care of the queer, the alive, each other and the works and inputs we bring. The festival program consists of a main exhibition, performances, workshops, social activities, parties and more. We like to think of Open Out Festival as a temporary collective, a shared experience created by everyone who participates, art also as lived experiences.