Avant Art Festival 2025: Experimentation, Identity, and Radical Sonic Freedom

In September 2025, Avant Art Festival once again spreads its transgressive wings over Wrocław (September 4–14) and Warsaw (September 15–21), presenting one of the most radical and unpredictable editions in its history.

International Dialogue and Sonic Pluralism

This year’s lineup features artists from five continents — from Japan, Uganda, and Brazil to Germany, the UK, and Poland. Among the highlights: Japanese noise legend Merzbow, metal icon Iggor Cavalera, and experimental producer Eraldo Bernocchi in a unique trio. Other names include Clipping. (USA), Slikback (Kenya), Dis Fig (USA), IFS MA(Japan/Poland), ZU (Italy), and Shabaka (UK).

There will also be a strong presence from Poland’s independent scene, with projects such as Ugory, Beluga Ryba, Gary Gwadera, and Qba Janicki performing a joint set with German experimentalist Grischa Lichtenberger.

Art as a Site of Politics, Memory, and Technology

As always, the festival merges music with social and political reflection. This year places particular emphasis on questions of identity — including queerness, migration, and colonial legacies — as well as tensions between humanity and technology. Richie Culver’s exhibition in Wrocław offers a critical look at class and the aesthetics of the digital world, while the sonic collages of Black Fond and Death Goals (UK) explore the contemporary languages of anger and resistance.

Urban Zones and Unconventional Spaces

The 2025 edition unfolds across key venues in Wrocław (Piekarnia, Ciało, New Horizons Cinema) and Warsaw (Pardon, To Tu; Komuna Warszawa; TR Theatre; Iluzjon Cinema; SPATiF; Hydrozagadka; Chmury). The curators emphasize the importance of collaboration with local partners and collectives such as Outlines, Jvdasz Iskariota, Ad Libitum, and IA.

A Festival to Be Felt With the Whole Body

Avant Art Festival 2025 is more than just a music festival — it’s a total experience that defies easy categorization. The performances often take on performative, bodily, and ritualistic dimensions. Sound functions here as a medium of resistance and exploration. As the organizers stress: “This is not experimentation for its own sake — but a search for new languages to describe and transform reality.”

Avant Art Festival in the UK/Poland Season 2025

This year’s editions of Avant Art Festival are part of the UK/Poland Season 2025, organized by the British Council in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute in London. The season features over 100 events across 40 cities in the UK and Poland, aimed at strengthening cultural dialogue between the two countries.

As part of this initiative, Avant Art will present concerts by dozens of British artists, as well as a special Avant Art Filmprogram featuring UK music documentaries and films.

This important partnership with the British Council confirms Avant Art’s strong position within the Polish music scene and supports the festival’s strategy of international development — building a platform for collaboration and the global presentation of Polish artists.