An international art-science programme for practice-based inquiry into the entanglements and tensions of living systems, technologies, and cultures.
ABIS is the independent educational programme of Ars Biologica, one of the flagship projects of České Budějovice – European Capital of Culture 2028. Each year, it runs a series of research modules in different formats (field workshops, studios, digital residencies, lectures, collaborative experiments and a summer school), led by Czech and international tutors in the South Bohemian Region, in Prague and online.
Rather than a course with a fixed curriculum, ABIS works as a shared practice-based research environment. Each module brings together people from different fields around a shared research theme, including multispecies ecologies, experimental AI, biointelligence, sound-based inquiries, and slow research. These are always explored collaboratively, in an interdisciplinary maner and in a particular local context: from forests, wetlands, and gardens to art studios, design workshops, and digital environments.
ABIS is curated and developed by the Uroboros Collective (Michal Kučerák and Markéta Dolejšová) in collaboration with the Spanish foundation TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.
ABIS programme
The ABIS programme opened in 2025 along with four thematic reseach modules inspired by the twelve principles of permaculture. Each module ran as a four-day summer school: PermaPrompting with Feral (AI)gents (July, AVU Veletržní, Prague), Perma~cultural Thinking in Multispecies Research, Permacomputing and Digital Infrastructures, and Slow Circuits (all three in August, České Budějovice). Participants from all tracks then met at the Ars Biologica Pavilion during the Ars Biologica Symposium at the Země Živitelka fair in České Budějovice, where they presented their work to the public.
In 2026, the programme grew into five modules: Sound Ecologies, an online digital residency and study group; Edge Effects: Multispecies Methods at the Boundary, a field workshop at the CAS Institute of Microbiology in Nové Hrady; Agenthymia, a creative R&D studio with AI agents and uncensored language models at AVU in Prague; Slow Circuits: The Garden as a Web of Relations, a research group camp in a garden colony in České Budějovice; and Biointelligence: Zoom In / Zoom Out, a workshop at the campus of the University of South Bohemia and the Biology Centre in České Budějovice. As part of the 2026 programme, ABIS also co-hosted the town hall meeting ArtScience X ArsBiologica: Mapping the Intangible Impacts of Art–Science Encounters at Ars Electronica Festival 2026 in Linz and an Experimental AI lecture at the University of South Bohemia.
The research modules programme will continue in 2027 and culminate with the Ars Biologica Festival at the České Budějovice Exhibition Grounds in March 2028. Alongside these core activities, ABIS helps to develop the Ars Biologica ArtXScience residency programme and supports the residency curatorial selection.
In 2026, the programme grew into five modules: Sound Ecologies, an online digital residency and study group; Edge Effects: Multispecies Methods at the Boundary, a field workshop at the CAS Institute of Microbiology in Nové Hrady; Agenthymia, a creative R&D studio with AI agents and uncensored language models at AVU in Prague; Slow Circuits: The Garden as a Web of Relations, a research group camp in a garden colony in České Budějovice; and Biointelligence: Zoom In / Zoom Out, a workshop at the campus of the University of South Bohemia and the Biology Centre in České Budějovice. As part of the 2026 programme, ABIS also co-hosted the town hall meeting ArtScience X ArsBiologica: Mapping the Intangible Impacts of Art–Science Encounters at Ars Electronica Festival 2026 in Linz and an Experimental AI lecture at the University of South Bohemia.
The research modules programme will continue in 2027 and culminate with the Ars Biologica Festival at the České Budějovice Exhibition Grounds in March 2028. Alongside these core activities, ABIS helps to develop the Ars Biologica ArtXScience residency programme and supports the residency curatorial selection.
ABIS modules in 2026
ABIS modules in 2025
The 2025 programme involved four thematic reseach modules inspired by the twelve principles of permaculture. Each module ran as a four-day summer school. Participants from all modules then met at the Ars Biologica Pavilion during the Ars Biologica Symposium at the Země Živitelka fair in České Budějovice, where they presented their work to the public.