SoMad invites your submissions for the fourth annual Mad World, an event and exhibition of experimental film, visual art, and performance exploring ecological crises through an intersectional environmentalist lens, opening on April 18, 2026.
This year’s theme understands environmental collapse not as a distant abstract condition, but as something shaped by systems of power: colonialism, borders, racial capitalism, and extractive industry. We are interested to see your work that considers how land, bodies, and movement are governed, and how other ways of knowing and caring could reconfigure our relationship to the earth and to one another.
Our theme has been informed by intersectional environmentalism, a framework established by Leah Thomas, and rooted in the intellectual and political work of Black feminist scholars and organizers, including the Combahee River Collective and Kimberle Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. This lineage understands social justice and environmental justice as inseparable struggles, and insists that ecological harm must be read through overlapping systems of race, gender, class and colonial power.
We are drawn to practices that foreground Indigenous, diasporic, queer, and culturally inherited knowledge systems, not as symbolic references, but as living tools for survival, relation, and networks of care.
Key Dates and Scheduling:
Artwork Delivery and Installation: April 6-11, M-F 11AM-6PM
Opening event: April 18, 12PM-10PM | Programming Details TBA
Exhibition hours: Monday to Friday, Gallery Hours - 12PM to 6PM
Deinstallation: June 15-18, 11AM-6PM
Mediums:
Please apply for one of the following submission categories: experimental video, visual art, and performance. If you would like to be considered for multiple categories, please submit an additional application.
Experimental Video
We invite finished, original experimental short-form films under 15 minutes. Selected works will be presented on a 10 x 16ft projection screen on Mad World’s opening day, as well as presented on a 75” flat screen TV in the exhibition.
Visual Art
Please apply with original, finished works that are ready to hang or display, or that can be presented in a digital format. Selected artists will work with SoMad to determine the optimal presentation of their work and will have access to SoMad’s in-house projectors, pedestals, and monitors as needed.
Works in the exhibition will be offered for sale with proceeds split 60% artist / 40% SoMad. SoMad facilitates sales and coordination of sold works. Artists are responsible for delivering or shipping their work to and from the gallery and coordinating logistics in advance.
Performance
Live performances will take place April 18, 2026 on a dedicated stage with audio and visual support provided by SoMad. Selected performers will. Available equipment includes RBG full-spectrum LED lighting, a projection backdrop, projector, speakers, microphones, and basic furniture as needed.
Artists are welcome to propose new works or existing performances. Selected performers will work with SoMad on the presentation and finalize technical needs in advance of the event.
Performance form notes:
An audio or video track (if applicable)
A short description of the desired lighting and mood
A video sample of past or related performance work