CPH:DOX announced February 5 the line-up of artworks and experiences for its 2026 INTER:ACTIVE exhibition, which centred on the theme ‘HYPERVIGILANCE’. Running March 11-22 at the festival headquarters, Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, this year’s exhibition confronts the collective anxiety of a society on high alert, where digital saturation and pervasive surveillance have fundamentally altered our sense of agency.
Reflecting a “strategic focus on the distribution of immersive media,” the 2026 edition ensures the majority of the selected works are accessible via CPH:MARKET, the festival’s online on-demand platform for accredited industry professionals.
Curated by CPH:LAB’s Head of Studies, Mark Atkin, ‘HYPERVIGILANCE’ explores the psychological and cultural state of heightened sensitivity to looming threats, festival underlines. In a world shaped by 24-hour news cycles, extractive capitalism, and authoritarian pressure, the exhibition examines how this state of watchfulness has become a new norm. Through advanced technologies such as LLMs, GPT, haptic VR, and vibrotactile sensor inputs, the artists transform psychological unease into aesthetic inquiry, inviting audiences to move from anxiety to agency.
Comments Mark Atkin, Curator of INTER:ACTIVE & Head of Studies of CPH:LAB: “The works in this year’s INTER:ACTIVE exhibition expose the collective anxiety of a society on high alert, where we struggle to retain agency over our image, body, and voice. For queer, disabled, and displaced communities, this state of watchfulness is deeply ingrained, a survival instinct in a world built on scrutiny and exclusion. For others, it has become the new norm shaped by 24-hour news cycles, extractive capitalism, authoritarian violence, and the pressure to conform in a world where we’re always being watched. The artists in ‘HYPERVIGILANCE’ expose and reconfigure these conditions allowing us to take back control through activism, sexual expression, defiance, and artistic invention”
INDUSTRY FOCUS ON IMMERSIVE WORKS
The exhibition features past projects from CPH:LAB, CPH:DOX’s talent development programme, which has established itself since 2009 as a leading incubator for groundbreaking interactive non-fiction, CPH:DOX writes. By empowering creators to experiment with emerging technologies, CPH:LAB nurtures projects that push the boundaries of storytelling – many of which, such as ‘Dark Rooms’, ‘Breathe’, and ‘Prison X’, have premiered at top festivals including Venice and Sundance before finding their home in the INTER:ACTIVE Exhibition.
The 2026 edition highlights a strategic push for immersive non-fiction distribution by hosting the majority of selected titles on CPH:MARKET, an online on-demand hub for accredited industry professionals. Moreso, CPH:INDUSTRY is organising targeted visits of the INTER:ACTIVE Exhibition in order for the showcased works to find new distribution outlets and venues.
Comments Mara Gourd-Mercado, Head of Industry & Training at CPH:DOX: “While CPH:DOX has long been a home for interactive non-fiction storytelling, among our priorities for 2026 is to support these projects in finding a life beyond their physical exhibition. By integrating the majority of the INTER:ACTIVE selection into CPH:MARKET, we are taking a concrete step to bridge the gap between immersive artistic innovation and tangible market opportunities, maximising the impact of these stories and facilitating their reach to global audiences.”
CPH:DOX will award a 10,000 DKK cash prize to the top-selected INTER:ACTIVE work. The jury includes Kunsthal Charlottenborg Director Helene Nyborg, XR artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen and Julie Quottrup Silbermann, Director / CEO CHART Art Fair.
The exhibition is open to all accredited guests.
SPECIAL IMMERSIVE EVENTS
The festival writes how, expanding beyond the exhibition floor, INTER:ACTIVE 2026 presents CPH:DOX’s first-ever public outdoor installation: ‘The Pledge’ by Daniela Nedovescu & Octavian Mots.Situated in the Kunsthal Charlottenborg courtyard, this free interactive work invites the public to join a living, real-time AI portrait. The live programme also features a vernissage on March 11 (18:00-21:00) and the INTER:ACTIVE Talks series (18:00-19:00), where artists dive deep into their projects: Mohamed Jabaly discusses ‘My Tent is Not a Shelter’ (March 14), Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm explores ‘Celestis Obscura’ (March 16), and the creative team behind ‘Dark Rooms’ presents their work on co-creation (March 21). Additional highlights include ‘Brains in the State of Suspension’, a live cinema performance by Kakia Konstantinaki & Nalyssa Green, and the CAFx satellite collaboration ‘Tales of a Nomadic City’, a 360° VR journey by Med Lemine Rajel & Christian Vium developed at CPH:LAB. The programme also features ‘Burden of Other People’s Dreams: Chapter One – Ganymede’, a surreal, abstract memoir of Joe Bini’s life as a film editor and storyteller, presented as a live cinema experience at MONTANA’s flagship shop in Copenhagen, staged as an intimate living room encounter for a single audience member.
SELECTED ARTWORKS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, ELIGIBLE FOR THE INTER:ACTIVE AWARD:
- Celestis Obscura – The Hidden Heavens by Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm. Interactive Installation (AI) / 2026 / DK / International Premiere. Falkenstrøm’s work aligns the Gold Rush with today’s space race, examining how corporate power in asteroid and lunar exploitation threatens to replicate Earth’s inequalities across the solar system.
- Coded Black by Maisha Wester, Nick Bax, Abby Hambleton, Lucas Bax, Brandon Tanner & Desiree Reynolds. PC Game / 2025 / UK / Danish Premiere. ‘Coded Black’ is a social justice game exploring the insidious and haunting histories of systemic racism in the US and UK, revealing stories of racial injustice and Black resilience.
- Dark Room’ by Mads Damsbo & Laurits Flensted Jensen. Immersive VR experience / 2025 / DK, DE, TW / Danish Premiere. ‘Dark Rooms’ invites intimate exploration across virtual spaces where real stories of sexual awakening ask us to confront taboos, and move beyond shame and prejudice into the realm of unspoken desire and personal liberation.
- In the Current of Being by Cameron Kostopoulos,Carolyn Mercer, Katayoun Dibamehr et al.
Multisensory VR experience / 2025 / USA, FR / Danish Premiere. ‘In the Current of Being’ immerses participants in Carolyn Mercer’s lived memory of electroshock conversion therapy, transforming her trauma into a visceral, embodied act of resistance and trans survival. - Inside: The Childhood of an Artist by Sacha Wares. Multisensory VR experience / 2025 / UK / International Premiere. An evocative multisensory biography in VR about the childhood of American artist Judith Scott.
- My Tent is Not a Shelter by Mohamed Jabaly. Installation / 2026 / NO, PS / International Premiere. Stitched from the artist’s own clothes, a fragile tent becomes a haunting memorial for Gaza, and a powerful symbol for people who are still living in tents over the rubble of their destroyed homes.
- No Place at Home by Sam Wolson & Lilli Carré. Interactive narrative installation / 2025 / USA / Danish Premiere. ‘No Place at Home’ follows a mother and her trans teen deciding to abandon the US after gender-affirming care restrictions, allowing us to feel the pain of leaving their world behind.
- The Lost Golden Lotus by Chisato Minamimura & Alice Hu Xiaoshu. Multisensory film installation / 2025 / UK, CN / Danish Premiere. ‘The Lost Golden Lotus’ reimages China’s foot-binding legacy through multisensory art and Deaf-led performance, connecting historical beauty ideals to today’s exacting body standards.
- The Pledge by Daniela Nedovescu & Octavian Mot. Interactive Installation (AI)/ 2025 / DE / Danish Premiere. ‘The Pledge’ is an interactive installation turning encounters with AI bias into a collective digital monument.
- The Sanctuary of Dreams by Pierre-Christophe Gam. Immersive video installation / 2025 / FR, BJ, CM / Danish Premiere. ‘The Sanctuary of Dreams’ invites audiences into a collective future-dreaming ritual, where imagination becomes a tool to envision new social, spiritual, and cultural realities shaped by shared human desires.
SELECTED ARTWORKS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER (OUT OF COMPETITION)
- Brains in the State of Suspension’ by Kakia Konstantinaki, Nalyssa Green. Live Cinema / 2025 / GR / International Premiere. ‘Brains in the State of Suspension’ is a live performance horror film exploring disembodied intelligence, domination, and horror as self-aware brains confront the monstrous consequences of their own drive for control.
- Tales of a Nomadic City by Med Lemine Rajel & Christian Vium. 360 Live Action VR with archival components / 2026 / DK & MR / Danish Premiere. This VR experience, co-created with Nouakchott youth, artists, poets, and scholars, weaves personal stories, archives, and immersive sound to portray the city’s complex history and ongoing urban transformation.
