INTER:ACTIVE Exhibition 2026 unveiled under the theme ‘HYPERVIGILANCE’

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. 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.

“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,” says Mark Atkin, Curator of INTER:ACTIVE & Head of Studies of CPH:LAB.

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. 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.

“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,” says Mara Gourd-Mercado, Head of Industry & Training at CPH:DOX.

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
CEO of CHART Art Fair.

The exhibition is open to all accredited guests and the public upon booking a slot and presenting a valid ticket.

Special immersive events
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.

About CPH:DOX
CPH:DOX – Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is among the largest documentary film festivals in the world, supporting independent and innovative filmmaking and presenting the best and brightest in contemporary non-fiction cinema. The festival is widely respected for challenging the documentary genre through crossovers with other art forms and for advancing art as an active voice in civil society. Annually presenting approximately 200 films, CPH:DOX welcomes more than 150,000 attendees and over 2,000 industry professionals from across documentary film, visual arts, journalism, and science.