bosch parade 2026

Bosch Parade is the floating parade created in the spirit of Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. For the contemporary art event on and around the water, artists from all disciplines create new works to amaze, touch and connect people, as Bosch did 500 years ago and still does today. Our impact on society is that all our participants, creators and visitors learn to look at the world as ‘contemporary Hieronymuses’, making our existence a little more idiosyncratic and social. In the face of the quirky and rousing visual stories, they feel like escaping from the normal and everyday.

From 18 to 21 June 2026, Bosch Parade is organising the 2026 edition with the theme “Powered by Defect”. The supporting open-air studio with pop-up restaurant ‘Garden of Delights’ will be open from 21 May to 21 June.

We are looking for work that fits the theme and the framework. We are also looking for makers who dare to transcend themselves and, in doing so, dare to embark on an adventure with us.

Nothing and nobody’s perfect. Defects are everywhere, both large and small. Depressing poverty and unrisen cakes. Falsely sung notes and prolonged illness. Low-flying jets and dubious legal loopholes. Plagiarising academics and appallingly dressed carnival revellers.

“Community meets Artist meets Defect” is the credo. And so we would like to see, hear and read about which defects and which community you would like to depict for Bosch Parade 2026.

In this parade, we are explicitly looking for proposals that focus on the process between you and the community - to conceptualise or shape, produce and/or perform the work. What defect do you have in mind and which community do you want to engage with for this? Which community do you want to use to power your work? How do you want to shape the process between you and that community? And what result do you hope it will lead to?