Known Terrain | London Design Festival | Open Call

Overview

Known Terrain is a partner exhibition of London Design Festival 2026 exploring how places, systems and relationships become familiar through movement, repetition and lived experience. The exhibition will feature two curated shows across the design festival week, each running for four days and built around emerging themes and common narratives from submissions.

Eligibility

Open to graduating students, recent graduates, and emerging artists. Particularly interested in artists with limited or no experience exhibiting in professional gallery spaces.

What to Submit

Works across all disciplines including object and furniture design, installation, moving image, sound, textiles, ceramics, photography, performance and digital practices. Diverse interpretations of the theme are welcome, from personal and material explorations to speculative approaches.

Key Dates

• Submission deadline: 2nd August 2026, 23:59 pm
• Selected artists notified: 3rd August 2026
• Show 1: Install 11th September, Open 12th–15th September (PV 12th), De-install 15th September 5pm
• Show 2: Install 16th September, Open 17th–20th September (PV 17th), De-install 20th September 5pm

Submission & Fees

Submission is free. If your work is selected for exhibition, a fee of £180 applies per work and must be paid by 7th August. You can submit up to two works.

What's Included

Selected artists receive technical assistance with installation and deinstallation, a social event and networking opportunity, a digital letter of participation, documentation of work, exhibition promotion on LFD website and other platforms, press release through the LDF programme, feature on the LDF map, promotional materials, feature in Department of Visual Affairs Art magazine, and social media coverage via Instagram.

Additional Information

Artists are responsible for transport and insurance of their work. Artworks will not be for sale by default, but artists can provide a QR code to a platform of choice where they can individually sell work. Installation and deinstallation schedules will be communicated upon selection. By submitting, artists grant permission to use images of their work for promotional purposes.

About the Curators

Elephant Vision Lab is a London-based artist duo collaboration working across installation, sound, moving image, sculpture and spatial design. Their work explores how material, sound and atmosphere shape bodily perception and spatial experience. They have actively worked in the exhibition sector between art universities and museums and galleries across the UK and Europe. This is their fourth open call.