Stage IX supports artists based in the Netherlands through research, experimentation and public testing. The programme is organised into two tracks, each designed to support artists at different career stages. The inaugural 2026 cohort features established artist Kévin Bray, and emerging artists Nadia Bakshi and Sondi.
Multidisciplinary artist and researcher, Kévin works at the intersection of media archaeology, geomythology, and speculative narratology. His practice operates as a critical inquiry into the systems that shape perception, belief, and power, through technological infrastructures, folkloric frameworks, or geopolitical discourses.
Media artist, theatre maker, opera director, singer, and performer, Nadia builds systems where participants become active agents inside unstable dramaturgies, drawing from game design, installation, and a deep training in opera and theatre directing.
Artist and researcher, Sondi examines the invisible architecture of virtual worlds and technological systems, tracing encoded biases, algorithmic discrimination, and the portrayal of people, places, and ecologies — crafting worlds that foreground marginalised voices and perspectives often excluded from our techno-futures.
Stage IX residents are joined by Jillis Pieters, an audiovisual artist working at the intersection of performance, technology and writing. Jillis works alongside the artists to develop documentation methods that fit the way they actually work. Together, these materials will grow into a living archive, capturing how immersive work develops and making the knowledge it produces accessible to the wider field.
