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

Known Terrain explores how places, systems and relationships become familiar over time.

Rather than a fixed condition, familiarity is understood as something continually shaped through movement, repetition and exchange.

We invite works that examine shifting perspectives, everyday encounters and the landscapes around us, considering how physical, social and digital environments become known through lived experience.

Existing as a partner event for London Design Festival 2026.

We welcome submissions across all disciplines, from object and furniture design to installation, moving image, sound, textiles, ceramics, photography, performance and digital practices.

Whether grounded in personal experience, material investigation or speculative thinking, we encourage diverse interpretations of the theme.

Together, the exhibition considers how we find our bearings in relation to others and the worlds we share.

There will be two shows across a the design festival week - you will be selected to participate in one show for four days ,

Each show will be curated around emerging themes and common narratives from submissions, ensuring your work contributes to meaningful conversations.

Who Can Apply:

This open call is open to all graduating students and recent graduates and emerging artists.

We are particularly interested in hearing from artists with limited or no experience exhibiting in professional gallery spaces. We are here to support you!

Submission Deadline:

2nd August 23:59pm

Late submissions will not be considered.

Selected artists will be notified by 03/08/2026

Exhibition Dates:

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

Venue:

ANNEX By The Koppel Project

1 Tiverton St, Elephant and Castle, London SE1 6NT

Our show at the Annex in December 2026 had an attenance of around 100 visitors during it week long 2 show run, we are expecting these numbers to be hire during the design festival week.

What’s Included:

Technical assistance with installation / deinstallation in the gallery

Social event and networking

Digital Letter of participation

Documentation of work in the gallery space

Exhibition promoted on the LFD website, Art rabbit and other platforms.

Press release through the LDF programme

The exhibition and venue on the LDF map for 2026

Promotional material to share with your networks

Feature in our new Department of Visual Affairs Art magazine - This is  digital magazine that is hosted on an online playform as well as our website, it has been made to serve as a platform to document our opencalls and showcase ongoing creative work.

Social media coverage via Instagram: we have 794 followers and counting.

We have a limited supply of AV equipment - TBC during 1-1 session.

Submission is free! Payment is only required if your work is selected.

Fees (Only If Selected):

£180

This covers all the above benefits - The fee applies to each work submitted and chosen to be exhibited.  

Fees will be payable by 7th August.

About us:

We are Elephant Vision lab, a London-based artist duo collaboration, working across installation, sound, moving image, sculpture, and spatial design.

Bringing together backgrounds in sculpture, stage design, audiovisual practice, and narrative environments, their work explores how material, sound, and atmosphere shape bodily perception and spatial experience.

We have actively work in the exhibition sector between art universities providing curatorial and exhibition support for student exhibitions in London along with museums and galleries across the UK and Europe.

This is our fourth open call, building upon the success of Soft ground in December 2025, Loose ends in January and In Excess in May 2026.

Additional Information:

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

We look forward to seeing your work!

XinYue & Alex - Elephant Vision Lab