"The Institute of Things to Come" is a multifaceted project initiated in 2017 that comprises a yearly-thematic program of performances, workshops, a production-bursary for younger practitioners, publications and exhibitions. Each year The Institute focuses on a different theme, inviting artists who use speculative and fictional arguments to imagine alternatives to the status quo and propose positions of social critique. Through a focus on research-based practices, artists present artworks that often interact with other disciplines reconfiguring academic disciplines hierarchy and deconstructing the grand narratives underlying hegemonic discourses on race, identity, and origin.
For example, in 2018 artist KAPWANI KIWANGA presented her work "Afrogalactic" which reasons on the legacy of Afrofuturism, Black Studies, space exploration and performance to reconfigure alternative history lines. Or in 2019 artist TAI SHANI showed her work "Dark Continent" (winner of 2019 Turner Price) a multifaceted of films, performances and installations that look at feminist studies, medieval epic and mythology to propose a possible post-patriarchal future.

Central to the project is the "Associates Programme" a free and extra-curriculum program of bursaries that allows young practitioners to develop their practices, by producing new art-works.

The Institute was funded in 2017 by curator Valerio Del Baglivo who currently curates the program and artist Ludovica Carbotta who was also co-curator of the first edition and is no longer involved. In 2019 Michele Bertolino collaborates with us with the role of Junior Curator. Since then is hosted by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin.