Book launch:
Study Trip: Psychedelics for Research & Art

Date: 15 August 2026
Time: 14:00
Place: Hordaland Kunstsenter, Klosteret 17
Host: Dirk Vis, Lucia Pietroiusti, Hordaland Kunstsenter and Bergen Assembly



> Facebook event

On the occasion of the publication of Study Trip: Psychedelics for Research & Art (Set Margins’), author Dirk Vis is joined by Lucia Pietroiusti, publication editor and co-convenor of Bergen Assembly 2028, for a conversation about the unfathomable, the unknowable and the ecstatic.

In Study Trip, psychedelics are a way to learn, research and make art. Moving between the practical and the philosophical, the scientific and the mystical, Study Trip guides readers through intention, ceremony, dosage and the strange territory of not-knowing, illustrated throughout by a rich compendium of visual art works.

Equally suited to seasoned practitioners and to readers who have never taken a psychedelic substance or practiced any technique, the book makes the case that art is itself inherently psychedelic, and that the questions raised by psychedelic study, about knowledge, community, and connection to the living world, belong to anyone working creatively.

Copies of the publication will be available for purchase on the day, and can be ordered via Set Margins'.

The event is a collaboration between Dirk Vis, Lucia Pietroiusti, Bergen Assembly and Hordaland Kunstsenter.

Dirk Vis is a Dutch author of poetry, fiction and essays. His Research for People Who (Think They) Would Rather Create has been reprinted and translated around the world. Vis was writer-in-residence at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study in ‘24-’25, has published extensively in Dutch, and is contributing editor to main Dutch literary magazine De Gids (The Guide). He (guest) lectures and teaches artistic writing and research at various European universities with a position at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam.

Lucia Pietroiusti (Editor) is Head of Research & Emergence at Hartwig Museum, Amsterdam, opening in 2028. She is the Curator of the 6th Autostrada Biennale (Prizren, Kosovo, 2027) and a convenor of the 2028 Bergen Assembly (with Filipa Ramos). Pietroiusti is the founder of Serpentine’s General Ecology project and Ecologies department. She is an Editor of The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (2025, with Ramos), and the Curator of Sun & Sea (Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale).

Hordaland Kunstsenter (HKS) is a resource centre for contemporary art in the context of the Vestland region in Norway. Their core activity includes a public program of exhibitions, events and conversations, mediation and educational projects, as well as projects that has to do with art in public space. The art centre includes a bookshop, a café and an all-year-round residency program.

Bergen Assembly is a recurring platform for art in Bergen that opens the city to new artistic processes and perspectives. Every three years, a new edition takes shape, developed over time and on its own terms by invited convenors. Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos are the convenors for the upcoming sixth edition, taking place in 2028. Read more about the 2028 edition here.