The Balcony is an exhibition and studio space based in The Hague. Since 2018, we curate exhibitions supporting upcoming practices with a focus on alternative formats of display, keen on collaborations and cross-generational exchange. Before moving to our permanent city centre location in 2021, The Balcony was hosted in a violin store vitrine, and in the basement of a former office space.

Since 2022 The Balcony works in exhibition cycles and each presentation is articulated as a Chapter. The Promise of Ruin(s) included seven chapters, and two chapters from its ongoing film-focused cycle Slow Drift(s). In March 2025 The Balcony is launching a new exhibition cycle titled Extractive Imagination(s), exploring the relationships between extraction and consumption as simultaneous processes. This program examines both ethical and unethical channels of resource and knowledge management, extending its inquiry into artistic practices and the systems that govern them.

Extractive Imagination(s) serves as an extension of our previous cycle, The Promise of Ruin(s), which examined the parallels between artistic labor and leisure in a society driven by efficiency. Similarly, this cycle is organised into chapters, each featuring a trio of artists from different backgrounds and career stages. The upcoming exhibitions foster dialogue between Netherlands-based and international artists, offering a trans-historical approach to exhibition-making by pairing the works of established makers with those of mid-career and emerging artists.

Alongside these exhibitions, The Balcony realises one yearly exchange with project spaces in Europe called extra_muros. Each presentation is accompanied by a diverse public program, which has become increasingly significant since 2023. 

The Balcony was founded by Arthur Cordier (BE) and Valentino Russo (IT), and is curated together with Abril Cisneros Ramirez (MX), Mari Kolcheva (BG), and Ariane Toussaint (FR).