PARALLEL Platform

PARALLEL is a platform that brings together creative European organisations committed to promoting cross-cultural exchanges and mentorships in order to set new standards in contemporary photography.

Members include museums, galleries, cultural centres, festivals, art schools and publishers – 18 of the most vibrant European cultural hubs, from16 different countries, that will participate in selecting and hosting emerging artists and curators, organising exhibitions and promoting artistic networking. The large and diverse nature of this network ensures a wide geographical spread and a fertile ground for fostering new dialogues, sparking fresh ideas and helping to boost creativity.

PARALLEL is designed and led by Procur.arte and supported by the programme European Platforms of the Creative Europe.

Objectives:

• establish a broadly inclusive Exhibition Platform for European photography;
• increase professional skills of all emerging creators;
• developing new links between emerging creators and artistic institutions;
• enhancing international cooperation between European cultural agents;
• develop transnational mobility of artists and artistic work;
• stimulate the production of relevant artistic content;

The platform pursues these goals through workshops with experienced creators and, at a later stage, mentoring for artists and curators as well as residences in partner institutions. Their effect is the production of exhibitions at festivals and galleries or special issues of photographic magazines. During the one-year cycle, artists, curators and representatives of institutions meet on several occasions. The most important of such meetings is Intersection, during which artists ending the cycle and those who were selected for the next one from open-call present their works. It is here that the curators start cooperation with institutions, and the artists work on a new project under tutors’ supervision.

Members:

• Procur.arte (Lisbon, Portugal)
• Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães (Guimarães, Portugal)
• ISSP (Riga, Latvia)
• Le Château d’Eau (Toulouse, France)
• Triennial of Photography Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany)
• FORMAT International Photography Festival – Derby QUAD (Derby, UK)
• Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki, Finland)
• Fondazione Fotografia Modena (Modena, Italy)
• Fotofestiwal Lodz – Foundation of Visual Education (Lodz, Poland)
• Galleri Image (Aarhus, Denmark)
• KATALOG – Journal (Kerteminde, Denmark)
• Landskrona Fotofestival (Landskrona, Sweden)
• Kaunas Gallery (Kaunas, Lithuania)
• UGM l Umetnostna galerija Maribor (Maribor, Slovenia)
• YET Magazine (Lugano, Switzerland)
• Organ Vida – International Photography Festival (Zagreb, Croatia)
• Capa Center (Budapest, Hungary)
• PhotoIreland Festival (Dublin, Ireland)