Open call for the Open Program has launched

An individual exhibition, the production of works, artistic fee and an invitation to the Fotofestiwal in Lodz are the expected results of the photographic open call, that has just been launched.

For the 2024 Open Program we are looking for artists with unique personalities and projects that present bold visions. There are no thematic or age restrictions. Specialists from the world’s most important media and photographic institutions are the jury, which will select six project, that will be presented, in cooperation with Fotofestiwal curators, in the form of an exhibition in Łódź, in June 2024. The submitted projects will also participate in the selection for the FUTURES program, a European platform that supports the professional development of artists through a series of trips and workshops at leading photographic institutions in Europe.

The Open Program functioned until 2019 as the Fotofestiwal Grand Prix – starting in 2020, we have abandoned the typical competition formula and distributed the prize funds into larger budgets and salaries for each of the selected projects.

THE JURY

• Ilaria Campioli is the curator of the photographic collections of the Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia. She was part of the curatorial team that worked on the rearrangement of the collections of Palazzo dei Musei in Reggio Emilia under the guidance of the architect Italo Rota, in which photography took on a major role. She worked for the Louvre Museum, for the Collezione Maramotti and for the Fotografia Europea festival for which she curated several projects, some of them devoted to photobooks. She collaborated with Joan Fontcuberta, Erik Kessels and Sarah Moon following in particular their publishing productions. Since 2018 she has been curating Giovane Fotografia Italiana (from 2022 Luigi Ghirri Award), a project promoting the discovery and showcase of emerging Italian photography talents. She curated various thematic exhibitions dedicated to the work of Luigi Ghirri.

• Emmanuelle Halkin is a graduate of the École du Louvre and the Sorbonne University in Paris. She is an independent curator and editor. In 2014, she joined the artistic direction of the Fetart collective, which supports emerging photography mainly through the Circulation(s) festival held every year at the CENTQUATRE in Paris. From 2017 to 2021, she co-created and developed the slide archive The Anonymous Project and created several exhibitions and editorial projects based on this collection. In 2021 and 2023, she was artistic director of Rencontres Photographiques du 10e in Paris for the Fetart collective. Since 2022, she has also been associate curator in residency at Diaphane, a photography center in the Hauts-de-France.

• Fernanda Prado Verčič is a co-founder and the director of Kranj Foto Fest, and a journalist with over two decades of experience in the world of photography. Originating from São Paulo, where she graduated from journalism, she gained an MA in photography and worked as a deputy photo editor at Valor Econômico, one of the most prestigious financial media outlets in Brazil. Having been based in Kranj since 2011, she has been a notable player in connecting photographers to important venues in Slovenia and abroad. With a passion for discovering new works, Fernanda is constantly on the lookout for photographers who are pushing the boundaries of the medium and exploring new ways to tell their visual stories. What makes her move is to create opportunities for photographers to showcase their work. As a photo curator, producer, and festival director, Fernanda is deeply committed to fostering a community where artists, critics and audiences can come together and engage around photography.

• Franek Ammer – graduate in photography at the Lodz Film School. Artist, curator and organizer. He co-founded TIFF International Photography Festival in Wroclaw. He devoted a large part of his work to bringing up aspects related to the photobooks and popularizing them in Poland. This interest resulted in several exhibitions, workshops and lectures. In the Fotofestiwal collective he is responsible for the festival program, coordination of exhibitions, events and publications. He is also a co-founder of 19 Rivers – publishing collective and space dedicated to photobook and music events and workshops. Co-CEO of Eternal Shipping Ltd., a multidisciplinary artistic company.

• Krzysztof Candrowicz – curator, artistic director, researcher. Co-founder and member of the Foundation of Visual Education and Lodz Fotofestiwal in Poland. In 2013 Krzysztof became artistic director of the Triennial of Photography in Hamburg in Germany and since 2018 works as a curator for CICLO Biennial in Porto, Portugal. Krzysztof works internationally as a guest curator and visiting lecturer in numerous organizations, museums, schools, festivals and as a jury member of various projects and art prizes, including the Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, Hasselblad Award, Robert Capa Award and many others.

SELECTED AUTHORS RECEIVE:

• Exhibition during Fotofestiwal in Łódź (over 20.000 viewers) for 6 artists,
• Artistic fee 400 euro,
• Accomodation for main opening weekend of the festival,
• Reimbursement of travel costs up to 200 euro,
• Exhibition production budget 500 euro.

You can send your questions on: opencall@fotofestiwal.com

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Fotofestiwal was established in 2001 as one of the first photography events in Poland. Since then it has grown into one of the most relevant photographic festivals in Europe but its core mission has not changed: presenting photography in its various ways (via exhibitions, films, slideshows, workshops etc.) but also talking about important social issues and introducing the unobvious beauty and unique history of our city to the audience. For such reason we organize thematic exhibitions in various post-industrial spaces, which Łódź is well known for, we put stress on networking parties – (we are quite famous for those), but also every year we try to develop new ways of talking about photography: via events such as Photo-Match: Completely Different Portfolio Review, during which we focus on having equal status granted to the curators as well as artists, with formula of presentation that numerous festivals are applying worldwide now with a success. Since 2016 we work as a collective, with no board of directors, developing a new way of cultural institution management.

Edition 2024 will take place in Łódź in June.

TIMELINE

Call for entries open – 3rd of October 2023

Submission deadline – 15th of December 2023

Projects announcement on fotofestiwal.com – 18th of January 2024

Exhibitions – June 2024

HOW TO SUBMIT

Via >> Picter Platform link