OPEN PROGRAM 2026 | Arhant Shrestha, Eleana Konstantellos André, Eleonora Agostini, Mari Mäntynen, Tanya Habjouqa and Tommaso Protti

Arhant Shrestha, Loose Fist

At the end of 2023, the artist and his partner were victims of a brutal, homophobic attack in Kathmandu. The trauma aroused in him a fear of men, which led to false generalizations according to which every man was a potential attacker. Working with photography became a tool for confronting his own fear and anger, as well as an attempt to regain comfort and joy in relationships. Over time, the strangers became co-participants in staged scenes of violence, demonstrations of power, and displays of compassion, stemming both from childhood experiences and the effects of trauma.

» Get to know more about Arhant «

Eleana Konstantellos André, Chupacabras

The Chupacabra is a mythical and surrealistic creature known for sucking the blood of humans and animals. In the 1990s, brutal attacks by this mysterious beast were reported by all Mexican media outlets. Eleana Konstantellos André’s project arose from the hypothesis that the Chupacabra myth was a smokescreen for the Mexican government during a period of profound social, political, and economic crisis. Through staged photography (based on a compilation of media footage and interviews), the artist recreates an imaginary space in which she explores and exposes the mechanisms behind the construction of the Chupacabra as a social myth and a tool of the politics of fear. How do governments use the media to conceal or reveal information? How do they use fear as a tool of power? These are questions the author asks, and they remain as relevant today as ever.

» Get to know more about Eleana «

Eleonora Agostini, A Study On Waitressing

A metaphor of waitressing serves to examine the social expectations that influence the performance of roles—in both public and private contexts. Eleonora Agostini investigates everyday gestures and postures, daily objects, and the system of visual codes associated with the service industry and her mother’s work in the family restaurant. Referring to feminist theories of the gaze and Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical model, the project explores three dimensions of the theatrical experience: stage, backstage, and performance. The restaurant becomes a microcosm in which ordinary activities take on a theatrical character, and issues of gender, power, work, and gaze are constantly reenacted. 

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Exhibition Partner: British Council

Mari Mäntynen, Stranger

What would our meetings and being together look like without the burden of the past, expectations for the future and prejudices? For Mäntynen performativity is an act of agency and so this series creates situations in which moments of friction and tension emerge, subtly influencing reality. The author places herself at the center of such experiments, appearing alongside strangers. Each photograph is a record of a first encounter—an attempt to answer questions: how do we position ourselves for a photo, can we touch, what can we do together? The photograph is not only a record of the meeting, but also of shared arrangements. After taking the photograph, there is a moment of silence, a conversation about the experience, and a shared choice of a favorite frame.

» Get to know more about Mari «

Tanya Habjouqa, Neither the Shadow nor the Sun

For twenty years, Tanya Habjouqa has photographed what Palestinians refuse to let go of. A father, forbidden visits, smuggles his sperm out of an Israeli prison so his wife can have their child. Another sets up an inflatable pool on his roof because his kids are too afraid to leave the house for the sea. A six-year-old packs a bag the moment she sees soldiers. A slow erasure over decades, now accelerated into something the world can name.

Neither the Shadow nor the Sun moves through the West Bank, the crossings where Gazans wait to carry the sick toward hospitals abroad, and the lives of the displaced. It traces how an occupation reaches into bodies, land, and the most basic acts of making a life: olive groves and refugee camps, families split by prison. Habjouqa left Palestine with her Palestinian children in 2023. She keeps returning to photograph what survives and carry out what she can: the notebooks from an emptied school, the carpet from a demolished home, the seed from a destroyed bank.

Exhibition curator: Peggy Sue Amison

» Get to know more about Tanya «

Tommaso Protti, Terra Vermelha

The Amazon has for years been idealized as a pristine sanctuary inhabited by indigenous tribes. This project conjures up a vision of a lost paradise, where land grabs, illegal logging, and gold mining are destroying ecosystems while fueling a hidden war. Indigenous leaders, environmentalists, and activists are regularly intimidated, attacked, and murdered. Behind the forest’s curtain, fault lines are formed, marked by corruption, impunity, and unchecked exploitation. To meet the needs of the global market, an area of ​​forest the size of a football field disappears every minute. Rivers are poisoned, and communities are displaced. Cities built on extractive economies, fueled by drug trafficking, inequality, and unregulated expansion, are among the most violent in the world. The Amazon is a place where land has become more precious than human life.

» Get to know more about Tommaso «

Did you know this?

Art_Inkubator is located in the former factory of Karol Scheibler II, son of the greatest factory owner in Łódź.

Every firstborn son in the Scheibler family was named Karol.

The factory is a part of Księży Młyn, also called a “town in town” or “Polish Manchester”. Scheibler Senior built the largest textile factory in this part of Europe, as well as an estate of workers’ houses, many palaces, hospitals, schools, and parks. Karol Scheibler’s legacy was later developed by Karol Scheibler II, who erected factories at Tymienieckiego and Milionowa Streets.

The factory still has the original Russian gauge railway tracks! You will find them near the passage to the new “Fuzja” estate.

These spaces, recently renovated and well preserved, are venues of Fotofestiwal.