On Thursday 20th Septermber, Futures will open officially its doors to the world.
At 5.30 p.m. Futures will inaugurate the outdoor exhibition in the "Talent Pool" at the Westergasfabriek with a welcoming moment for all the artists and curators involved in the project.
At 6.00 p.m. there will be the official opening of Unseen Amsterdam 2018 and the Futures Narrative exhibition at the Machinegebow on the Westergasfabriek terrain will be open to the public.
Belgium is bursting with photographic talent. Every day the FOMU is overwhelmed with portfolios, websites, blogs and photo books that are looking for a wider audience. To accommodate this young talent, the .tiff platform was established. This summer we put 10 photographers in the spotlight: Alexey Shlyk, Arnaud De Wolf, Calixte Poncelet, Jeroen Bocken, Maria Baoli, Massao Mascaro, Pauline Beugnies, Pauline Niks, Sine by Menxel and Thomas Nolf.
This presentation is part of Futures, a European collaboration that highlights young photographic talent. The FOMU is one of the founders of Futures. Together with nine other European initiators, we create a network of artists, experts and resources to push the boundaries of the European photography world. In September, all selected artists will exhibit their work at UNSEEN Amsterdam.
The Polish Futures Talents Launch will be one of the main parts of the Night of Photography. it will take place during Fotofestiwal’s Opening Weekend - June 21st to June 24th. The venue of the Night of Photography will be the Piotrkowska Street - the longest street in Poland and one of the longest commercial thoroughfares in Europe. The Night of Photography will consist of 5 large format projections (slideshows) in the public space, presenting emerging European photographers. It will be organized in cooperation with other Futures members, the City of Lodz and the Lodz Events Center.
PHotoESPAÑA organises for the second consecutive year a programme of nocturnal projections at the Real Jardín Botánico, a venue of the festival. The garden opens its doors after hours especially on this occasion so that the public can visit the site and enjoy the artistic proposals that are presented within and adapted to the surroundings, creating a night filled with light and sound. This year works of Futures artist wil be projected. The projection will be accompanied by the live music of Haydée Tamara Bunke.
PortfolioMatch within the 7th Triennial of Photography Hamburg, 7th and 8th June 2018
This year Circle of Friends of the House of Photography and the 7th Triennial of Photography Hamburg invite photographers and experts from across the world to make a portfolio review of a special child: the two-day PortfolioMatch. Every photographer has the chance to meet four different internationally renowned experts individually for individual meetings, which are based on mutual interest. The attractive format of a portfolio review gives due consideration to its Workshop character and the equal level of participants in intensive exchange, potential to develop ideas and to build networks.
In cooperation with FUTURES European Photography Platform.
Selected finalists will be invited and presented during UNSEEN Amsterdam.
International experts:
Peggy Sue Amison / Eastwing Dubai, United States
Alessandra Capodacqua / NYU and independent curator, ITALY
Gintaras Cesonis / Kaunas Photography Gallery, LITHUANIA
Alexa Becker / Kehrer Verlag, GERMANY
Lars Boering / World Press Photo, NETHERLANDS
Thomas Borberg / Politics, DENMARK
Diane Dufour / LE BAL, FRANCE
Aga Dwernicka / Cracow Photomonth, POLAND
Ruth Eichhorn / GEO Magazine, GERMANY
Ángel Luis González / PhotoIreland, IRELAND
W.M. Hunt / Dancing Bear Collection, USA
Michael Itkoff / Daylight Books, USA
Nina Kassianou / Independent curator, GREECE
Marina Paulenka / Organ Vida, CROATIA
Arianna Rinaldo / Cortona On Move, SPAIN / ITALY
Nadya Sheremetova / Photo Department, RUSSIA
Enrico Stefanelli / Photolux Lucca, ITALY
Fiona Sweet / Ballarat Photo Biennal, AUSTRALIA
Ingo Taubhorn / Deichtorhallen, GERMANY
Emilia Van Lynden / UNSEEN Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Sebastian Vaida / Photo Romania Festival, ROMANIA
István Virágvölgyi / Robert Capa Center, HUNGARY
Erik Vroons / GUP Magazine, NETHERLANDS
Christoph Wiesner / PARIS PHOTO, FRANCE
Manfred Zollner / fotoMAGAZIN, GERMANY
First appointment of the European FUTURES program for the promotion and support of emerging authors and realities in the photographic field. Appointment to CAMERA with the conference on the theme of the photo book and its contemporary evolutions entitled "Futures: evolutions and contemporary experiments of the photo book" where the formal, conceptual and strategic aspects will be investigated through testimonies and projections of realized projects.
To tell their experience will be BlisterZine (Milan), Rorhof (Bolzano), Skinnerboox (Jesi), Yard Press (Rome), Witty Kiwi (Turin), publishing companies operating in the artistic field with particular attention to the innovation of the photographic language , visual culture and cultural production through experiments and radical changes in the format of the photo book.
During the meeting will be announced the artists selected for exhibitions and activities related to FUTURES 2018, and one of them will dialogue with publishers on projects developed through the use of the book format.
During the meeting, an exhibition of books by the publishing houses invited to the talk will be set up in the Gymnasium hall.
Until November 4th you still can have the chance to visit the exhibition "Coa, Giannico, Mortarotti, Perna, Pingitore, Positano" promoted and hosted by Futures Photography partner CAMERA - Italian Center for Photography in Turin.
The exhibition is the first exposition staged by CAMERA in the field of the European Photography Platform – FUTURES. On the other, the works presented by six emerging artists constitute the initial output of unseen research carried out for this occasion, and which will evolve further over the months to come. The exhibition thus is not conceived in thematic or linguistic sections oriented towards supporting a thesis, although it is designed to provide an overview of the contents and languages that describe contemporary production in the Italian field and, thanks to the future shows and projects, will contribute to making up a major mapping of the state of the art in the field of emerging photography.
The artists invited to take part in the first edition are Umberto Coa (Palermo, 1988), Teresa Giannico (Bari, 1985), Vittorio Mortarotti (Savigliano, 1982), Armando Perna (Reggio Calabria, 1981), Lorenzo Pingitore (Turin, 1985) and Anna Positano (Genoa, 1981), proposed to CAMERA by a selection committee made up of Ilaria Bonacossa (Director of Artissima – Turin), Diane Dufour (director of Le Bal – Paris), Francesca Lavazza (collector), Beatrice Merz (Fondazione Merz – Turin) and Walter Guadagnini (director of CAMERA – Turin).
Umberto Coa presents Ne bastavano quarantacinque (2018), a project developed in collaboration with the Ethno-anthropological Museum of Sutera in which – starting from a particular request for prisoners to work in agriculture put forward by the mayor of the time to the Ministry of War Affairs (1916), from archive images and objects – he generates a story which goes beyond the limits of the linear narrative. An installation made up of elements of a visual and objectual nature reconstructs a particular story set within the small Sicilian town at the start of the century, offering a particular interpretation, midway between reality and fiction.
In Stanza Con Sedia Da Arbitro E Ruota Di Marmo (2018), Teresa Giannico makes an instrumental use of the codes of documentary photography to construct new realities. Starting from a drawing of hers, she represents a domestic interior in which objects display an unnatural relationship between one another. She then goes on to produce paper dioramas to reconstruct these imaginary environments, covering the three-dimensional surfaces of the objects themselves also through a major use of images taken from the web. The models are produced in a fairly undescriptive manner, and once photographed are destroyed.
With the three images Untitled (2018) Vittorio Mortarotti explores the issue of inhabited memory and the ways of creating memory, i.e. the ‘known’ in the social and cultural sense of the everyday in a given community. In order to do this, he shows us examples of people during rites of possession that really take place on one of the islands of the archipelago of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé, showing them in a state of trance. Inhabiting a space generates codes and habits that become the culture of a community, while memory is inhabited by the repetition and the reinterpretation of facts in the continual construction of sense.
The intrinsic fragility of places is the theme focused on by Armando Perna in the series Un paesaggio instabile. Calabria 1783/2018. The first set of a wider-ranging research project, the story starts out from Istoria de fenomeni del Tremoto avvenuto nelle Calabrie (1783), moving through the research of the geographers and historians of Calabria, Zanotti Bianco and Isnardi in the first half of the 20th century right up to a modern-day mapping. The photographs dialogue in an unprecedented manner with boards illustrated by Vivenzio and archive imagery, with a view to documenting how instability and precariousness – be they generated by natural or manmade phenomena – play a decisive role in outlining the characteristic traits of the population and the territory.
In the two shots of the series Parmenide (2018), Lorenzo Pingitore reflects on being, photographing a large sphere, 4.5 metres in diameter placed in ever different settings and architectures, chosen for their capacity to exalt a change between past, present and future, be it imposed by nature or by man. The tame nature of Villa Pisani, and the wild surroundings of Lago Verde enter into dialogue with the sphere, highlighting the process of the change of the perception of both. The places and the sphere, despite being immobile, create a unique whole that will persist over time thanks to the capacity of photography to halt the time in an image.
Lungo Mare Canepa (2018) is the artist’s book produced by Anna Positano, a wander through imagery along the western outskirts of Genoa. Despite the evocative name, the place is presented as a major traffic artery from which the sea cannot even be seen. Walking first along the north side of the road and photographing towards the sea, and then walking back along the road on the Foranea Dam looking inland, Positano takes a shot every seventy steps in order to portray a complete section of the road.
Since 2013, ING Unseen Talent Award provides an international platform for emerging European photography talent to present their work on a global scale. Futures is delighted to announce that the five finalists of the ING Unseen Talent Award 2018 are Futures Talents Dávid Biró (1992, Hungary), Jaakko Kahilaniemi (1989, Finland), Pauline Niks (1982, Netherlands), Eva O’Leary (1989, Ireland) and Alexey Shlyk (1986, Belarus). The finalists will spend the following two months in an extensive coaching course, creating new work for the ING Collection related to this year’s theme: New Horizons: Exploring the promise and perils of the future. The resulting work of the selected artists will be on display during Unseen Amsterdam 2018 from the 21st to the 23rd of September. The winners will be announced at the ING Unseen Talent Award Ceremony on the 20th of September.
Voting for ING Unseen Talent Award is open until 18.00 on Wednesday the 19th of September. Vote now!
This year at Unseen Amsterdam, all ING debit cardholders receive a €5 discount on day tickets! Get yours now.
ING UNSEEN TALENT PROGRAMME 2018
The ING Unseen Talent Award is an initiative of ING and Unseen that gives new European photography talent a stage to present their work on a global scale. ING sees an important role for artists within society for their often provocative and insightful perspectives on societal changes. Stemming from ING’s mission to enhance a culture of innovation and change, the incentive photo award for new talent was initiated in collaboration with Unseen six years ago.
The ING Unseen Talent Programme encourages emerging artists to explore the boundaries of contemporary photography and helps them kick-start their career. It introduces the finalists to extensive networks, providing support from experts and opportunities to exchange ideas with photography professionals. This year, the programme will be led by the internationally established British installation artist, filmmaker and photographer, Isaac Julien. Under his supervision, the selected artists will create new work within the theme New Horizons: Exploring the promise and perils of the future.
ING Art Management and Unseen have selected the five finalists from a long-list provided by experts associated Futures.The scouts who compiled the list are associated with: British Journal of Photography (United Kingdom), CAMERA (Italy), Hyères Festival (France), FOMU (Belgium), Fotofestiwal Łódź (Poland), PHotoESPAÑA (Spain), PhotoIreland (Ireland), Photo Romania Festival (Romania), Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center (Hungary) and Triennial of Photography Hamburg (Germany).
ING UNSEEN TALENT AWARD JURY MEMBERS
The winner of the ING Unseen Talent Award 2018 will be chosen by an international jury, including Emma Bowkett (Director of Photography, FT Weekend Magazine), Florian Ebner (Chief of Photography, Centre Pompidou), Fiona Tan (internationally renowned visual artist and filmmaker) and Sanne ten Brink (Head Curator, ING Collection) and will receive a €10,000 project production fund. In addition to the Jury Prize, a Public Prize will also be awarded to the finalist with the most online votes. The winner of the Public Prize will receive a commission to create new work for the ING Collection. Both winners will be announced at the ING Unseen Talent Award Ceremony during the official opening night of Unseen Amsterdam on the 20th of September 2018.
unseenamsterdam.com