Theme for Guest Room

Guest Room aims to inspire collaboration and creative exchange. In this edition, we welcome a trio of curators from FOTO ARSENAL WIEN: Marit Lena Herrmann, Mona Schubert and Felix Hoffmann.

Together, they introduce the theme for your submissions:

"Messy"

In a world that celebrates perfection and control, we’re shifting our focus to the raw, the chaotic, the unfiltered. Unlike order, messiness embraces contradictions. Messiness might exist in the physical – cluttered spaces, disordered environments, technical glitches, unruly bodies – or in the psychological – heartbreak, obsession, tangled relationships, uncertain transitions. Labelling someone as ‘messy’ can serve as a tool of control and oppression – or it can foster agency and resistance. The theme also opens up a media-reflective perspective: How messy is photography itself? Historically tied to ideas of evidence, clarity, and control, the photographic medium has often served to categorize, to frame, to fix. But images can slip. They can blur, rupture, leak – challenging notions of legibility, authority and normativity. The medium’s very processes, from exposure to editing to dissemination, and even its (archival) transmission carry traces of imperfection, chance, and failure. We’re looking for artistic contributions that break rules, reject polished surfaces, take risks, and that aren’t afraid to reveal the cracks – works that reveal stories without playing it safe.

Why submit to Guest Room?

• Be discovered by an expert in contemporary art and photography
• Get published in an online showcase on Der Greif alongside emerging artists from all over the world
• Submit for free or pay a voluntary donation of 10€
• Please note: Images which have been selected for a previous Der Greif opportunity are not eligible for re-submission. We want to support the broadest range of photographers possible and therefore encourage you to submit work that has not yet been selected by our past Guest Curators. Any images which do not comply with these terms will be removed from the selection process.
• Get a chance to win one of three Face-to-Face Portfolio Feedback Sessions with the curators"

In addition to being considered for publication, three selected artists will be invited to participate in a special edition of Der Greif’s portfolio review program, "Face-to-Face." Led by the open call curators, each artist will take part in a 20-minute one-on-one feedback session, focused on their ongoing projects and future development. Please note: The curators will select the participants for these sessions based on the open call submissions.

Voluntary donation

Der Greif is a registered non-profit. In these challenging economic times – especially for arts organizations and artists – we are convinced to provide a vital platform for our community. If you're in the position to support this mission, we value your support.

Since launching Guest Room in January 2015, we've invited a broad range of professionals (gallerists, editors, curators) to create opportunities for artists to share their work and get it in front of an international network they might not have access to otherwise. We are more commited than ever to continue this work.

We suggest a voluntary 10€ donation to help us sustain these efforts. If you'd like to support us further, we also accept regular donations via our Raisely page.

If you're unable to contribute financially, please email voucher-guestroom-2@dergreif.org to receive a 50% or 100% discount code. Your artistic and financial contributions enable our continued growth.

About Marit Lena Herrmann

Marit Herrmann is an art historian, researcher, and curator at FOTO ARSENAL WIEN (FAW), with a strong focus on queer and feminist visual practices. They studied art, and visual culture at Humboldt University in Berlin and in Vienna, where they completed their master’s degree. They have collaborated on exhibition and publication projects with institutions including the Reinbeckhallen Stiftung – Collection for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Ostkreuz Agency and the renowned publisher Spector Books in Leipzig. In 2023, they co-led the master class of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation alongside Ute Mahler and curated the accompanying exhibition at the Goethe-Institut in Paris. Most recently, they curated the main exhibition Ein Dorf / A Village for the Academy of Arts (AdK) as part of EMOP 2025.

About Mona Schubert

Mona Schubert is an art historian, curator, and writer. Her projects explore photography at the intersection of art, technology, and media history, photographic exhibitions since the 1960s and post-digital image practices. Since 2024, she has been a curator at FOTO ARSENAL WIEN, with a particular focus on the festival FOTO WIEN. In 2025, she completed her PhD at the University of Cologne on the topic “(Re-)construction of a Medium. Photography at documenta.” Previously, she worked as a research assistant in the DFG-research group “Dimensions of techne” at University of Graz (2021-2023) and as an assistant curator at Fotomuseum Winterthur (2019-2021). She has contributed to numerous research and writing projects, most recently as a stipend of Anna Polke Stiftung (2024).

About Felix Hoffmann

Felix Hoffmann is a visual and cultural scientist and the Artistic Director of FOTO ARSENAL WIEN, the Center for Photography and Lens-Based Media, which opened in March 2025. Previously, he worked at various museums and served as the Director of Exhibitions, Programs, and Strategy at the C/O Berlin Foundation from 2005 to 2022. With passion and curiosity, he continues to develop new spaces and approaches for photography and new media. He has curated numerous international exhibitions and co-initiated the C/O Berlin Talents program for emerging photographers and art critics. He is a member of several professional committees and has published extensively.

FOTO ARSENAL WIEN

FOTO ARSENAL WIEN is Austria’s new center for photography and lens-based media. Since 2023 it has been responsible for the FOTO WIEN festival, and starting in 2025 it will be responsible for the Festival Vienna Digital Cultures with the Kunsthalle Wien. Initiated as a media literacy center by the city of Vienna in fall 2022, FOTO ARSENAL WIEN explores all facets of photography. As a hub for photography and lens-based media in Austria, the institution brings together historical and international topics at the interface between analog and digital worlds as well as between static and moving pictures. The institution was located at a temporary venue at the Museums Quartier in the seventh district of Vienna from June 2023 to June 2024. Since early 2025 FOTO ARSENAL WIEN has occupied a building on the grounds of the Arsenal in the third district of Vienna. FOTO ARSENAL WIEN presents the full spectrum of the medium of photography in up to twelve exhibitions held annually in a one-thousand-square-meter exhibition space—a combination of young talents, still-to-be-discovered photographers, and internationally known artists.

About Der Greif Guest Room

Guest Room is a monthly online exhibition with open submissions curated in real-time by personalities from the international photography scene. Der Greif is an award-winning organization for contemporary photography. It is print-publication, online-publication, curatorial team and joint project all at once. Der Greif connects the digital and the analogue, exploring and expanding the borders and limits of image-distribution and -reception in the digital era.