Theme for Guest Room

Guest Room is all about sparking creative collaboration. For this edition, Michael Grieve, Director of Werkstatt Fotografie in Berlin and ArtFotoMode, teams up with artist Rut Blees Luxemburg, a Professor of Urban Aesthetics at the Royal College of Art, and founder of FILET, a space for experimental art in London.

Their theme for Guest Room is "Urban Exoticism."

Urban Exoticism is a term coined by art historian Alia Tsagkari (www.aliatsagkari.com) and proposes an alternative concept to experience the urban environment. Can a heightened awareness of strange juxtapositions and semi-hidden places open up an uncanny perception of the city? Urban Exoticism as a visual language that values fragments, unexpected contrasts and elements obscured by everyday experience. This edition of Guest Room is looking for the concealed mysteries beneath the banal surfaces of the modern city, drawn from the realms of the exotic, the erotic and the unconscious.

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 8€
• 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 the chance to be awarded a 1.000 € MPB Guest Room Scholarship

Voluntary donation

After over a decade of serving the international photography community Der Greif is now finally a registered non-profit. We believe this organizational structure best reflects our artistic and cultural mission. As always, your artistic contribution makes our work on Der Greif possible.

Since starting Guest Room in January 2015, we’ve been working hard to invite a broad range of practitioners, from gallerists to editors and curators. We are convinced that this format is an interesting and low-barrier approach to help artists get their work in front of people who might be interested in working with them. For this reason, we are asking you to consider making a financial contribution as well. That’s why we’re suggesting a voluntary donation of 8€ as a submission fee. 100% of the funds we collect from your donations will go towards helping us continue providing interesting opportunities for the photography community through Guest Room, and thus expand Der Greif.

We believe in inclusivity. We don’t want this suggested donation to stand in the way of your submission. If you are unable to contribute financially, please send an email to voucher-guestroom@dergreif.org to receive a voucher code which will allow you to enter for free.

About Michael Grieve

Michael Grieve is a photographer, writer, educator, and curator based in Berlin and Athens. He directs ArtFotoMode and Werkstatt Fotografie and holds an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster. A former deputy editor at 1000 Words Contemporary Photography Magazine, he has taught at Nottingham Trent University, Akademia Fotografii, the University of Art and Design in Berlin, and Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie. His programs, ArtFotoMode and Werkstatt Fotografie, offer workshops and courses across Europe. Grieve contributes regularly to the British Journal of Photography.

About Rut Blees Luxemburg

Rut Blees Luxemburg is an artist and Professor of Urban Aesthetics at the Royal College of Art. Her work explores art in urban contexts through photography, public art, publications, exhibitions, and opera. She founded FILET, an East London experimental art space supporting cultural production and community. Her public artwork Silver Forest, showcasing urban forests in Beijing and London, is permanently displayed on Westminster City Hall. Her photography inspired the opera Liebeslied / My Suicides, performed at the ICA London.

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.