About call

FUTURES invites artists of the FUTURES Talents community to submit their applications for the Open Call 2024. Selected projects will participate in the annual FUTURES group exhibition, curated by Organ Vida, Ciclo plataforma, and Fotofgraf magazine.

This year, the Open Call’s theme is Ties That Bind

You and me. A relationship. Us and them. A whole web of relationships. A network of synopses going back and forth. I am tied to you, you to me. I depend on you, you depend on me. They depend on us, and we on them. Us and them – an interdependence.

Let us start by "zooming out" and observing the infinite interdependencies enveloping our planet. We witness natural resources, their movements and exploitation, the trajectory of consumption, vast growth, violent conflicts – a diverse range of interrelated events.

Let us then move closer, zoom back on us. From the moment of our birth, we become attached to and dependent on different structures and relationships, from the state to family. They shape or influence the ways we connect to the world — to (other) bodies, beings, ideas, phenomena, technologies, environment… While each attachment could bring joy, comfort, or safety, they might also feel constraining or suffocating. Affection or love may disguise power and dominance. Beneath kind expressions such as "I care for you" or "We can help you," may lie a desire to manipulate, use, own, or control.

So, If I depend on you, and you depend on me, then none of us should feel stuck with the other, yet we should find ways to stick together. To nourish bonds that excite us and to cut ties with ones that diminish or damage either of us.

If I depend on you and you depend on me, and if we not only want to survive but also thrive, then it is up to us to create a more hospitable, caring world, one capable of sustaining and nurturing all forms of life.

Let us, thus, invite you to help us challenge, untie, and/or move beyond familia(r)l ties. Explore new, meaningful ways to belong, connect, or experience closeness. Imagine new forms of attachment and kinship that could exist beyond familiar social structures, relationships, species… Or grow from within their loopholes.

We invite projects that come from a place of healing, repair, transformation, joy. Or create space for such collective experiences. We welcome projects that challenge and raise questions, but also ones that are mischievous, fun, and dissident. Ones that embrace fragmented, contradictory, and open constructions of our individual and collective selves.

We dare you to speculate outside the logic of appropriation, incorporation, identification.

Dare us to venture beyond reality.

The curatorial team of Open Call 2024:

The Bienal Fotografia do Porto, Fotogalleriet, Fotograf Magazine and Organ Vida

What winners receive

The chance to be part of an exhibition at Organ Vida and receive a €750 research fee
Consultations with FUTURES’ curators
Two exhibitions at Ciclo plataforma and Fotofgraf magazine, along with a €1000 research fee (with reservation)

About Futures

Co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, Futures is a Europe-based photography platform bringing together the global photography community to support and nurture the professional development of emerging artists across the world. Since 2017, it aims to add long-term value in empowering early and mid-career photographers – launching initiatives to promote their work and granting them access to an unprecedented network of professionals, markets and audiences.

How to enter

Artists that have been selected as FUTURES Talents by one of our member institutions in the period 2018–2024. FUTURES Artists who have either finished projects, or projects in a stage of development, as long as they are ready for public presentation on the planned exhibition date.

Judging criteria

Applications will be assessed by a selection committee comprising of four Futures member institutions (The Bienal Fotografia do Porto, Fotogalleriet, Fotograf Magazine and Organ Vida) The committee will ensure that a multitude of perspectives are included. Selection criteria are based on: