14th Organ Vida: Happy Spiraling

dating hairy cabbage heads ☑ snacking on rotten potatoes ☑ vomiting ectoplasm ☑ vampiring father figures ☑ conceptualizing porn ☑

In 2024, we went rogue – ugly on purpose. But everyone else did too. Ugliness smeared itself across every screen, spinning subversion into spectacle. The "wrong shoes" suddenly matched the "glazed-donut face." Geeks turned chic. Substance became The Beauty. The ugly image became what we feared most: a quirky accessory, an aesthetic, a commodity. Content that multiplied, mutated into a mush of internet everything and nothing. Unstable and impermanent – more sensation than substance, more affect than image. Fast, anxious, meaningless. An endless spiral.

ballerina cappuccina ꩜ tralalero tralala ༄ *. Samantha the Afghan hound ༄ *. three questions to ask in early dating ꩜ Venus retrograde ༄ : *. stuck in situationships ༄ *. what I eat in a day ꩜ dom dom yes yes

On screen, everything has become equally urgent and equally disposable. Nothing shocks. Nothing settles. Nothing lingers long enough to feel real. We are overstimulated, but underwhelmed. In 2026, Organ Vida is obviously spiraling.

Oupi Goupi ꩜ delulu ༄ : *. puppies ꩜ pottery and paw prints ꩜ packing bento for my daughter ꩜ girl, so confusing girl ༄ *. girl, healing isn't linear ༄ chihuahua energy ꩜ "I am fucking crazy but I am free" ༄ : *. ???

This year, we are looking for those whose brains, like ours, sometimes feel foggy – maybe even a bit fried – but not rotten. Ex-doomscrollers. Recovering dopamine burnouts. Those ready to de-slop. Those capable of meaningfully hijacking the system – by maxxing it out, feeding it until it chokes, or just by causing friction. By tactically slowing it down. We're searching for dirty players. Tricksters. Clever storytellers. Witty comedians. Spineful spirallers.

But we are also looking for ways out. A mental cleanse. Regenerated attention. Complex thought. Boredom. Slowness. Offlineness. Unlearning. Not more noise, but less. Not another viral moment, but a sustained gaze. A vibe shift. An absolute nothing.

We hope to see images that recall moments when visual culture felt less gloomy. When the aura of the era was curiosity, joy and community. When nobody was watching so closely, and it was possible to get excited about the future. We are not searching for art that clings to this period nostalgically, but art that shows these moments have not vanished – that they still tick, faintly but stubbornly, in the cracks of the system, or live feral and off-grid, entirely beyond it.

About Call

Organ Vida invites artists from all over the world who work with image-based practices.

We are open to mediums such as photography and video, but also hybrid practices that consider images in relation to sound, sculpture, or spatial expansion, such as installations or performances.

We are looking for projects responding to the given topic: Happy Spiraling.

We accept finished projects ready for public presentation on the planned exhibition date.

The selected artists will exhibit their work at the main curated exhibition during the 14th Organ Vida Festival at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, opening mid-June 2026.

What winners receive

Participation in the main festival exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb.
Artist fee of 300 EUR net per selected project.
Shipping and/or production of the artwork, in accordance with the project's requirements and the curatorial exhibition plan.
Accommodation (2 nights) in Zagreb during the event.

About Organ Vida

Organ Vida has been a leading Croatian institution promoting and researching contemporary expanded photography practices in Croatia and internationally since its establishment in 2008. As an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization, it is dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging and established artists and creating platforms for knowledge exchange, education, and research. Organ Vida also hosts a biennial international festival held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatia. The festival brings together young international contemporary artists who share a common goal of advancing image-based practices. Our programs include exhibitions, lectures, performances, and workshops that reflect on contemporary image production in relation to popular and digital culture. We focus on producing and distributing new artworks and other cultural programs, as well as developing research in the fields of contemporary art, photography, and theory. Organ Vida is led by a curatorial team consisting of Barbara Gregov, Lovro Japundžić, and Lea Vene

How to enter

Send your artwork (at least one project with up to 25 photographs, images, sketches, video links) via the Picter platform.

Judging criteria

Applications will be assessed by a selection committee of six professionals. The committee will ensure that a multitude of perspectives is included. Selection criteria are based on: