Futures Digital Festival: The Open Mic
The Open Mic is a private activity, when our talents can present their ongoing projects in an online space with artists and other professionals from the industry.
On Mondays throughout the month, we offer this year’s artists the opportunity to digitally present their ongoing and unfinished projects to an exclusive audience of fellow artists and relevant industry professionals. The artists selected for these private sessions are Ana Zibelnik, András Ladocsi, Brave Boy Studio, Hanna Jarzabek, Jon Gorospe, Mar Sáez, Ruth Montel Arias, Sebastian Steveniers and Vera Ryklova.
Please join us for a Magnum x FUTURES Artist Spotlight with Visvaldas Morkevicius.
Visvaldas Morkevicius will present his latest photography project.
“Losing someone is like the sky surrendering a star, a note falling silent in a familiar tune. Everything changes, with memories lingering in the air like echoes in empty rooms. Moments resurface unexpectedly: fragments of laughter, the warmth of a touch, vivid and almost too real to be gone. Moving forward feels strange, like walking on uneven ground, each step shifting what once felt certain. You drift between shadows and light, caught between the past and the future. Something within you subtly rearranges, yet nothing feels completely whole.”
Using photography as a medium, the artist captures the emotional terrain of loss – fragmented memories, fleeting moments, and the interplay of absence and presence – creating visual echoes that explore the fragile balance between holding on and moving forward. Ultimately, the piece becomes a “letter to self of acceptance.”
Details
Online
Tuesday 22 September
17:00 - 18:00 Amsterdam time
Free – Registration required
Join us for Benedetta Casagrande's Open Studio, our newest resident at the FUTURES Photography Hub. Benedetta Casagrande will present her project “Recollections” as part of the FUTURES Residency.
Benedetta Casagrande is an artist, writer, and educator working with photography. Starting from a practice-based theoretical approach in the fields of ecology and critical studies, Casagrande develops a biocentric practice in which photography is used to investigate interspecies relationships and more-than-human life in times of extinction and environmental ruination.
"Recollections is an ongoing body of work which (re)collects narratives of lived encounters with other species whilst looking at photography's own entanglement in processes of environmental degradation, questioning the limits and possibilities of art practices as tools to face the multiple crises we currently inhabit"- Benedetta Casagrande
Event details
1 July 2026 | 17:30 – 20:30
Q&A 18.30
FUTURES Photography Hub, Isaac Titsinghkade 6, 1018 CA Amsterdam
Join us for a Magnum x FUTURES Artist Spotlight with Sára Kölcsey.
Sára Kölcsey will present her latest work.
About FUTURES x Magnum Artist Spotlight:
Five times a year, Magnum Learn invites a FUTURES photographer to take the spotlight in an online conversation about their artistic journey. The series connects audiences worldwide with the artist’s practice, inspirations, and the ideas behind their work.
We also hope to inspire the next generation of photographers, providing them with the opportunity to connect with fellow artists.
Details:
Online
Tuesday, 30 June
17:00 - 18:00 Amsterdam time
Free – Registration required
During the workshop participants will learn how to make plant-based developers powered by the photoreactive properties of plants and kitchen waste, and will be introduced to the material history of photography and the basics of ecological thinking. Students will test the developers made during the workshop developing photograms where they will assemble plants, their bodies and personal objects in the darkroom to construct images of the local territory in which artificial and natural bodies meet and coexist on the photographic surface.
Materials (provided by the darkroom):
- Possibility to boil two pots on a stove (e.g. a portable electric stove and two pots)
- Vitamin C powder
- Soda crystals
- Photographic paper (new and/or expired, both are fine)
- Vinegar
- Coarse salt
- Water
- Darkroom thermometer
- I am planning to teach students to make a saline solution instead of using industrial fix,
but prints should stay in the saline solution for 24-72 hours. If students cannot come
back to pick up the work at a later date, then we would need to use IlFord Rapid Fix.
- pH test strips
- Enough enlargers for all students (one every two students should be fine)
Students should bring pen and paper, and any objects they would be curious to assemble in a photogram.
Event Details:
Time: 10:00 am - 5:30 pm (with lunch break)
MK Ateliers, Mauritskade 24, 1091 GC Amsterdam
SIGN UP HERE (5 spots available on a first-come, first-served basis)
By signing up, you'll join our community of artists and professionals committed to contemporary photography.