After a year of reckoning come and gone, in 2021 reality is anything but in balance. Waves of counter-narratives continue to bloom and subvert our knowledge base, flooding the frameworks that once navigated our senses of being and belonging. Driven by the fusion of the physical and virtual realms, Europe now watches as a young generation of makers attempts to foster a new cultural literacy; searching, breaking, and reworking their mediums and conceptual moulds.
But can we define a direction in all this disorder? Within this climate of hybrid experimentation, we are witnessing the forging of new realities every day. What new forms of making, narrating and reading are here to stay, and what can we just make out on the horizon ahead?
Co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, the festival brings together the work of over 70 artists and the expertise of the 13 European photography institutions that are part of the Futures platform. This year’s programme unfolds the main theme HYBRIDS: Forging New Realities as Counter-Narrative by investigating how our reality is challenged by artistic experimentation and counter-narratives.
For the main exhibition, we explore this year's theme through the projects of eleven artists selected from our pool of talents. They are: Maija Savolainen, Hien Hoang, Emily Graham, Carlos Alba, Eva Kreuger, Marta Bogdanska, Alexey Shlyk, Valeria Cherchi, Io Sivertsen and the duo Lena Dobrowolska & Teo Ormond-Skeaping. At MILK CAFE in Melkweg, the artist Jean-Vincent Simonet will also present a live performance during the show (16 and 17 September). The exhibition is curated by Marina Paulenka (former artistic director of Unseen).
At Melkweg Expo, you can also meet the 68 artists who joined our platform this year in the showcase Futures Talents 2021.
On 16 and 17 September, the curator Marina Paulenka together with the 13 Futures members is organising a programme of talks with artists and other relevant voices in photography. The panels will be livestreamed by Melkweg Expo and Futures.
HYBRIDS: Forging New Realities as Counter-Narrative
10 September - 17 October 2021
Melkweg Expo
Marnixstraat 409
1017 PJ Amsterdam
HYBRIDS: Forging New Realities as Counter-Narratives is made possible with the support of Creative Europe, Mondriaan Fund, Pro Helvetia and exhibition partner LG Electronics.
Find out more about the event below:
During 2020 almost everyone on the planet has experienced this existential fear. A global pandemic required the world to be on lockdown, destroying the economic values upon which modern societies are built and the social constructions and rites that define everyday life. Suddenly, we all had to respond to the impossibility of social relationships, re-defining the systems that run life’s basic needs. This process is still ongoing and may be a catalyst for general changes that were already underway.
During 2020 almost everyone on the planet has experienced this existential fear. A global pandemic required the world to be on lockdown, destroying the economic values upon which modern societies are built and the social constructions and rites that define everyday life. Suddenly, we all had to respond to the impossibility of social relationships, re-defining the systems that run life’s basic needs. This process is still ongoing and may be a catalyst for general changes that were already underway.
During 2020 almost everyone on the planet has experienced this existential fear. A global pandemic required the world to be on lockdown, destroying the economic values upon which modern societies are built and the social constructions and rites that define everyday life. Suddenly, we all had to respond to the impossibility of social relationships, re-defining the systems that run life’s basic needs. This process is still ongoing and may be a catalyst for general changes that were already underway.
During 2020 almost everyone on the planet has experienced this existential fear. A global pandemic required the world to be on lockdown, destroying the economic values upon which modern societies are built and the social constructions and rites that define everyday life. Suddenly, we all had to respond to the impossibility of social relationships, re-defining the systems that run life’s basic needs. This process is still ongoing and may be a catalyst for general changes that were already underway.
