The 2026 theme invites FUTURES artists to share works that engage with nonlinear and speculative notions of the past, present, and future. We seek to reflect on the concept of time, challenge how it is constructed, and imagine alternative ways of inhabiting it.

Issued at a moment marked by profound global violence and instability, when there is an urgent need to resist and oppose populist temporalities, the call asks: how is it possible to persist in and occupy time?

Together with the FUTURES community, we want to reflect on the role of speculation, fabulation, and imaginative storytelling as strategies for addressing historical gaps, unfolding present events, and opening possible futures. We seek to question the logic of chronological, linear time, as it is often mobilized as an instrument of oppression, and to focus on practices that disrupt linear temporality and dominant historical narratives.

This theme draws on several theoretical inspirations. It is informed by Saidiya Hartman’s seminal essay Venus in Two Acts, which introduces critical fabulation as a method that combines historical research with imaginative reconstruction to engage with the gaps and silences of archival records. It also resonates with the concept of retrocausality as articulated within Black Quantum Futurism, which proposes the possibility of reaching backward and forward in time in order to reshape present conditions. In addition, the theme is influenced by Ernst Bloch’s notion of nonsimultaneity, which understands multiple pasts and futures as coexisting within the same present, and frames time as plural, unfinished, and unevenly experienced.

What kinds of projects are we looking for?

We’re looking for projects that work with fragments, absences, and speculation as tools for restoring the humanity of subjects. We ask: Where are the gaps in knowledge, records, archives, and representation? Whose lives and experiences have been erased, and what might be the role of lens-based practices in enabling those lives and experiences to be (re)surfaced, (re)addressed, and (re)constructed? What role does photography play in shaping how time is recorded, contested, shaped, and lived?

Submissions may include, but are not limited to:

• Works that engage with archival gaps or lost histories, reading “against the grain” of the archive
• Speculative or fictional narratives grounded in real social or historical conditions
• Projects that combine past, present, and future into a single temporal space
• Practices working with memory, inheritance, ancestral knowledge, or future imaginaries
• Artistic research that challenges ideas of progress, development, or historical closure
• Experiments with time-based media, nonlinear storytelling, or fragmented structures
• Reflections on data, its biases, distortions, missing elements, and the systemic issues behind it.
• Interpretations of occupying time, embodying time, and inhabiting time

What selected artists receive

• Exhibition at FOTODOK, opening 27 November 2026
• Exhibition at ISSP in Riga, 21 January to 23 March 2027
• Exhibition at PHOXXI – Temporary House of Photography at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, from 11 September 2027
• €750 incl. VAT for the first presentation, €500 for each subsequent one
• Production and/or transportation of the works for installation purposes.
• Travel and accommodation to each opening.
• Consultations with the curatorial team
• Networking opportunities with the FUTURES network at the FUTURES Annual Meeting 2026 at FOTODOK.
• A dedicated two-page spread in Fotograf Magazine.

Who can apply?

• Artists nominated as FUTURES Talents between 2018 and 2026
• Projects completed or in development, ready for public presentation on the exhibition date

Selection criteria‍

Applications are evaluated on:

• Relevance and criticality of the proposal.
• Clear alignment of the work and the curatorial theme
• Uniqueness and clarity of artistic vision.
• Complementarity between the selected works.

Applications will be assessed by a curatorial team that will ensure that a multitude of perspectives are considered. 

The curatorial and  jury team:

Bettina Freimann (Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Germany),

Daria Tuminas (FOTODOK, The Netherlands),

Iveta Gabaliņa (ISSP, Latvia),

Markéta Kinterová (Fotograf Zone, The Czech Republic),

Nadine Isabelle Henrich (Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany).

Special thank you to Viktoria Rochambeau (Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany).

Application requirements

- Short Bio (Max 200 words. PDF format.)
- Project title and description (Max 2100 characters)
- Cover letter explaining the relation of your work to OCCUPY TIME. (Max 350 words. PDF format.)
- A note on the ecological sustainability of your work, if any. (Max 200 words. PDF format.)‍

-One PDF (max. 10 MB) titled "Surname_Name_OCCUPYTIME2026"
The PDF should include:

1. 10-20 Project images: 10–20, JPEG, 1080px on the longer side.
2. Up to 10 Installation views (if previously exhibited)
3. Your CV

APPLY HERE

The application is free of charge.

Timeline

• Submission opening: 16 February 2026
• Submission deadline: 16 March 2026
• Results announced: 1 April 2026
  
  

Exhibition Dates

27 November 2026
FOTODOK, Utrecht
Exhibition opening

21 January – 23 March 2027
ISSP, Riga

11 September 2027 – 30 January 2028
PHOXXI – Temporary House of Photography, Hamburg

Please note that dates are provisional and may change.

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Contact FUTURES for more information

info@futures-photography.com