Francesca Giaitzoglou-Watkinson

Samira Gollin (1998) is a graphic designer and freelancing artist based in Bern, Switzerland. She graduated in 2023 with a BA in Visual Communication studies from HKB Bern. For her Bachelor thesis she took part in an artist residency in Fivizzano, a small town in the northern part of Italy, where dozens of stone menhirs exist. From her research concerning the mythical origins and stories of the stones the literary-visual work “Leave no stone unturned” was published.Samira Gollin’s artistic interests are focused on the interaction of humanity and its environment. Her work regularly concerns itself with how humans perceive reality and how perception and individual identities shape narrative and thought.In this publication she examines the authenticity and narrative story telling of historical-documentary media and its effects and affects on the audience. Throughout the work fictional aspects generated by AI are present, without them being identified.Together with artist Aarabi Kugabalan she founded the art collective "Kunst Kola". Kunst Kola is a platform for showcasing local art and cultural works. In 2023 they won the "Kulturpreis Langenthal". Their current collaborative work is about how identities are affected by displacement and war.

Kaarina-Sirkku Kurz (Finnish/ German) is a German-Finnish photographer and visual artist currently based in Berlin. She studied in Bremen, Lahti and Helsinki where she graduated with a Master’s degree from the Department of Photography at Aalto University School of Arts. Her series Supernature, still in progress, presents in a very conceptual way her concern and fascination for the human body, something that she has already begun to work in her previous award-winning project UNGLEICHGEWICHT. The photobook of the same name won the Nordic Dummy Award in 2015 and was published by Kehrer Verlag. In 2017 the publication was honored with the Finnish Photobook of the Year Award, organized by the Association of Photographic Artists and The Finnish Museum of Photography. Photographer Alec Soth chose the winner. The coherence of her discourse and career, her way of getting into the subjects she photographs, with a very particular narrative, make Sirkku's work particularly interesting to us. In addition, being in a project which is in progress, we believe that Futures will give her opportunities and opinions to continue or find exhibition opportunities for it.

Nazlı Yıldırım was born in Ankara and is living in Ireland. She studied at Istanbul University Faculty of Letters. After teaching for a while, she worked as an editor in the publishing industry. Nazlı’s articles have been published in various magazines, newspapers and online platforms in Greece, Belgium and Turkey. Nazlı released her first photo fanzine called Hayret. Her creative journey involves documenting the impact of factors like class, culture, gender, sexual identity, and family dynamics on societies. Through the lens of her own life, she delves into subjects such as gender, cultural identity, discrimination, and the experiences of LGBTI+ communities.

Pierre Vanneste is a Belgian photographer and filmmaker based between Brussels and Dakar,specializing in long-term reportage and documentary projects. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries (Biennale ofDakar Contemporary Art, Musée de la Photographie de Charleroi, FoMu,Zone i) and published in media outlets such as Médiapart,Libération, DOC! Photo Magazine, Courrier International (webversion), De Standaard, Tchak, Equal Times, and Alter Echo. In 2018, he co-directed "Bargny, the real face of economic emergence"a transmedia documentary (photos, videos, and texts) about thedesignation of land for industrial purposes. The project wasshortlisted for the Visa d'Or for Digital Information 2019 (Visa pourl'image festival). His project "DREMMWEL" (a photo project with enrichedvideo content) was published in 2020 by Éditions Yellow Now. It is along-term project on the extractivist model through fishing andoverfishing. This project has been exhibited in France, Belgium,Senegal, and Canada. One of the photographs from the project is nowpart of the permanent collection at the Musée de la Photographie deCharleroi. He received the 2019 Photographic Grant from the FondationJean-Luc Lagardère for his project "P2O5, the Toxic Impact ofPhosphate" which he co-directed with author-journalist Laurence Grun. Since 2022, he has been working on various videographic andphotographic documentary projects in Senegal.

Romane Iskaria is a French photographer and artist based in Brussels, Belgium (1997). The photographer highlights the injustices and inequalities of invisible communities with a documentary and fictional approach. Her images, specific to “Care”, tell a story and allow her subjects to become aware of their painful stories. She creates a connection with these subjects that goes beyond the simple link between the photographer and her model. The artist uses photography and the field of video, but also textiles, sound, and sculpture to create immersive installations. She tells stories that take the form of a long-term investigation across several territories. Romane replays specific rituals and stories that also transcend borders, addressing questions around migration and exile. The photographer creates plastic forms allowing her to subvert the codes of documentary. She graduated with a Master's degree in photography from ENSAV La Cambre in 2022 and a DNA (National Diploma in Plastic Arts) from INSEAAM Beaux Arts in Marseille in 2018. She also completed an exchange at the U-LAVAL Visual Arts school in Quebec, Canada. Romane is laureate of TIFF 2024 Emerging Belgian Photography, by FOMU Fotomuseum Antwerpen and the european platform FUTURES Photography. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions: in the United States (ART-ARK Gallery in San Jose, California; Assyrian Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.), in Brazil (João Pessoa Paraíba Nordeste Art Gallery of the Energisa Institute), in France (Circulation(s) Cent-Quatre Festival in Paris, Lille Art-Up Centre Photographique in Lille, La Grande Vitrine Gallery in Arles, HLM Gallery in Marseille), in Belgium (FOMU Fotomuseum Antwerp, S.M.A.K Museum in Ghent, House of European History Brussels, TAMAT Museum in Tournai, BPS22, Art-Brussels Off, Prix Médiatine, Hangar Art Photo Center, TICK-TACK Gallery, Tiny-Gallery, Fondation Carrefour des Arts), in Armenia (French Consulate in Yerevan), in Italy (L’Asilo in Naples), and in the Netherlands (Flemish Cultural Center). Brakke-grond, Noorderlicht Festival). Romane was selected as part of the call for projects launched by Polka Magazine and Kickstarter for the creation and support of an artist's book, with the self-publishing of her first work, "Assyrians," in a print run of 300 copies in 2022. The book "Assyrians" was also a winner of the Belgian Photo Books selection, presented at the Rencontres d'Arles in July 2022.

Lucija Rosc (b. 1995) is a visual artist based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Rosc graduated in photography from the Faculty of Applied Sciences VIST in Ljubljana in 2018 and earned her master’s degree in Visual Communication Design, with a focus on photography, with special honors from the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design (ALUO) in 2022. Rosc received the UL ALUO Prešeren Award and was a nominee for the 2024 OHO Award, Slovenia's premier national recognition for young visual artists. Rosc's art practice combines an investigative approach with play, drawing inspiration from her childhood memories, family archives, and the environment in which she grew up. She has held numerous solo exhibitions, with her work featured in exhibitions across Europe and the USA. Additionally, Rosc's work has been showcased at prestigious contemporary photography fairs, including Unseen Amsterdam, Photo Basel, Viennacontemporary art fair and the Art Salon Zürich, among others.

Marija Mandić (b. 1990, Novi Sad, Serbia) is an artist whose practice spans photography, text, drawing, and found footage. Her work delves into the themes of identity, memory and the past, often within a familial context, blending personal narratives with broader social issues. In 2023, Mandić was a finalist for the Mangelos Award, part of the Young Visual Artists Awards network. She won the Fotograf Magazine (CZ) open call in 2022 and received the VID Foundation for Photography grant in 2021 for her project White Bee. Her accolades also include the Dositeja scholarship, a grant from the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic, and the Mali Princ Foundation award. Mandić holds a PhD in Visual Communication from the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem, where she lectured from 2015 to 2019.

Toma Hurduc is a documentary photographer, currently working in Bucharest. His attention was first focused on representing local underground communities and movements, which he strongly feels related to. Nowadays, his narratives are often built on top of the personal experience and relationship with the subject matter, therefore the factual truth is often mixed with the meta, imaginative truth, aiming to question the human perception of reality, dread, anxiety, ephemerality and the construction of memory. Having an academic background in Cinematography, Toma is highly interested in the way light forms images, choosing to work regularly on 35mm black and white film, as a way to render the surreal he sees in ordinary life. Toma’s work has been exhibited both collectively and solo in Romania and abroad and he has been part of multiple mentorship programs, most recent being with Annie Leibovitz and IKEA.

Born in 2001, Chernihiv, Ukraine. Started doing photography in 2019. Graduated the cinematography faculty of the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University. In 2019 completed the MYPH school from Serhiy Melnitchenko and the concept photography course from Roman Pyatkovka in 2020. Member of UWPO and UAPP.