Mateusz Pecyna

Nayara Leite (b. 1989) is a Brazilian artist and writer based in Bergen, Norway. She holds an MFA from the Bergen Art Academy and an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication. Nayara works across text, performance, film, photography and installation. Through autobiographical narrative, political news, archival material and letters to close friends, she produces a portrayal of the reality in which the LGBTQ+ community lives in Brazil and in Norway. She has exhibited and/or held performances at Bergen Kunsthall, Palmera, Lydgalleriet, Isotop, Bergen Kjøtt and KODE 2 in Bergen; Preus Museum in Horten; Studio 17 in Stavanger; Oslo Negativ, Kunstnerforbundet and Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo; and Momentum Biennale in Moss.‍

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.

Rafael Roncato (Brazil, 1989) is an interdisciplinary visual artist, editor, and educator working between Brazil and the Netherlands. His practice examines colonial memory, media myths, and the politics of representation, focusing on how images construct belief systems and shape collective perception. Grounded in documentary photography and expanded through archival research, video, and editorial strategies, Roncato develops semi-fictional, non-linear narratives that interrogate contemporary media landscapes and historical power structures.

Inspired by comics, cinema, and Brazilian (post)modernism, his work moves fluidly across formats, from artist books to exhibitions and multimedia projects. He holds a Master’s in Photography and Society from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, where he teaches artist bookmaking and visual storytelling and mentors emerging practitioners.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Noorderlicht International Photo Festival, PhMuseum Days, Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles, Encontros da Imagem, and Schwules Museum Berlin. His photobook Tropical Trauma Misery Tour received the 1st Prize at the Kassel Dummy Award ’23 (GER), the Imaginária Festival Dummy Awards ’23 (BR), and a Special Mention at the Hong Kong Photobook Festival ’23.

Portrait of Rafael Roncato by Gita Cooper van Ingen

ROXANA RIOS *1994 (they/them) currently based in Leipzig, Germany. In 2017 Roxana picked up a double study at HGB Leipzig and AdBK Nuremberg and studied in the classes of Heidi Specker and Juergen Teller. After graduating in 2020 Roxana joined Isabel Lewis' class of the performing Arts.They received their Diploma in July 2023. Roxana's work has been shown at Museum Folkwang Essen, DEICHTORHALLEN Hamburg, Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, Fotomuseum Winterthur and FOTOHOF Salzburg. Roxana was nominated for the Federal Prize for Art Students in 2020 and won the Contemporary German Photography Grant in 2024                                                                   Roxana's current practice engages in critical discussions concerning the development of (hegemonial) narratives, as well as the relations between image- and knowledge-production. Roxana examines ‘the’ body as a construct, material and representative within social orders.In this function, the work understands itself as an exercise in utopian thinking, seeing and speaking – a contribution to contemporary, social and aesthetic discourses.

Bo Vloors (she/her b. 1993, Belgium) is a visual artist, writer, photographer and filmmaker living and working between Brussels and Liège. Her artistic work hovers between the complex yet fascinating realms of image and language, exploring human relations in association with and within their surroundings, and the influential power of images. Drawing analogies between human experiences, natural cycles and symbiotic arrangements, she explores the ambiguity of the human condition, while simultaneously questioning the influence of images on our collective and personal intersection of reality and memory. For several years now, she has been practicing the artistic pollination between the audiovisual art, photography and writing by maintaining an archive with her own photographs, written texts, audiovisual and field recording. In 2022, she returned more explicitly to photography which eventually led her to a growing interest in the dynamic between image and text, as she started approaching her writings not only as an essayistic, but as material, printed matter, linguistic and lyrical vocal arrangements, all within the broader sense of “image-making”. The formats she uses may vary from publications, spatial installations, audio-visual to audio-performative. Her work has been exhibited in several cinemas, institutes, galeries, theaters and off spaces, both nationally and internationally. Since 2019, she is an active member of the Paris-based art collective SPASS and co-founder of the revue Voyons Voir.

Thi My Lien Nguyen (b. 1995) is a Swiss-Vietnamese photographer and artist based in Switzerland. She received her Bachelor's degree in Camera Arts from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2017. In her artistic practice she deals with the feeling and understanding of belonging, participation and the sense of home, whereas she is strongly interested in diasporic and post-migrant realities and stories. Through participatory and inclusive methods, performative and culinary activations she seeks to establish more inclusive spaces to create more understanding and representations between communities. She works with traditions, rituals, folklore, photography and food. Her work has been exhibited in multiple exhibitions including the 22nd Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil in São Paulo (2023), Museum Haus Konstruktiv Zürich (2023), Plat(t)form, Fotomuseum Winterthur (2022), Photo Hanoi, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA) (2021). Nguyen is part of the curatorial team at Les Complices*, a self-organised community-based off-space in Zurich, committed to support the ideas and works of queer, trans, inter, non-binary, women* and BIPoC.‍

Éva Szombat is a photographer based in Budapest, Hungary. She earned her MA in photography from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), and studied visual communication at ESAG Penninghen in Paris. Her works explore themes of happiness, mental well-being, and self-acceptance, by using colorful visuals with a subtle political edge. She previously released two books on the subject: Happiness, and Practitioners. The series I Want Orgasms, Not Roses won the Robert Capa Grand Prize in 2021, later published by Kehrer Verlag in collaboration with Everybody Needs Art in 2022. In 2023 the book was a joint winner at Belfast Photo Festival Photo-Book Award. Her project about nostalgia, titled Echo in Delirium, was completed late in 2024, and was released also in book form in cooperation with Symposion and Everybody Needs Art. Her works were displayed in numerous festivals and exhibitions such as Unseen Amsterdam, 212 Photography Istanbul, Belfast Photo Festival, White Box (New York), Jerusalem Biennale, Imago Lisboa, Foto Wien, Krinzinger Schottenfeld (Vienna), Galleri Image (Aarhus), Fotografica Bogota, National Museum Warsaw, Münchner Künstlerhaus, Robert Capa Center. She was selected for the FUTURES Photography talent programme in 2018. She is currently attending doctoral school and teaching photography at MOME. She is represented by Longtermhandstand.

Top researches the topics of mass surveillance, privacy, data collection.In his practice, he layers a traditional approach to documentary research with a more experimental use of new technologies (such as facial recognition, movement analysis, and deepfakes). The artist uses these technologies to visualise and examine scenarios in which people can protect themselves and their rights by gaining knowledge and reclaiming control of surveillance tools.  ​ Top’s projects addressing human rights, police misconduct and facial recognition during protests aim to contrast the abstract nature of the algorithmic mechanisms behind mass surveillance, by providing a concrete visualisation of the phenomenon and confronting the public with the extensive amount of surveillance societies are subjected to and the ethical risks deriving, finally offering theoretical solutions.

Camilla Ferrari (b. 1992) is a visual artist working with images and video based in Milan, Italy. Her work blends still and moving images to explore the ambiguity of perception, the coexistence of dream and reality, the eloquence of silence, and the poetry found in everyday life. Her portfolio includes features in prominent publications such as National Geographic, The New York Times, Essenziale, NPR, Artsy, and Domus. She is a Canon Ambassador. In addition to her personal projects and editorial contributions, Camilla has collaborated with commercial clients for special commissions, including names like Apple, Lamborghini, Marcolin, and Sony Music. In 2021 she was one of the five finalists of the ING Talent Award and in 2020 she was nominated by Camera Torino for Futures Photography, a European Platform focused on amplifying emerging artists in contemporary photography. In 2019 she was selected by PDN as one of PDN’s 30: New and Emerging Photographers to Watch worldwide and by Artsy as one of the “20 Rising Female Photojournalists”.

Irish artist, Miriam O’Connor lives and works in Cork. She holds a BA in photography from Dublin Institute of Technology, and completed a Research Masters at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire in 2011. Drawing inspiration from the language, sights and sounds of the everyday, O’Connor’s practice frequently engages with matters which reflect her everyday surroundings, as well as her day-to-day experiences of being a photographer. Her projects have explored themes around looking and seeing; the relationship between camera and subject; the circulation and consumption of images and the complex nature of photographic representation.Her work has been exhibited and distributed extensively, with features in magazines and publications including; Camera Austria, Source Photographic Review, The New York Times and The Guardian. Recent solo shows include Sternview Gallery, Cork, Galleri Image, Denmark, The Third Space Gallery, Belfast and during ‘THERE THERE’ festival, Cork curated by Stag & Deer. In 2012, she received the Alliance Française Photography Award, which included a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. She was the recipient of the Emerging Irish Artist Residency Award [EIARA] in 2015 which included a month-long residency at Burren College of Art, Co. Clare. Publications include, ‘Attention Seekers’ (2012) ‘The Legacy Project’ (2013) and ‘Tomorrow is Sunday’ (2017). She was one of the selected artists for Greetings from Ireland (2015) and New Irish Works I & II (2013, 2016). In conjunction with Galleri Image, Denmark, she recently produced new work for FRESH EYES - International artists rethink Aarhus, which was exhibited during Aarhus Capital of Culture, 2017.