Futures at Unseen Amsterdam 2019

Futures will host a series of events during Unseen Amsterdam 2019. This year, the project will have its own space at the festival, inside the Westergastheater. This space will work as a headquarters, bringing together the 12 members of Futures and the 69 emerging talents with a programme of showcases, talks, lectures and private meetings. The activities are focused both on the festival's visitors and on the project's talents in order to increase the capacity, mobility and visibility of new artists in Europe. Unseen Amsterdam will take place at Westergas from the 19th to the 22nd of September.

SHOWCASE. During the four days of the event, Futures will present artworks from the 69 artists and collectives selected for this year. These emerging talents were chosen by 12 leading photography institutions in Europe: British Journal of Photography (UK), The Calvert Journal (UK), CAMERA (IT), Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center (HU), FOMU (BE), Hyères Festival (FR), Fotofestiwal Lodz (PL), PHotoESPAÑa (SP), PhotoIreland (IE), Photo Romania Festival (RO), Triennial of Photography Hamburg (DE), and the Unseen Foundation (NL). The showcase will take place inside of the Futures’ space at Westergas. A publication about the talents will also be released during the event.

PROFESSIONAL MARKET. The events will be focused on increasing and amplifying the professional opportunities for the artists. On Friday 20th Sept, ‘Futures Conversations’ will take place; private meetings with experts from the field such as international curators, collectors and editors. On Saturday 21st, experts from the Creative Europe programme will join the event in a talk dedicated to grants opportunities for artists and cultural institutions within the EU. On the same day, the lecture ‘How to translate your work to a bigger audience and make it relevant’ will see the dialogue between the editors of The Calvert Journal about the relation between words and images as well as the lecture ‘Challenges in the artists' professional practice’ moderated by PhotoIreland director Ángel Luis González Fernández will be about steps in an artist’s career.

ING UNSEEN TALENT PROGRAMME. In a partnership between ING, Unseen, and Futures, five Futures Talents from 2019 were selected as finalists for the ING Unseen Talent Award. They are: Elena Aya Bundurakis, Ulla Deventer, Irene Fenara, Kevin Osepa, and Karolina Wojtas. Coached by Adam Broomberg, from the artistic duo Broomberg & Chanarin, the artists are producing a new body of work. The result can be seen at the exhibition ‘Nature of Change’, during Unseen Amsterdam. The winners will also be announced in the event.

WOVEN MATTERS. Inside Unseen Amsterdam programme, the Futures talents Elena Subach and Mous Lamrabat will also show some of their work at the exhibition Woven Matters, developed by Unseen Foundation. At the Machinegebouw, the showcase presents an overview of artists combining textiles and photography within their practices. The works explore juxtapositions between the tactility of materials and the two-dimensionality of photographic images.

Throughout the four days of Unseen Amsterdam, the Futures Talents of 2019 will be invited to meet photography professionals, present their portfolios, and participate in talks and lectures.

FUTURES PROGRAMME (WESTERGASTHEATER)

THURSDAY - 19TH OF SEPT. (ONLY FOR GUESTS)
- Evening opening, with presentations of the selected artists of 2019
FRIDAY - 20TH OF SEPT.
- 10.00-17.00 - Futures Conversations: Private meetings between the 2019 Futures talents and 30 among the finest professionals in the photography field
SATURDAY - 21ST OF SEPT.
- 13.00-16.00: Panels
- Creative Europe Mobility Programme, introduced by Silvana Verdiana
- Nomadic H, a project by 2018 Futures artists collective
- Challenges in the artists' professional practice: Salvatore Vitale, Sheng Wen Lo, and Diana Scherer, moderated by Angel Luis Gonzalez, Director of PhotoIreland
- How to translate your work to a bigger audience and make it relevant: Editors of the Calvert Journal, Taco Hidde Bakker (indipendent curatora) and Bertan Selim (representing Prins Claud Fund) in conversation
SUNDAY - 22ND OF SEPT.
- 10.00-11.00: Futures meeting Fuji (only for guests)
- 11.00-12.30: Futures Partner Eurokleis at work (only for guests)
- 12.30: Goodbye moment (only for guests)

More about Unseen Amsterdam: https://amsterdam.unseenplatform.com/event