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The

Artist

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Visual Artist

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Researcher

Julius Thissen

Nominated in
2025
By
FOTODOK
Lives and Works in
Arnhem
Julius Thissen (1993, the Netherlands) lives and works in Arnhem, NL. Their work investigates themes of community and representation, masculinity, sports, and competition. Originating from their background as a performance artist, Thissen's photographic practice aims to create narratives that explore the fine line between performing and failing. These themes are closely tied to contemporary performance-driven culture and the influence of societal expectations on behavior. Their work is deeply rooted in personal experiences as a genderqueer and transmasculine individual. Thissen strongly opposes the restrictive and often binary narratives imposed on transgender and queer individuals. Thissen has been nominated for the Hendrik Valk Prize, Arnhemse Nieuwe, and the Warsteiner Blooom Awards. In 2023, they received the Artist Basis Fund and, more recently, a Mondriaan Fund Artist Project Grant for their new project Bones of Graphene, Skin of Kevlar.
Projects
2025

Bones of Graphene, Skin of Kevlar

The first chapter of this research, titled "Old Money Never Dies" (2023), focuses specifically on the issues surrounding the queer influencer and their power dynamics within capitalist systems.


Thissen is currently working on the second chapter, titled "Bones of Graphene, Skin of Kevlar" (2024-ongoing). The project began with archival and visual research in New York in early 2024, centering on historical transgender resilience, STAR, and protests in NYC during the 1960s and 1970s. The primary focus is to visualize the impact of rising global far-right politics and sentiments, contrasted with the enduring resilience and fighting spirit of trans individuals across generations.


“With this work, my goal is to create strong contemporary transgender figures and symbolic still lifes that channel the ancestral power of our queer elders to push back against the dangers of our time. I want to capture and translate the tensions and threats we are facing. In a time marked by fear-mongering, media manipulation, attacks and bans on gender-affirming healthcare, and an increasing detachment from factual reality, it is vital to develop strategies for staying safe and resilient, without losing the ability to remain soft and true to who we are.”

Show full project
2025

Bones of Graphene, Skin of Kevlar

The first chapter of this research, titled "Old Money Never Dies" (2023), focuses specifically on the issues surrounding the queer influencer and their power dynamics within capitalist systems.


Thissen is currently working on the second chapter, titled "Bones of Graphene, Skin of Kevlar" (2024-ongoing). The project began with archival and visual research in New York in early 2024, centering on historical transgender resilience, STAR, and protests in NYC during the 1960s and 1970s. The primary focus is to visualize the impact of rising global far-right politics and sentiments, contrasted with the enduring resilience and fighting spirit of trans individuals across generations.


“With this work, my goal is to create strong contemporary transgender figures and symbolic still lifes that channel the ancestral power of our queer elders to push back against the dangers of our time. I want to capture and translate the tensions and threats we are facing. In a time marked by fear-mongering, media manipulation, attacks and bans on gender-affirming healthcare, and an increasing detachment from factual reality, it is vital to develop strategies for staying safe and resilient, without losing the ability to remain soft and true to who we are.”

Show full project
Julius Thissen
was nominated by
FOTODOK
in
2025
Show all projects
Each year every member of the FUTURES European Photography Platform nominates a set of artists and projects to become part of the FUTURES network.

Bones of Graphene, Skin of Kevlar is the second chapter in Julius Thissen’s visual research project, Watch it Collapse. Its primary focus is to visualise the impact of global far-right politics and sentiments, contrasted with the fighting spirit of trans individuals across generations. Vulnerable images are combined with symbols of masculinity and postures of resistance. Graphene, Skin of Kevlar expresses a need for resilience without losing the ability to be soft and true. 

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Tashiya de Mel’s Bittersweet History reflects on Dutch-Sri Lankan colonial history and its absence from mainstream discussions of the Dutch empire. The VOC’s cinnamon trade violently transformed the landscape and culture of Sri Lanka, leaving traces that remain visible today. De Mel’s archival collages criticise this history, whilst images of the artists’ mother preparing sago pudding infused with cinnamon convey a more personal connection to this contested spice. De Mel uses a variety of media to subvert and reclaim colonial narratives, suggesting alternative ways of looking at a shared history.

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In 1935, Nazi Germany initiated a so-called “fertility programme” to provide the Third Reich with a new generation of leaders and SS officers. Angeniet Berker’s Lebensborn reveals both its broad scale and its human consequences: children born under this programme often lived a life of shame. The project serves as a timely warning of what our societies are capable of.

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Parisa Aminolahi's deeply personal work presents a generation of middle class Iranian parents – living alone, often continents apart from their children. Tehran Diary follows the artist’s mother’s life in Tehran, as well as while visiting her three children overseas. Applying black and white paint over her photographs, Aminolahi’s images connect love, family rituals and the concept of home, pondering what it means to lose these.

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Benjamin Li’s In Search of Perfect Orange is an archive that spans menus, pieces of tableware and written memories of his encounters while visiting over 1200 Chinese-Indonesian restaurants. His self-published Chin. Ind. Rest. Stickeralbum is a direct outcome of 10 years of travel between these restaurants. Benjamin’s resourceful, meticulous work results in a project that both confronts and honours a distinct cultural phenomena in the Netherlands.

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