Artphilein Open Call 2026

Artphilein invites photographers to delve into the interior world of adolescence. The selected artist will be awarded a solo exhibition, a CHF 1,000 grant, and a publication in the printed dossier.

Overview

Before being an object to be narrated, adolescence is a demand for space — where those who inhabit it can express themselves without being translated. In that space, the adult gaze stops being a tool and becomes a filter: it explains, organizes, justifies, rearranges. Yet adolescence is also what gets lost when we try to explain it: it doesn’t ask to be legible, nor to be translated.

It asks instead to be listened to — to be looked at with serious attention, without judgment. And it often sounds like friction, fear, inconsistencies: conflicts and codes that shift in the very moment they are spoken.
With this open call, Artphilein takes the uncomfortable position of trying, with care and commitment, to listen to those who are living it firsthand. The aim is to make room for a portrait built with proximity, urgency, and responsibility — avoiding speaking over, interpreting, or domesticating.

Artphilein looks for projects that are born inside the present and carry its tensions: life in an ecosystem of screens and gazes, negotiations with identity, the weight of the outside world — political, collective, unstable. Leaving aside the rhetoric of the transition narrative, what emerges if we stop telling adolescence from the outside?

Practical Info

Each applicant may submit one project, 10-20 images compiled into one single PDF (maximum 25 MB). If applicable, include any project texts, captions, statements, and written elements within the same PDF.

One selected artist will be awarded a fully produced solo exhibition at the Artphilein Library (Autumn 2026), along with publication of a selection of images (and texts) in the Artphilein Dossier, produced for the exhibition and published by Artphilein Editions (Autumn 2026). The prize recipient will also receive a cash prize of CHF 1,000. A selection of images by the other nine finalists may be presented as a projection during the exhibition opening. Submissions will be reviewed by a jury composed of the Artphilein curatorial team and the Director.

About De Pietri Artphilein Foundation

De Pietri Artphilein Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to contemporary art and photography by collectors Gianfranco and Caterina De Pietri, founded in 2006 and based in Paradiso, Lugano. The foundation aims to promote contemporary photography through a publishing house and a library of photo-books, as well as exhibition spaces and a bookstore.