OFF Bratislava 2025 Open Call

Selected artists will be exhibited in the sixteenth edition of the OFF Bratislava festival during November 2025, in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Overview

The sixteenth edition of the OFF Bratislava festival will take us on a journey into the unknown – a realm of limitless possibilities, where alternate dimensions stretch far beyond our understanding. Reality is neither fixed nor constant; it swirls like a vortex, pulling us through veils of existence, bending time, and distorting perception. This force is more than a mere metaphor; it’s a gateway, fracturing the world and thrusting us into the uncharted. Every thought and subsequent doubt can propel us to another level, driven by curiosity and courage. Some planes resemble our own, just slightly distorted, like a dream remembered in fragments. Others abandon all logic – colors vibrate with sound, space collapses in on itself, and gravity slips away while we plunge into a hypnotic trance.

The title Trip Without A Ticket is borrowed from the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s. This phrase is associated with the Merry Pranksters community that embraced a different kind of wandering – one that didn’t require a passport, a border, or a ticket. The concept became symbolic of the free-spirited, boundary-pushing, and often chaotic exploration of consciousness.

Art has always acted as the bridge between the conscious and unconscious worlds. A single photograph can serve as a threshold that allows both the artist and the observer to enter new realms. Through creation, artists become pioneers of possibility, transforming visions into tangible forms that challenge our perceptions. For them, it’s a mission to shatter the constraints of actuality, forging new infinite horizons out of its pieces. For the viewer, art is an entry point – a fleeting suspension of the ordinary, an invitation to transcend the self and step into another sphere of existence.

Art, rebellion, and vision – each reshaping our very notion of what is real. These shifts aren’t just theoretical. They happen constantly, fueled by the desire to see further than what is accepted as truth. Societal structures and beliefs may appear unassailable, but they are fragile, maintained through repetition and enforced by the illusion of permanence. Some see chaos in the unraveling of old patterns; others see liberation – a multiverse where creativity knows no limits, where imagination and experience merge into one, and where all the rules dissolve while borders – both physical and mental – recede. Let’s dive into the swirling turmoil, deconstructing the world layer by layer, until its newly transformed version emerges on the other side.

Practical Info

Submissions must be sent using the online form and must contain information about the artist, contact person, project/work details, and installation, along with 5 images. Submitted works must be related to the theme mentioned above, Trip Without A Ticket.

The OFF Bratislava board will select from among the submitted applications those projects that will be included in the festival program presented during November 2025, in Bratislava, Slovakia.

About OFF Bratislava

The festival OFF Bratislava acquires its uniqueness by being a platform for new talents from the photography scene. Since its inception, the aim of the event has been to create optimum conditions for the promotion and support of emerging artists working in the field of photography and new media. The festival started in 2010 and during its 14-year history it has explored various social topics. It has thus stimulated contemplation, for example, on the ideology of dogma, the mystery of birth, the revolutionary manifesto, the archive of the future, the generation Y, the force of migration, or the human impact on our planet’s ecosystem.