Serendipity Arles Grant 2025

Five shortlisted artists will receive INR 70,000 each for a work-in-progress, with one finalist receiving an additional €7,500 project development grant, €7,000 production support, travel, accommodation, and a solo show at Les Rencontres d’Arles.

Overview

In 2020, the Serendipity Arts Foundation and Les Rencontres d’Arles announced the biggest lens-based media grant, supported by the Institut français en Inde, with the shared purpose of promoting cultural practices in the South Asian region. The winners of the previous two editions of the grant, Sathish Kumar (2022) and Paribartana Mohanty (2024) were awarded the grant to develop and showcase their respective projects Town Boy (2022) and A Fate’s Brief Memoir (2024) at Les Rencontres d’Arles.

They are now open to receive applications for the third edition of the Serendipity Arles Grant 2025-26, inviting project proposals from South Asia, stemming from photography, video, new media and other lens based explorations. The initiative seeks not only to empower artists from the region, but also further a spirit of regional cooperation and representation.

Practical Info

Submissions are open to all lens-based South Asian practitioners from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who have been practicing for 5 to 10 years, and are 30 years old and above. The call is open to projects in progress. Applicants must submit supporting documents to outline the progress. The proposed project should not have been shown in any form; in whole or in part, before the submission for the Grant. In case the applicant is currently at a residency, or would be part of a residency between September to December 2025, the application would be ineligible.

The Serendipity Arles Grant will be awarded in two phases. In the first phase, 5 practitioners will be shortlisted by an eminent jury based on their applications, proposed projects, and a virtual interview. They will receive a production grant of INR 70,000 each to produce and showcase the series of work proposed by them in their applications. Each shortlisted artist shall send in their works with a complete installation plan/brief for SAF 2025.  A selection of these works will be showcased as a work-in-progress exhibit in December in Goa at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2025. The jury present at the Festival will choose one out of the 5 bodies of works of the shortlisted artists as the finalist for the second phase of the grant.

In the second phase, one winning grantee will get the opportunity to further develop their project and put up a solo presentation of their project at Les Rencontres d’Arles in July 2026. Deliverables to the winner include €7,500 for project development grant and artist fee, air tickets to Arles and back–up to €1,200 (to be booked within stipulated timelines), a visa facilitation fee, €7,000 for production support (to be disbursed by Rencontres d’Arles on behalf of the artist), and €500 for accommodation costs (to be disbursed by Arles directly to the hotel). Additionally, any expenses to produce the work over and above of the production grant will be borne by the artist including tax deductions.

About Serendipity Arts Foundation

Serendipity Arts Foundation is an organization that facilitates pluralistic cultural expressions, sparking conversations around the arts across the South Asian region. Committed to innovation and creativity, the aim of the Foundation is to support practice and research in the arts, as well as to promote sustainability and education in the field through a range of cultural and collaborative initiatives. The Foundation hosts projects through the year, which include institutional partnerships with artists and art organizations, educational initiatives, grants and outreach programmes across India.

About Les Rencontres d’Arles

Every summer since 1970, over the course of more than forty exhibitions at various of the city's heritage sites, the Rencontres d'Arles has been a major influence in disseminating the best of world photography and playing the role of a springboard for photographic and contemporary creative talents.