Main Reasons To Apply To The PhMuseum Days 2026 Festival Open Call

Since 2021, the International Photography Festival has served as a physical encounter for our community, while bringing curated photography to Bologna. Here is why artists trust our initiative to exhibit their work.

1. Curatorship and care

Through PhMuseum Days, we like to reflect on what images can become when made physical, and on photography's role within society. Year after year, we have been experimenting with structures, materials, and design solutions, making sure every detail is intentional, and cared for. Working with us means engaging in a professional exchange that draws on years of expertise from both the festival and the PhMuseum Lab, where we consistently leverage and challenge ideas.

If your project is selected, we'll have a preliminary call to get to know each other and learn all we need to know about it. Later, we'll collaborate to refine your proposal or suggest a new direction. Together, we'll make sure the exhibition truly reflects the project's layers and feeling.

2. Direct support

We believe that creative work deserves tangible support. To ensure our collaboration is sustainable, we cover all production costs, including a dedicated budget of €2,500 + VAT per solo exhibition. Selected artists receive a €300 artist fee, alongside a travel contribution to help you reach Bologna and experience the festival firsthand. This support is based on your location: €300 for artists based in Italy, €500 for Europe, and €800 for overseas.

3. Join a growing legacy

Every year, our program balances renowned and emerging photographers, shaping an heterogeneous group that connects over informal moments, public tours, and shared talks. The intimacy of the festival makes it possible for artists to truly spend time together, getting to know each other and exchanging perspectives.

Alejandro Chaskielberg, Andy Sewell, Angelica Dass, Brea Souders, Camilla de Maffei, Carla Liesching, Felicity Hammond, Kush Kukreja, Leonardo Magrelli, Mahalia Taje Giotto, Marcelo Brodsky, Matylda Niżegorodcew, Nikita Teryoshin, Pacifico Silano, Silvia Rosi, Vasantha Yogananthan, and Penelope Umbrico are few of the artists who exhibited between 2021 and 2024. For some of them, the festival has acted as a tool to establish their work further, or to bring it to an entirely new audience. We regularly publish articles featuring former exhibiting artists to keep in touch and share their experience: read the interviews with David De Beyter, Utu-Tuuli Jussila, Gloria Oyarzabal, Ana Vallejo, Agathe Kalfas and Mathias Benguigui, Daniel Everett and Leonardo Magrelli.

3. Exhibitions in public space

We like to step out of traditional venues, and bring photographic work into the city’s everyday life. As an artist, this means reconsidering the physical scale and materiality of your work, activated in dialogue with the surrounding architecture.

A project from the open call will be exhibited on eleven public billboards in Via dell'Abbadia, a street in the historical center. Formerly belonging to the municipality of Bologna and now recovered by cultural association CHEAP, the billboards are a tool to bring pressing issues and ideas into the public space, taking an active role within the city's cultural debate.

Furthermore, up to 40 images will be selected for a collective sculptural installation that will challenge the main theme of the festival. As in the past editions, the chosen images will give life to a monumental visual maze. The exhibition will take over the historic courtyard of the Archiginnasio – the iconic former seat of the University of Bologna – which draws thousands of visitors weekly. Running from 19 September to 8 October, the installation radically reimagines the space bridging historical heritage and contemporary visual language.

4. A space for interaction

We are really proud of the festival's positive and relaxed mood – a comment we keep hearing from many visitors, artists and friends. We try to dissolve the distance between cultural institutions and the public, creating an environment where art is accessible, human, and a tool for meaningful exchange.

5. Enjoy Photobook Mania

The 5th edition of PhMuseum Days will be held jointly with Photobook Mania, the 2nd edition of our publishing fair. Last year, the event brought together over twenty publishers from across Europe, along with international visitors, experts, and photobook lovers, celebrating printed matter.

Being part of the festival selection places you at the center of this ecosystem, where you’ll have the opportunity to meet new people, attend talks, and share your practice. These connections often lead to unexpected paths, such as new commissions, future publications, or invitations to other festivals.

6. Engage with the theme

In an era of digital fragmentation and closing borders, we have chosen ARCHIPELAGO as the theme for this 5th edition. Inspired by the philosophy of Massimo Cacciari, the concept invites us to explore crisis as both an inherent part of our journey and an opportunity to discover new models of coexistence. We are looking for projects that explore or question the cultural islands of our time, offering a space for dialogue capable of integrating the other and opening new mental horizons.

By submitting your work, you are participating in a collective effort navigating the complexities of archipelagic thinking. Whether your project examines personal narratives of migration, the shifting definitions of community, or the delicate balance between isolation and connection, we invite you to add your vision to this shared map.

7. Discover Bologna

Bologna is a hidden gem in Italy. Well-preserved from the heavy tourist circuits of larger cities, it is famous for its university – the oldest in Europe – its world-renowned cuisine, and its nightlife. Beyond the landmarks, it's mostly just a nice place to hang around. The city is home to prestigious art institutions like the Museum of Modern Art (MAMbo), the MAST Foundation, and the Cineteca di Bologna (one of the world’s leading film archives, whose L’Immagine Ritrovata lab has been restoring cinematic history for over twenty-five years). You can also explore iconic cultural spaces like Cassero, an LGBTQIA+ Center housed in a historic 17th-century city gate.

With exhibitions spread throughout the center, the festival's program encourages you to discover both historic and contemporary areas – from the Archiginnasio, the location of the collective show, through green environments such as Giardini Margherita where Photobook Mania takes place, to more residential, underground neighbourhoods such as Cirenaica, the home of our permanent space PhMuseum Lab.

8. Support The Festival

We are an independent organization that has grown organically year after year, largely thanks to the community of photographers who have placed their trust in us. Unlike many major cultural events, we self-fund the vast majority of our festival operations. This allows us to preserve the integrity and independence of our curatorial voice, ensuring that our programming remains a true reflection of contemporary visual language.

Applying to this call is a small but deeply significant contribution to this creative landscape. Your entry fee is a direct investment in the production of high-level exhibitions and our wider programming. By participating, you are helping us maintain PhMuseum Days as a sustainable, self-sustained hub for visual culture.

9. One Thing Leads To Another

Even if your project is not selected for an exhibition, you will receive a pass to attend the festival for free. Beyond its practical value, this is an open invitation to hop on a train, car, or flight and experience the festival firsthand.

PhMuseum – meant as a platform, a community, and a festival – is a collective project that grows through the feedback, ideas, and energy of those who actively engage with us and participate in our activities. We look forward to welcoming you to Bologna.

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All images from PhMuseum Days 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021, and Photobook Mania 2025

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PhMuseum Days International Photography Festival is an event taking place in Bologna, Italy, that brings together photographers and photography lovers across nationalities and styles. The new edition will be held from 1-4 October 2026 under the theme ARCHIPELAGO – an invitation to explore or question the cultural islands of our time, offering a space for dialogue capable of integrating the other and opening new mental horizons. The deadline to submit your work is 7 May. Learn more and apply at phmuseum.com/d26