2026 Open Call

This year's Jimei x Arles 'Curatorial Seminar' invites curator and researcher He Yining as the mentor, with special participation from senior curators Carol Yinghua Lu and Liu Ding, as guest mentors for proposal reviews. A panel of lecturers will also be brought together to share their professional practical experience and insights. With "The Generative Eye" as the annual theme, the programme approaches curation as a practice of thinking with the image. The course will explore how artists respond to drastic shifts in the media environment through their creations – is it through adaptation, resistance, or reinvention? Furthermore, how do curators navigate between content, material, and spatial narratives to trace the historical genealogy of the image, untangle its current complexities, and produce forward-looking new knowledge? It will serve as both a continuous observation of media dynamics and an open experiment on how the eye of seeing is regenerated.

 

The Curatorial Seminar will commence prior to the opening week of the Jimei x Arles. A maximum of 12 selected members and a limited number of auditing guests will be invited to Xiamen, Fujian Province, to participate in the curatorial residency from November 17 to November 22, 2026. The programme is offered on a tuition-free basis, and provides official members with comprehensive support, including accommodation during the study period, admission to Jimei x Arles, and priority access to opening events. Among them, up to five proposals developed by the members will be nominated to enter the advanced "Curatorial Engine" stage for further refinement in the first half of 2027, and the outcomes will be presented through Three Shadows' platforms, reaching its partner networks.

 

Theme
The Generative Eye
Over the past quarter of a century, the image has undergone multiple iterations: from analogue to digital, from projection to streaming, and from a recording tool to a generative engine. Today, amidst the accelerated penetration of artificial intelligence, virtual environments, and algorithmic distribution, what role does the image truly play? Is it purely an object to be looked at, or has it become the infrastructure that organises perception, shapes experience, and allocates attention? In this drastically changing media ecology, in what guise does the world manifest itself, and how do we respond?

 

Course Dates
2026.11.2-3 (Online)
2026.11.17-22 (Xiamen)

 

Benefits: 

• “Curatorial Seminar for Photography and Moving Image” is a course jointly supported by Three Shadows Photography Art Centre and CHANEL, without any tuition and application fees requested from enrolled members and visitors. 
• “Curatorial Seminar for Photography and Moving Image” will provide complimentary accommodation, passes for “Jimei × Arles International Photo Festival” opening week, and priority access to selected public activities during the course.
• A certificate of completion will be conferred upon enrolled members who attend all non-optional courses and fulfil the course requirements.
• Enrolled members whose proposals admitted to the advanced stage, “Curatorial Engine”, will receive one-on-one proposal reviews and guidances from experienced curators for further development of proposals.

 

Course Tasks:

• Attend all non-optional courses and activities.
• Complete (up to) one article of course review
• Deliver a public proposal presentation 

 

APPLICATION

 

Who Can Participate:

• There are no age restrictions for this programme; curators, researchers and arts programme managers at the early stages of their careers are particularly encouraged to apply;
• Applicants must have organised at least one exhibition independently (regardless of venue size or format), or have 1–3 years’ relevant work experience in an arts institution;
• Applicants must be Chinese nationals (including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan).

 

Capacity:

12

 

How to Submit Your Application:

Please send the above application materials as a single email to cppmi@threeshadows.cn.

Subject line: 2026 Curatorial Seminar + Your Name

*The total size of the application materials must not exceed 100 MB

 

Deadline for Submitting Application:
16 October 2026,23:59 PM (GMT+8)

 

What Should Be Included in the Application:

1. Application Form
Download Links: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1Z7u6d89mAkyfCVqDwdKhVQ?pwd=2026
(Access code: 2026)

Or
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BhCe2-kNVBXh_QNX325bAj83Tcpnm2bR?usp=drive_link

2. Statement Letter
The letter must address the following questions:
1.How do you understand curating? Why you choose curating as your mode of artistic practice?
2. In contemporary exhibition practice, how do you view the role played by "images" (including photography, video art, moving images and digital media, etc.)? How can image media intervene and reshape the spatial narrative, public perception and contemporary visual culture of exhibitions

3. Curatorial Proposal (in both Chinese and English)
a. Exhibition statement (approx. 500-800 words)
b. Texts and reference materials relevant to the proposal
c. List of proposed artists, artworks, and brief descriptions
*The proposal must respond to the theme “The Generative Eye.”
*It must be a proposal that has not been publicly displayed, and centred in image based media (photography, moving image, or image based installations, etc.) 
*It can be conducted by an individual or by no more than two applicants jointly.
*If spatial planning needs to be involved, the site plan provided in the link can be used.
4. Scanned copy of the identity card issued in China Mainland, the Hong Kong SAR, the Macao SAR, or the Taiwan region
5.Past exhibition, writing and art criticism sample (*optional)
6.Recommendation letter (*optional)

 

 

DISCLAIMER