ART PHOTO BCN 2026
Disseny Hub Barcelona · Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, 37-38
May 8, 2026
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May 10, 2026
Art Photo Bcn presents its 13th edition from 8 to 10 May at the Disseny Hub Barcelona and will continue its online programme until 30 July. The 2026 edition is structured around the idea of photography as a porous territory: an open field in which archive and document, body and landscape, memory and time, visual research and new ways of narrating reality coexist. Within this framework, the festival reinforces its curatorial profile and proposes a pluralistic interpretation of contemporary photography, capable of connecting diverse genealogies, contexts and generations.
The event will open on Friday 8 May with an invitation-only preview for the media and institutions, attended by Ernest Urtasun, Minister for Culture; Mónica Carabias, Director of the National Centre for Photography; Ester Martínez Rubio, Head of Programmes Supporting Artistic Creation and the Visual Arts at the Government of Catalonia; and Isabel Lazaro, Director and Curator of Art Photo Bcn.
Caroline Kist, image of Art Photo Bcn 2026
The image for this 13th edition features Caroline Kist, winner of the Art Photo Bcn 2025 Award for her project *It’s That You’re Here*, which will also be the subject of a solo presentation at the fair and as part of the programme of events this year. Her presence encapsulates one of the festival’s distinctive features: the continuity between the *Visionados* and the public showcasing of emerging careers.
Kist’s project, with its intimate and reflective tone, thus becomes the visual and conceptual starting point for this edition. The sensitivity of her images translates into a sober and poetic aesthetic that reinforces the festival’s contemplative nature.
An exhibition curated to reflect a diversity of voices
Curated by Isabel Lazaro, the Art Photo Bcn 2026 fair places a special focus on a constellation of female artists spanning different generations and contexts. Two key figures in international photography, Cristina García Rodero and Graciela Iturbide, engage in dialogue with contemporary creators such as Ángela Copello, Mahala Nuuk and Katerina Belkina, as well as with artists linked to the festival’s recent history, such as Eva Casanueva and Ariadna Silva. They are joined by younger voices such as Sara Bravo and Ariadna Gutiérrez, from IDEP Barcelona, and Lucía Díaz Piga, from the IEFC, reinforcing a line of work that connects established figures, emerging careers and new practices still taking shape.
This edition will also feature participants such as José Manuel Ballester, Concha García and Ignacio Llamas, Antonio Guerra, Adrià Goula, Johnny Miller, Andrei Fărcășanu and Yongxia Rao, amongst others. The selection once again combines diverse scenes and backgrounds, bringing together galleries and projects from Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Ourense, Berlin, Paris, Buenos Aires and China, and broadening the fair’s scope to address issues such as memory, the changing landscape, the fragility of the built environment, the relationship between nature and culture, and the shifts between document and fiction across a wide variety of image-based media.
Among the participating venues are SELTZ by Ritter Ferrer, Galería Rafael Ortiz, Oda Arte, Taché Art Gallery, Pigment Gallery, Z22 Galerie, Galería Daniel Cuevas, Galería Marisa Marimón, Mind’s Eye, Galeria H2O, Le Mur Gallery, Buchkunst, Lumínic Photography Festival, Hangar, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Real Sociedad Fotográfica and Recaredo, which will present the new L’Infinit Photography Prize.
Review session: a platform for screening and support
The Visionados continue to be one of the defining features of Art Photo Bcn. In 2026, the call for entries has been opened to artists of all nationalities and ages, with individual projects based on a clearly defined conceptual framework. The eight selected projects will receive a fee of €200 net, will be in the running for the main prize of €2,000 and for various grants and production and exhibition awards, and will also be featured on the festival’s online platform. The professional session will take place on Saturday 9 May in a round-table format, followed by a public talk by Carmen Dalmau and the awards ceremony.
This year’s selection committee comprises Marta Gili, Arianna Rinaldo, Jesús Micó, Gonzalo Golpe, Gustavo Alemán, Moritz Neumüller and Isabel Lazaro, whilst the viewing panel brings together professionals from the Foto Colectania Foundation, MACBA, the Bassat Foundation, IEFC, IDEP, Còpia Lab, Lumínic, El Observatorio and the gallery scene.
The 2026 selected projects are:
After the Fathers from Dimitri Stefanov
Augustine from Luana Fischer
Cítricas from Laura Alandes
Donde el desierto olvida from Jorge Gutiérrez Lucena
El Pan y las Flores from Myriam Meloni
Inside the whale from Marike Hoex
Naufragio from Marlene Freniche
Truth is Stranger than Fiction from Masha Wysocka
Photobook Market: publishing, thought and community
On Saturday and Sunday, Art Photo Bcn will once again host its Photobook Market, curated by Ana Benavent and Arnau Sidera, as a space for the circulation of photobooks and contemporary publishing practices. With presentations, book signings and direct conversations with authors and publishers, the market is conceived not only as a showcase for publications, but as a space for thought, exchange and community centred on the book as a form of publishing and visual storytelling.
On Sunday, with presentations, book signings and direct conversation with authors and publishers, the photobook will take centre stage. The aim is not only to showcase publications, but to foster context and community around the book as a form of thought, publishing and critical discourse.
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