»Not Knowing - Photography and the Unknown«

From October 22 to 25, 2026, the Internationale Photoszene Köln invites you to the conference “Not Knowing — Photography and the Unknown.” Artists, scholars, archivists, designers, performers, and thinkers from various disciplines will come together to explore the limits of the visible, the conditions of knowledge, and the potentials of not knowing. The conference marks the discursive kickoff of the 2027 Photoszene Festival.

The central question is what becomes visible, conceivable, or experiential when we view uncertainty not as a deficit but as a productive starting point. The conference conceives of not knowing as a prerequisite for knowledge, as a creative method, and as an opportunity to question dominant systems of knowledge.

Across four thematic areas (Perception, Practices, Traces, and Potentials), the conference explores photographic images and visual cultures as spaces where perception, evidence, and truth become unstable: From the limits of human and technological visibility, through artistic strategies for working with gaps and fragments, to archives, omissions, and speculative futures. Lectures, discussions, workshops, performances, and screenings open up spaces for thought and experience where different forms of knowledge and ignorance converge.

The conference is aimed at an audience interested in art and photography, as well as students, researchers, designers, and professionals from the fields of art, academia, media, archiving, and visual practice—and at anyone who wishes to understand not-knowing as a way of thinking. The conference aims not only to discuss Not Knowing, but also to create conditions under which it can become productive: as an opening, as a tentative movement into a territory that is explored collectively but never fully illuminated.

With contributions by, among others, Tasneem Almamar, Lasse Branding, Myriam Grigalashvili, Lilian Haberer, Jana Johanna Haeckel, Orit Halpern, Tom Holert, Su Yu Hsin, Ana Hupe, Celine Kapoor, Marie Köhler, Karina Nimmerfall, Sophie-Charlotte Opitz, Julian Peschel, Julia Richard, Sonja Riegler, Danielle Rosales, Jens Schröter, Nada Rosa Schroer, Anja Schürmann, Urs Stahel, Daniel Stier, Viktoriia Tymonova, Bindi Vora, Munem Wasif, Tobias Zielony, and other guests.

We are also looking forward to welcoming the archive directors of the Artist Meets Archive #5 residencies: Maurice Cox, Adelheid Komenda, Berit Schallner, Anne Stukenborg, and Thomas Thorausch—in conversation with Daria Bona—as well as to collaborating with students from three universities: the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Andreas Langfeld & Konstantin Butz), the Cologne University of Music and Dance (Prof. Constanze Schellow), and SRH University Berlin (Prof. Anna Rosa Krau).

The congress is generously supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Rheinland, and the Sparkasse KölnBonn. The Internationale Photoszene Köln is institutionally supported by the City of Cologne. We would like to express our gratitude for this support.

Updates on the program and registration will follow shortly on our website and social media channels.