OPEN CALL
LAB52: ECHOES OF A FESTIVAL
1 Festival / X Visions / 1 Collective Exhibition
Filmfest Aachen 2026, 23–27 September 2026
What remains after a film ends? What images, emotions, and encounters continue to resonate and how does a festival as a space formulate those?
LAB52: Echoes of a Festival is a creative laboratory inviting artists, journalists and creatives to experience Filmfest Aachen 2026 from within – not only as observers, but as active participants. The project creates a space in which the festival becomes a starting point for new artistic works, shaped by personal impressions and individual creative languages.
Rather than documenting the festival, LAB52 asks: How can art capture it?
Participants are invited to create their own “echo” through photography, film, writing, illustration, sound, performance, installation, digital art, or any other artistic form.
The project culminates in a collective exhibition after the festival, presenting the works created through this shared experience and forming the first chapter of the growing Filmfest Aachen archive.
The Festival
Filmfest Aachen is a new, in 2024 founded volunteering-driven initiative bringing diverse and bold cinema to Aachen. The program includes an international and local competition, world premieres, as well as trashy B-films, thematically curated focus sections, short films, panels, installations, and midnight screenings. Filmfest Aachen understands the cinema as a space of exchange, bringing cinema on eye level.
While this year’s program is still under construction, highlights like workshops developing film with coffee, concerts, and literature reading can already promise enough matter to create from.
The Lab
During the festival week (23–27 September 2026), participants will receive full accreditation and access to Filmfest Aachen’s program. They will independently explore screenings, talks, and encounters while regularly meeting as a group to exchange ideas, reflect on their experiences, and develop their projects.
The workshop will be guided by media artist and fashion photographer Mateo Navarro as well as multiple guests from the film industry.
Who can apply?
We are looking for artists and creatives from any disciplines.
No formal artistic education is required. Selection is based on your motivation and vision to create. Possible disciplines include (but are not limited to):
- Photography
- Film / video
- Writing / journalism
- Illustration
- Graphic design
- Painting
- Sound art
- Performance
- Installation
- Mixed media
- Digital arts
What we offer
Participants receive:
- Full accreditation for Filmfest Aachen 2026
- A free workshop with no sign up fee
- Exchange with other artists from different disciplines
- Mentoring sessions
- Input talks from film industry guests
- The opportunity to exhibit your work in a collective exhibition
After the Festival
Following the festival week, participants will continue developing their works. The focus remains on each artist’s individual vision, later curated together in one exhibition. Approximately two weeks after the festival, the collective exhibition will open with a public vernissage, presenting the diverse artistic echoes created from one shared experience.
Participants will receive a full accreditation and access of the festival. To apply, just fill out the form!
Exhibition Space TBA
Poster Design: Mateo Navarro
Workshop Conception: Niklas Michels, Mateo Navarro
Workshop Excecution: Mateo Navarro
German 
English