The Unreliable Ledger Vol. II – Money memory
Open Call for Artists
We invite submissions from artists working in analog photography and printmaking for a forthcoming institutional group exhibition titled “The Unreliable Ledger Vol. II – Money memory”.
This exhibition proposes a critical inquiry into money not solely as an economic instrument, but as a cultural artifact, ideological construct, and repository of collective memory. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, Arjun Appadurai, and Walter Benjamin, the exhibition considers money as a social form that mediates power, value, exchange, and visual culture.
Marx’s critique of commodity fetishism, Simmel’s reflections on value and social relations, and Appadurai’s concept of the “social life of things” provide conceptual anchors for examining money as a carrier of historical narratives and cultural codes. In parallel, Benjamin’s writings on mechanical reproduction and material culture inform the exhibition’s focus on image-making as a critical tool for interrogating systems of circulation and meaning.
Artists are encouraged to investigate the iconography, materiality, circulation, and semiotics of money, as well as its role in shaping national identities, labor relations, class structures, and collective imaginaries. Submissions may engage with money as a mnemonic device, an aesthetic object, or a political symbol embedded within broader economies of representation.
Projects must employ any analog photographic or printmaking technique, including but not limited to darkroom photography, alternative and historical photographic processes, etching, lithography, relief printing, screen printing, and experimental hybrid practices. They may, however include one digital step in the process as long as the final artwork is an analog print. Practice-based research, archival approaches, and interdisciplinary methodologies are welcome.
The final artworks should take the form of currency, drawing on the visual, material, and symbolic conventions of money. By doing so, they are expected to propose alternative monetary systems that critically address currency as a social and political construct. Through their aesthetic and formal strategies, the works should question established notions of value, authority, and exchange, and suggest other possible economies of meaning.
Conceptual Framework
Proposals should critically address one or more of the following:
- Money as a medium of collective memory and cultural inscription
- The aesthetics and visual economies of currency and exchange
- Power, ideology, and representation within monetary systems
- Material processes as epistemological tools
- The politics of circulation and reproduction
Facilities and Technical Support
Selected artists (based in Lebanon) can benefit from access to the studios’ production facilities and equipment. Participants without prior experience in printmaking will receive technical guidance and mentorship in the production of their artwork(s).
Eligibility
Open to emerging and established artists working in analog photography and print-based practices from any country that holds diplomatic relations with Lebanon.
Each applicant may submit up to 5 artworks. The work(s) must be produced specifically for this exhibition, in a maximum paper size of 30x40cm, in any analog (printmaking or photography) technique except monotype.
Once your project is chosen by the jury, you will need to submit 4 editions of each work, one for each exhibition venue/city.
Upon the completion of the exhibitions, one print will be integrated to the studio’s print collection, and the other two prints will be made available for sale through our website. The exhibiting venue receives 25%, the artist receives 50% and the studio will take 25% to cover the costs of this program.
As this is a free open call, shipping to and from of the prints to the studio are the responsibility of the artist.
Submission Requirements
In one pdf (maximum 5mb), please include the following:
- Artist biography (max. 150 words)
- Project proposal (max. 300 words)
- Portfolio: sketches of the final artworks.
- Technical requirements and preferred processes.
Key Dates
- Application deadline: 01/09/2026
- Notification of selection: 01/10/2026
- Production phase: 10/10/2026 to 12/02/2027
- Exhibition period: starting March 2027 (exact dates to be confirmed)
Submission Email
Jury
Projects will be evaluated and selected by a jury that will be announce once the results are out.
Venue
This show will be exhibited in Beirut, Cairo, Armenia and Paris. Venues to be announced at a later date.