Alliance, Infinity, Love—in the Face of the Other

The 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026 presents 279 international artists in eleven exhibitions in eight renowned museums and art institutions in Hamburg, Germany, on the theme of Alliance, Infinity, Love – in the Face of the Other.

Under the artistic direction of London-based Mark Sealy, the 9th Triennial celebrates the importance of photography in our time and demonstrates that it can do more than merely observe: photography can connect people and inspire reflection on justice, responsibility and humanity. Until September 22, the three guiding concepts of Alliance, Infinity, and Love invite visitors to move beyond the mere contemplation of photography and become active participants in a shared cultural experience.

In an Opening Parcours from June 4 to 6, all the exhibitions of the 9th Triennial will be opened in sequence. A joint opening event will be held at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg on June 4 at 8pm. Until June 14, the Opening Days offer numerous events in the Festival Centre at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, presenting an extensive, interdisciplinary programme of talks, performances, book presentations, guided tours and musical elements.

Opening Days: In the spirit of the theme of this year’s Triennial the Festival Centre, which is located in front of Deichtorhallen, serves as a site for meeting and exchange between international guests, artists, and visitors. Offering space for relaxation and encounter, it also serves as an information hub and event venue for the Opening Days' programme. On selected evenings, the music programme Sonic Bodies—curated by representatives of Hamburg’s music scene—extends an invitation to listen, dance and linger.

Strange Land: A Thousand Solitudes: Highlights of the Opening Days' programme include the audio-visual performance Strange Land: A Thousand Solitudes by Randa Mirza and Aya Metwalli, which employs photographs from the Arab Image Foundation to explore the intersections of memory, colonial history, and archival practices in the Arab world. In collaboration with musician Aya Metwalli, Mirza alters photographic documents into a live, sensorial, and improvisational experience. Through sound and image, the performance investigates the history of photographic practices and the materiality of images, taking the audience into an ephemeral, reimagined past where archives become living and evolving narratives. Randa Mirza is a visual artist, her multidisciplinary practice spans photography, video, live audiovisual performance, and installation. Aya Metwalli is a singer and composer, who explores the intersection between raw expression and electronic transformation. (Performance, June 5 at 2pm, and June 7 at 6 pm, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Auditorium)

Hope as a Muscle: Jasmina Cibic’s work examines how art and culture operate as instruments of soft power and ideological construction, particularly in moments of political rupture. In her talk, she will present a series of recent photographic and film projects developed in close dialogue with human rights advocates and with archives and sites of national and transnational power. Cibic is a Slovenian artist working across film, installation, photography, and sculpture, she represented Slovenia at the 55th Venice Biennial. Central to her practice is performativity as a methodological tool: Cibic uses staging, re-enactment, and collaboration to expose how cultural narratives are produced, negotiated, and instrumentalised. She reflects on the role of the artist not only as a witness, but as an active agent testing how cultural production might resist, rehearse, or reimagine political futures. (Talk, June 6, 2pm, Festival Centre)

Is the Camera Closer to a Mirror or a Window? Crit Club is a performance by Hamburg based artist Cem A., in which two teams jump into a debate over an implausible question related to art, this edition’s question will be Is the Camera Closer to a Mirror or a Window? In a field where disagreement often feels risky, Crit Club creates space for critical play. Rather than rehearsing praise or silence, participants are invited to engage in disagreement – as performance, as roleplay, as thought experiment. One side argues for, the other against – before switching roles midway through. As the performance unfolds, speakers must navigate an increasingly impossible scenario.

Cem A. has a background in anthropology and is known for his performances and site-specific installations. His work explores themes such as virality and performativity, often through collaborative projects. It has previously been presented in New York, London, and Paris. (Performance, June 6, 8pm, Festival Centre, with Jasmina Cibic, Moshtari Hilal, Günseli Yalcinkaya and Kristian Vistrup Madsen, moderated by Kate Brown)

For the schedule and further information on the Opening Days programme: 2026.phototriennale.de/en/kalender/

The Triennial of Photography Hamburg is an international photography festival taking place every three years in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg since its founding in 1999 by the photographer and collector F.C. Gundlach. As a citywide collaborative project, each edition focuses on current developments in photography and brings together numerous exhibitions in museums, exhibition venues, cultural institutions, as well as within the independent scene under a shared thematic framework.

The exhibitions address key contemporary issues and are accompanied by a diverse programme of events, including international and interdisciplinary symposia, artist talks, portfolio reviews, and performances—developed in close collaboration with various program partners. In addition, Triennial Expanded reflects the diversity of the independent photography and art scene and extends the thematic focus into the urban space and the wider public sphere.

Since 2014, the Triennial of Photography Hamburg has been organized by Deichtorhallen Hamburg GmbH.

The participating institutions in the 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026 are the Deichtorhallen Hamburg with the Hall for Contemporary Art, the PHOXXI – Temporary House of Photography, the F.C Gundlach Collection and the Falckenberg Collection; the Bucerius Kunst Forum; the Hamburger Kunsthalle; the Kunsthaus Hamburg; the Kunstverein in Hamburg; the MARKK – Museum am Rothenbaum. World Cultures and Arts; the Museum of Work as well as the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg.