ABOUT | KEYNOTES | PROGRAM | CALL FOR WORKS | REGISTRATION AND FEES | TEAM
ERRAR — in Portuguese, the word has multiple meanings. On one hand, errar evokes wandering: an errant practice of photography that moves through territories, from the nineteenth-century figure of the flâneur described by Baudelaire—one who walks without destination, gathering impressions along the way—to the situationist dérive, and into contemporary forms of dispersed movement across digital and networked spaces. In this sense, wandering becomes a mode of assembling experiences, a subjective montage shaped by the contingencies of the path; it is exploratory and provisional: a movement whose destination is constantly shifting.
On the other hand, errar means to err—to misstep, to hesitate, to search through uncertainty. Here error is not failure but a generative condition: a way of circling a question, testing viewpoints, and approaching thought through images. Error can be understood as invention, a deviation from established norms and canons. It is an anti-canonical gesture that opens space for experimentation and performance.
This conference invites photographers and other practitioners working with photographic images to present visual essays, photobooks, and other photography-based works that respond to these twin meanings of errar: Projects that wander, drift, or deviate; works that embrace experimentation, doubt, and the productive potential of the mistake. We welcome proposals that explore the photographic as a practice of movement—through landscapes, archives, platforms, and ideas—and as a form of thinking that unfolds through approximation rather than resolution.
KEYNOTES
photo: ©SAR
Since 2019 Florian Schneider is Chair of the COST action “European Forum for Advanced Practices”. He coordinates activities in artistic research and production at NTNU which is an official partner of the EU commission in the “New European Bauhaus”. In 2022, he launched the European platform Actionable Futures and initiated a broad Norwegian Alliance towards the new Knowledge and Innovation Community EIT Culture & Creativity.
Florian Schneider has been elected to serve as president of SAR (Society for Artistic Research) for the period 2022–2026.
photo: ©Constantine Tsapaliras
Her work investigates how photographs, books, archives, bodies and landscapes co-produce one another through processes of walking, collecting, mapping and place-based inquiry. Working across photobooks, installations, workshops and collaborative projects, she develops methodologies that connect artistic research with ecological thinking, posthumanist perspectives and practices of care.
Recent projects include Liquid Memories, Follow Y/Our River and One Green Eye the Other Blue (Herbarium of the Anthropocene). Her work has been exhibited, published and presented internationally through exhibitions, artist books, conferences and participatory programmes. Based in Lisbon, she works internationally across artistic, editorial and research contexts.
>> Joan Fontcuberta is featured through a partnership between ERRAR and IMAGO Festival dedicated to promoting and celebrating the diversity of photographic practices.
Avetisjans has been shortlisted for the Les Rencontres d’Arles Photo-Text Book Award and the APhF:24 Book Program, and nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award, Magnum Foundation Heat Fellowship, and Vontobel Contemporary Photography Prize. His first photobook, Homeland. The Longest Village in the Country (2018), was named among the year’s best by The British Journal of Photography and The Calvert Journal. He has presented his work internationally and participated in residency and platform programs including PARALLEL, Docking Station, and Procurarte.
photo: ©Michael Harvey
Her work has been presented at international exhibitions and festivals in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, including: The Audiovisual Black & White Festival (Porto, 2013); the Yangon Photo Festival (Myanmar, 2015); the Bangkok Photo Biennale (Thailand, 2018); the Encontros de Imagem (Braga, 2022 – winner of the second Discovery Award); the Galerie Omnius (Arles, 2023); the Abla Ababou Galerie (Rabat, 2023–2024); and the Institut Français de Tétouan (Morocco, 2024). She is among the artists invited to the 2026 Bangkok Art Biennale.
CALL FOR WORKS
We welcome submissions presenting Photography, artistic and practice-based research projects that engage with the following themes, although proposals are not limited to these topics:
- Photography, wandering and the exploration of place: drifting through landscapes, and other forms of errant movement through territory;
- The photographic essay as a form of thinking: narrative sequences and montage in photobooks and visual essays;
- Error as method: experimentation, misstep, and productive failure in photographic practice;
- Photography between analogue and digital: movement across devices, surfaces, formats, materials/materialities, archives, and networked spaces;
- Deviations from photographic conventions: iconoclastic, anti-canonical practices and alternative image-making;
- Walking as photographic practice: movement, preception, printing and image-making;
Who can apply?
We welcome submissions from photographers, artists and other practitioners working with photographic images, researchers and students, both from FilmEU Alliance member institutions and other higher education and research institutions.
Presentation format:
We accept proposals for short presentations limited to 20 minutes; and long presentations limited to two hours (minimum 40 minutes).
Short presentations will be organized into panels and are intended for displaying and discussing projects.
Long presentations are intended for sharing sessions involving hands-on practice.
We encourage exploratory approaches from individuals and collectives. Presentations may include visual or audiovisual works, or performative actions, and can be delivered in English or Portuguese.
How to apply:
To submit a proposal, the submitter must be registered as a user of the Research Catalogue (RC) with a full account. This will enable you to access both the Application Form and create an Exposition to display your work. Please make sure to register on the RC as soon as possible to ensure that your registration can be processed in time.
Registering a full RC Account is free.
For more information about the RC registration process, you may consult the video tutorial,
Once you have a full account, you can log in and start working on your application (link para PDF instruções) by going to your profile page.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Title (max. 200 characters).
Abstract for Conference program (max. 2000 characters).
Short biographies of presenters (max. 600 characters).
Image for the Conference program.
Information on the presentation format (max. 1000 characters).
Spatial and/or technical requirements (max. 500 characters).
Previous iterations of the research (max.1000 characters)
RC Exposition: with the application form, we will also ask you to attach an RC Exposition of your project, in which you should provide more detailed information about the project you are submitting, including background, methodologies, processes, references, etc. — anything the authors consider relevant to ensuring that peer reviewers can understand the work. The RC platform ensures that this information can be conveyed through means other than written text; you may submit images, videos, audio, or include external links. The attached exposition should be made specifically for this submission purpose, and should not be previously published. As a guideline, the exposition should not demand more than 15 minutes to read/navigate. We recommend making yourself familiar with the RC requirements in advance of the submission deadline. See the quickstart guide for creating your first RC exposition.
N.B. Please do not "submit for review" the exposition to any of the RC portals (JAR, HUB, etc.) or self-publish it. You can attach the exposition to your application using the application form itself. Attaching it to the form will ensure that the reviewers will be able to view and assess the content once your application is made available to them. Tip: you can attach the exposition using the title, not the url/link.
Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2026
Applications will be reviewed by 31 July 2026
Evaluation criteria
All submissions to the ERRAR Conference will undergo peer review. Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Relevance to the conference theme
The proposal should engage with photography in a strict or expanded sense and demonstrate a meaningful connection to the conference theme, including wandering, movement, error, experimentation, deviation, photographic essays, analogue–digital transitions, walking as photographic practice.
Formal, aesthetic and conceptual quality
Reviewers will assess the formal and aesthetic merit, conceptual coherence, and critical contribution of the project, including its capacity to challenge or expand established understandings of photography. As a conference dedicated to photography, artistic and practice-based research, proposals should articulate the processual dimension of the project/research.
Clarity and quality of presentation
Reviewers will consider the coherence of the proposal, the quality of the visual and written materials, and compliance with the submission guidelines.
Review Process
Reviewers will provide an overall recommendation and written feedback based on the criteria above. Final selection decisions will be made by the Conference Committee, taking into account both peer-review evaluations and the overall balance of the conference programme.
Authorship
We expect all submissions to be original work created by the proposing authors. An "original work" refers to an independent creation that originates from its author and has not been copied from pre-existing material. It demonstrates a person's or team's unique individuality and personal effort, rather than being based on another person's intellectual property.
REGISTRATION
AND FEES
AND FEES
Early bird paid by
Aug 28, 2026
Aug 28, 2026
Regular paid between
Aug 29 – 10 Sep 2026
Aug 29 – 10 Sep 2026
90,00€
120,00€
60,00€
90,00€
(non presenter)
25,00€
REGISTER
We are committed to making participation accessible to researchers, artists, students, independent practitioners, and community members. A limited number of fee waivers or reduced-fee registrations are available for participants who would otherwise face financial barriers to attending. Applicants should contact the conference organizers for details (via errar.conference@ulusofona.pt), requests will be considered confidentially and on the basis of demonstrated financial need.
TEAM
Rodrigo Tavarela Peixoto
Soraya Vasconcelos
Nuno Ricou Salgado
Sara Morgado Santos
A Fo:RCE Fotografia: Reflexão, Criação e Ensino is a center for activity and critical thought with photography as its main focus. It integrates undergraduate and master’s degree programs in Photography, encompassing research, artistic expression, community engagement, and technical development.
Procur.Arte
Procur.arte is a cultural association based in Lisbon. It was founded in 2005 by a group of professionals interested in a critical and constructive approach to projects in the fields of the arts, culture, creativity, and innovation, and is aimed at individuals, organizations, and cultural and creative projects.
On ESSAYISM
The FilmEU dynamic cluster On ESSAYISM – Pedagogical Innovation through Essayism, aims to investigate the essay as a pedagogical and artistic method across disciplines such as film, visual arts, music, performance, theatre, and games.
CONTACT