off-the-wall award 2025

Following the success of last year’s Welcome to my Unknown Award, MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas is pleased to launch a new call for artists, especially conceived for the fair by Erik Kessels. The Dutch artist is a prominent figure in the international photography scene, working as an artist, curator, publisher, and expert in visual communication, with a deep interest in art and photography.

Through this award, Kessels aims to engage contemporary artists of all ages who use photography as an artistic language.

The winning artists will have the opportunity to exhibit their work at the 14th edition of MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas, scheduled from March 20 to 23, 2025, at Superstudio Più, via Tortona 27, Milan.

CONCEPT

“Photography as a medium and as art is in a phase of transformation, with infinite access and possibilities. Like a fluid substance, it interacts with other art forms—performance, sculpture, installation, and projection—taking on endless shapes. By becoming a three-dimensional material object, the old ways of photographing and displaying photographs on walls are cast aside, making way for new linguistic experiments. Freed from the frames that bind them to walls, photographs now inhabit a new space beyond the wall. The OFF-THE-WALL Award will focus on the unconventional, on stories, non-traditional executions, and new modes of photographic expression.” — Erik Kessels