Cao Yixiao, a participant of the 2025 Jimei x Arles Curatorial Seminar for Photography and Moving Image, is presented the completion certificate by mentor Dong Bingfeng in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Dec 1, 2025. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The 2025 Jimei × Arles International Photo Festival, one of Asia's premier annual photography events, will conclude on January 4, 2026, in Xiamen, Fujian province.
Since its inception in 2014, the festival has not only celebrated the diversity and vitality of global contemporary photography and moving image art, but has also grown into a platform for discovering, nurturing, and promoting talented Chinese photographers and curators specializing in lens-based art.
This year's festival introduced the Curatorial Programme for Photography and Moving Image — a joint initiative of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre and French fashion house Chanel.
The Curatorial Programme is an evolution of the Jimei × Arles Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Image, launched by Three Shadows and Chanel in 2021 to discover and support outstanding young Chinese curators and researchers in photography and moving image art. To date, the award has engaged over 200 exceptional curators in interdisciplinary research and curatorial practice within the realm of visual image.
Lectures are featured in the 2025 Jimei x Arles Curatorial Seminar for Photography and Moving Image. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The programme includes a week-long non-profit "Curatorial Seminar", whose first edition was held in 2024, as well as the "Curatorial Engine", which provides further guidance for excellent proposals and support for their exhibitions at renowned art institutions. It aims to provide emerging Chinese curators, researchers, and art project managers with a solid growth path, incubate excellent exhibition proposals, and expand opportunities for the exchange and presentation of new talents in contemporary photography and moving image curation, according to the organizers.
This year, 12 participants — mostly young independent curators — enrolled in the seminar, held from Nov 25 to Dec 1. They were mentored by Dong Bingfeng and Joanna Fu, two veteran curators and researchers in photography and visual culture. The mentors, in collaboration with Three Shadows, planned the curriculum and academic exchange activities.
The seminar featured seven lectures by globally established curators, artists, and researchers, along with panel discussions, local field visits, exhibition installation observations, proposal reviews, and tailored networking sessions during the opening week of the Jimei × Arles Festival. According to the organizers, these activities were designed to enhance participants' curatorial skills in an immersive and equal learning environment.
One of the local field visit sessions during the 2025 Jimei x Arles Curatorial Seminar for Photography and Moving Image. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The theme for the Curatorial Seminar was "Transcending the Lines", aiming to broaden perspectives beyond established "lines" and explore the question: "How do we encounter the diversity of existence?"
Participants responded to this theme with their curatorial proposals, exploring topics such as ecology, artificial intelligence, locality, and the body. During the festival's opening week, they presented their proposals to festival guests, sharing their curatorial topics.
Metal Odyssey, the winning exhibition of the fourth Jimei × Arles Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Image, was also featured during the 2025 Jimei × Arles International Photo Festival.
This exhibition, which explores trauma and memories associated with illness while highlighting the heartwarming support of family members, was previously shown in Beijing earlier this year. The curators, Yi-Ning Lin and Chia-Shin Yang, supported by the programme, also participated in the 2025 Kyotographie International Photography Festival in Japan, where they engaged in a thematic dialogue with image curation experts.
A panel discussion held during the 2025 Jimei x Arles Curatorial Seminar for Photography and Moving Image. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
A group photo of the participants, mentors, and lecturers of the 2025 Jimei x Arles Curatorial Seminar for Photography and Moving Image. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The public presentation of the curatorial proposals during the 2025 Jimei x Arles Curatorial Seminar for Photography and Moving Image. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
