halaqat: 2025 residency for photographers

Halaqat invites photographers to apply for a three-month residency in Cairo from 15 September to 15 December 2025, hosted at the Goethe-Institut’s White Villa. The residency supports artistic projects exploring the themes of care and gender, offering time, space, and resources for reflection, creation, and exchange.

Halaqat explores the notion of ‘care’, a concept which is deeply related to gender topics in both regions and tackles the question of gender equity and sensitivity and the power dynamics in an inclusive and intersectional way. Care is a polysemous notion that refers to a particular attention or concern for someone or something, but can also convey the idea of caring, worrying or looking after and imply a sense of responsibility or vigilance. The project raises questions to engage in a conversation with artists, cultural practitioners and the audience about care both on a structural and artistic level: How can different notions of care be addressed and expressed? How do dominant narratives influence which bodies are cared about (and which not) and how can these narratives be challenged? How can we strengthen practices of care in the cultural scene and in the society at large?

The networks, knowledge, lessons learned and exchanges from the first phase of Halaqat inspired the design of the new iteration. The project expands its geographical scope and takes a cross-regional and intra-regional approach, fostering South-South exchange. It also focuses on the notion of locality and the importance of bringing forward the role of art in local communities. The objective is to strengthen artistic voices by supporting co-creation through different grants, residencies, public events, and capacity-building initiatives like workshops and mentorship programmes.

Halaqat (2024-2027) is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe-Institut. It will run for 32 months until spring 2027 with activities in Belgium, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco.