The call focuses on the former IUVENTA ship, a vessel formerly used for civil sea rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean between 2016 and 2017, during which it assisted over 23,000 people in distress. Seized in 2017 by Italian authorities and left unused in the port of Trapani, the ship has become a powerful material and symbolic site connected to contemporary histories of migration, border politics, and solidarity at sea.
The project invites interdisciplinary proposals from artists, designers, architects, performers, researchers, and collectives to imagine possible futures for the vessel. These may include temporary or long-term transformations of the ship into an artistic, cultural, or participatory space engaging with themes such as migration, maritime memory, ecological transition, decolonial imaginaries, and forms of collective care in the Mediterranean.
The initiative will culminate in a symposium in Siracusa on 3–4 October 2026, where selected participants will present their proposals and contribute to a shared public program.
Application Deadline: 26 July 2026 > Deadline extended: 2 August 2026
For more information, please download and carefully read the call for applications available at the bottom of this page.
Selection Committee
The projects submitted to the Iuventa Open Call will be evaluated by a selection committee composed of the organising teams of MADE Program, Iuventa and Lazy Studio, alongside four guest reviewers whose practices bring diverse perspectives across writing, curating, journalism, art and theatre.
Sofia Baldi Pighi
Sofia Baldi Pighi is an Italian curator and researcher working between Italy and Malta. She is pursuing a practice-based PhD in critical-curatorial studies at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, researching European border regimes and the Central Mediterranean through situated, participatory and curatorial methodologies. Her work explores the intersections of art, migration, law, civic responsibility and public pedagogy. She was Artistic Director and Head Curator of the Malta Biennale 2024 and is curator of Una Boccata d’Arte. She teaches at MADE Program, Academy of Fine Arts in Syracuse, and her current research engages with SOS MEDITERRANEE, Open Arms and the Iuventa case.
César Dezfuli
César Dezfuli is a Spanish-Iranian independent journalist and documentary photographer whose work focuses on migration, identity and human rights. Since 2015, he has documented Europe’s borders, particularly the Central Mediterranean route. In 2016, aboard the rescue vessel Iuventa, he began Passengers, a long-term project following people rescued at sea and tracing their lives in Europe beyond the moment of arrival. His practice combines photography and journalism to challenge anonymous representations of migration. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK, and the Museum of Sydney, Australia, and has been recognised by World Press Photo, the European Press Prize and the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.
Lauren Markham
Lauren Markham is a California-based writer focusing on migration, climate chaos, and social injustice around the world. She is the author of the award-winning The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life, the critically acclaimed A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging (2024), and Immemorial. Her essays and journalism regularly appear in outlets such as Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine and VQR, where she is a contributing editor. Lauren has also worked at the intersection of immigration and education for twenty years and helped found a school for immigrant youth in Oakland, California.
Bárbara Santos
Theater director, actor, author, and filmmaker Bárbara Santos is the artistic director of KURINGA theater space in Berlin and the Aesthetics of Solidarity Festival. Founder and reference of the Ma-g-dalena International Network of Teatro de las Oprimidas, which comprises feminist theatre groups from Latin America, Africa and Europe, Santos has developed innovative aesthetic approaches addressing the intersections of gender, race and class and has authored three books on the subject. She played Filomena in The Invisible Life (by Karim Aïnouz), winner of the “Un Certain Regard” Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and made her filmmaking debut in 2023 with the musical Ash Wednesday (30’) at Berlinale. In 2025, she was awarded the title of Doctor by “Notorious Knowledge” (recognition of expertise) by the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil).
Announcement of the Winners
The winners of the Iuventa Open Call will be announced on the MADE website and social media channels by September 3.
All selected winners will also be contacted directly by email.
