Mentorships for Audacious Minds

An Interdisciplinary Network for Knowledge Production

Forecast offers artists and creative thinkers from anywhere in the world the chance to work with accomplished mentors toward bringing their projects to fruition. As an international mentorship program with annual editions, Forecast transcends neatly defined disciplines and genres to provide insight into creative production processes, and carve out space for the questions on the minds of the next generation of trailblazers.

Accomplished Mentors Offer their Expertise

For each edition, Forecast selects six mentors from various disciplines who offer selected participants their expertise in specifying and realizing their project ideas. Each edition of Forecast is different; the selected mentors impact the nature and content of every iteration. They define the type of applications submitted, and play an instrumental role in developing their mentees’ ideas from proposal to production. The mentoring process offers a space in which both parties can experiment, exchange, and push their concepts in new directions.

The following mentors are participating in Forecast’s eleventh edition: writer and comedian Vidura Bandara Rajapaksa (LK); performance maker Tom Cassani (UK); artist and filmmaker Keren Cytter (IL); sci fi artist and body architect Lucy McRae (Aus); multimedia artist Almagul Menlibayeva (Kaz); and composer and sound artist Heinali (UA).

For an overview of all the experts who have participated in past editions, go here.

From the Call for Ideas to the Forecast Festival and Individual Premieres

Each year, creative minds working in various disciplines are invited to submit project proposals via an open call. The selection process is two-tiered. First, the mentors carefully review all proposals and invite three nominees each to workshop with the mentor and present their ideas at the Forecast Festival in Berlin. At the event’s conclusion, each mentor chooses one mentee. The six mentees receive extended mentoring including a short-term residency, in which mentor and mentee meet in person for up to two weeks of intensive exchange, usually with a host institution. At the end of this mentorship phase, mentees premiere their final productions.

“Forecast thrives in a privileged cultural context and receives support from a state that expressly acknowledges artistic freedom and upholds the value of art even in times of crisis. In each edition, we pass on this empowerment without restriction to the creatives who entrust us with their bold and ambitious endeavors.”

FREO MAJER Artistic Director, Forecast