Mentorships for Audacious Minds

An Interdisciplinary Network for Knowledge Transfer

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.

Over 400 creative minds from more than 180 cities around the world answered Forecast’s Open Call in 2018.

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 eighth edition: Poet Gabeba Baderoon (South Africa); drummer Greg Fox (USA); visual artist Roee Rosen (Israel); fashion designer Irakli Rusadze of Situationist (Georgia); photographer Mila Teshaieva (Ukraine); and performance artist Yuya Tsukahara (Japan).

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

Parasite 2.0 at Forecast Forum 2019, radialsystem.
Parasite 2.0 at the Forecast Forum 4, 2019. Photo: Camille Blake
Tara Catherine Pandeya, Raqsistan, The Land of Dance: A Cartography of the Body. Forecast Festival 2, 2017. Photo: Kerstin Schomburg
Rehearsal of Simona Deaconescu and Gaby Saranouffi's Ramanenjana, Forecast 6, 2021-2. Photo: Alina Usurelu
Visitors with the model of Mine the Scrap by Tobias Nolte, Forecast Festival 2016. Photo: Marcus Lieberenz

From the Call for Proposals to the Forecast Festival

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 Forum in Berlin. At the Forum’s conclusion, each mentor chooses one mentee. The six mentees receive extended mentoring including a work-stay, 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 the mentorship phase, the six mentees present their final productions to the public at the Forecast Festival.

Mentor Jerszy Seymour at Forecast Forum 3, 2019. Photo: Camille Blake

“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