BREDA.- FOTODOK presents the group exhibition A Spell Bundle – Manifesting Queer Futurity at Clublokaal as part of the 12th edition of BredaPhoto Festival from 11 September until 25 October 2026.
Inspired by the influential publication Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (2009) by Jos Esteban Muoz, the project reflects on the idea of queer futurity: the tangible possibility of imagining and shaping a more just, inclusive, and joyful world beyond the limitations of the present. In the context of increasingly fascist and anti-queer rhetoric, this act of imagining becomes an essential form of resistance and world-building.
A Spell Bundle – Manifesting Queer Futurity brings together works by artists Donja Nasseri, Ebun Sodipo, Julius Thissen, Nayara Leite, and S*an D. Henry-Smith. Weaving together personal narratives, political discourse, and archival research, their projects pay homage to queer ancestors. By seeing the future through the lens of the past, queerness becomes a means to summon change.
In the exhibition, the works of the artists collectively cast a spell that projects and protects an alternative future. This spell takes shape as a set of material, emotional, and political strategies for surviving hostile worlds while preserving tenderness, intimacy, and queer possibility. The artists construct forms of shelter against erasure and violence. In the face of collapsing realities, their works are a bundle of hope: a tender manifesto of defiance and shared humanity.
Exhibition
Where Ebun Sodipo’s deploys resistant materials such as Mylar, a UV-protective fabric, to conjure survival technologies for Black trans futures, S*an D. Henry-Smith explores opacity, intimacy, and withdrawal from representation as modes of safety and self-preservation. Elsewhere, in the futuristic transgender figures in Bones of Graphene, Skin of Kevlar, Julius Thissen imagines resilient bodies fortified by queer ancestry to protect against contemporary danger. In One Knot for the People, One for Yourself, One for Xica, Nayara Leite projects revolutionary futures in which Black travesti power occupies the centre of political life. Meanwhile, in Both the Universe and the Nothing, Donja Nasseri draws on ancient Egyptian histories to reveal how queerness has always existed within, alongside, and against structures of power. The exhibition is co-curated by FOTODOK curator Daria Tuminas and artist Nayara Leite.
Artist Book
For the featured artists, words and poetry represent key components of their creative practices; the “spell bundle” in the exhibition’s title, therefore, also denotes a collection of poetry. As a follow-up to the exhibition, a parallel artist book—combining words and images—will be co-published by FOTODOK and METER EDITIONS.
The book launch will take place on Saturday 17 October at Clublokaal. On the same day, the artist book will become available through BredaPhoto, FOTODOK in Utrecht, selected bookshops and online via METER EDITIONS.
