THE CURATORIAL TEAM
Francesca Marcaccio (IT), Head curator
Francesca Marcaccio Hitzeman is an independent curator and writer currently based in Hong Kong. She has worked at the British Museum, at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and at the International Center of Photography in New York and she holds a degree in Contemporary Art History and a Masters in Fine Art Photography from London College of Communication. She had curated exhibitions at the Savignano Photography Festival(IT), Bethanien Kunstquarter in Berlin, Tai Kwun in Hong Kong, Venice Biennale and she has been awarded curating residencies at the Otis College in Los Angeles and Royal College of Art/Inspires Curating Conversations programme.She regularly contributes to Paper Journal, Photomonitor and Archivio Magazine. francescamarcaccio.com
Marianne Bjørnmyr (NO)
Producer (and exhibiting artist)
Dan Mariner (UK / NO)
Producer
THE EXHIBITING ARITSTS
Michal Bar`Or (IL)
Michal BarOr is a research based artist based in Israel/Palestine. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art, London. BarOr has exhibited solo and collaborative projects internationally - at such venues as Meetfectory, Czech republic (Bite the Bullet, 2019), Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Spain (It Is No Dream, 2018); the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (Looters, 2017); the Jewish Arab Collective Gallery in Kibbutz Cabri (Nahar, 2018) Yad Mordechai Kibbutz (Abandoned Property, 2016); and the Petach-Tikva Museum of Art (The Hawks and the Sparrows, 2015).
She has participated in group exhibitions at venues including the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism (Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, 2019), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (The Museum Present itself III: Remotly Related, 2018); Galeria Labirynt, Poland (Make-Up, 2018); NURTUREart, New York (Dead Land, 2016); and the Jerusalem Artist House (The Return Of Paper / Reflections On Drawing – Traces VI, 2016).
In 2018, BarOr completed a three month residency program at MeetFectory in Prague. She was the recipient of the lootory found for 2017-2018, the Aritis grant for 2016, Young Artist Prize, awarded by the Israeli Ministry of Culture for 2016. Between 2015- 2016 Baror completed a one year residency at Artport – Tel Aviv. michalbaror.com
Samuel Henne (GE)
Samuel Henne lives and works in Hannover, Germany. He studied Fine Arts with a focus on photography and finished his studies with Prof. Dörte Eißfeldt. Henne’s work has won multiple awards such as the renowned One Year Residency at the ISCP – International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York and the two year residency from the Kunstverein Hannover. Furthermore, he was a winner of the Gute Aussichten – Young German Photography award and was honored at the Plat(t)form of the Fotomuseum Winterthur. Henne’s work has been shown in many exhibitions in Germany and abroad. Samuel Henne’s “displacements” was shown in institutional exhibitions and gallery shows in Germany and has also been shown in the U.S. at the Deutsches Haus at New York University in cooperation with the German Consulate General New York in 2018. samuelhenne.com
Clare Strand (UK)
Clare Strand is a British conceptual artist, working with and against the photographic medium. Over the past two decades she has worked with found imagery, kinetic machinery, web programmes, fairground attractions and most recently, large scale paintings. She rejects the subject-based qualities and the immediate demand of information, so often associated with the photographic image and instead, and without apology, adopts and welcomes a subtle, slow burn approach. Strands work has been widely exhibited in venues such as The Museum Folkwang; The Center Pompidou; Tate Britain; Salzburg Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her work is held in the collections of MOMA; SFMoma; The V&A; The Center Pompidou; The British Council; McEvoy Collection; The Arts Council; The NY Public Library; The Uni Credit Bank; The Mead Museum and Cornell University. She has produced 3 publications, Clare Strand Monograph published by Stedil (2009), Skirts published by GOST (2014) and Girl Plays with Snake published by MACK (2017). She is represented by Parrotta Contemporary, Cologne/Bonn. clarestrand.co.uk
EXHIBITION DESIGNER
Tom Lovelace (UK)
Tom Lovelace is a London based artist, working at the intersection of photography, sculpture and performance. Central themes to his research and visual inquiry encompass the collaborative histories of photography, the semantics of the everyday and the role of Minimalism within contemporary visual culture. His curatorial projects include With Monochrome Eyes (2020), Rehearsing the Real (2019), and At Home She’s a Tourist (2017). Lovelace is a Tutor at the Royal College of Art and London South Bank University.
THE SEMINAR SPEAKERS
Sunil Shah (UK)
Sunil Shah is an artist, curator and writer based in Oxford, UK. He is Associate Editor of American Suburb X and Director of CODA Projects, a research platform on the aesthetics of race in art and visual culture. His interests span global art, postcolonialism, art histories and the sites and structures of artistic production and presentation. sunilshah.info
Emma Bowkett (UK)
Emma Bowkett is Director of Photography at the Financial Times FT Weekend Magazine. Joining in 2009, she was integral to the small creative team who reworked the visual language of the magazine for the 2010 re-launch. Bowkett has curated exhibitions for the Triennale der Photographie Hamburg, Peckham 24 in London and in 2018 co-curated PhotoEast festival. She is a visiting university lecturer, and regularly participates at international portfolio reviews, festivals, art fairs and awards, including Unseen, Foam Paul Huf, and the Carmignac Award. She has been a Master at both Foam and Fabrica Masterclasses and is part of Magnum Photos Professional Practice. She won the inaugural Firecracker Contributors Award, which recognises women who have had a substantial impact on the photography industry. Bowkett has a Masters degree in Image and Communication from Goldsmiths University London.
Mathieu Asselin (FR / VEN)
Mathieu Asselin (b.1973) works and lives in Arles, France. He began his career working in film productions in Caracas, Venezuela, but shaped his photographic practice in the United States. His work consists mainly of long-term documentary research projects, such as his latest book 'Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation', which received international recognition by winning the Kassel PhotoBook Festival Dummy Award in 2016, the Aperture Foundation First Book Award in 2017, was selected for the Deutsche Bürse Photography Foundation Award in 2018 and the Prix de l'Elysee 2018/2019. His work has recently been exhibited at venues including Les Rencontres d'Arles in France, the Photographer's Gallery in London, the Fotomuseum Antwerp in Belgium, the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt and the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Mathieu Asselin holds a master's degree from the École National Supérieure de la Photo in Arles, France. mathieuasselin.com
Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo (CH)
Independent artist and curator, currently completing his PhD at the National Photography School in Arles, France (ENSP). After one year at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg, he graduated in Photography in Chile and completed his Masters of Fine Arts at the Villa Arson in 2014. Since 2005, he has been designing and curating exhibitions in Chile and Europe, including Mapuche at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris and Monsanto: a Photographic Investigation at Les Rencontres d'Arles. His photographic research is focused on the critical and historical understanding of the introduction of the photographic medium in South America; and the complex intersections of identities in ancient cultures. His work focuses on interdisciplinary theories that have shaped knowledge, techniques and beliefs, by which societies have re-configured the concepts of imagination, representation, embodiment, and identity. valenzuelaescobedo.com
​Achille Filipponi (IT)
Achille Filipponi (b.1981) is a lens based artist based in Turin. In 2008 on assignment by the International Festival of photography Rome, realized a work on the central Italy coast line. In 2009 he is among the selected photographers for the Portland Photolucida festival. In 2010 his work has been exhibited in Shanghai Expo. In 2011 he found with Giandomenico Carpentieri the publishing house Yard Press. Currently he live and work in Turin, where he teach photography at IED (European Design Institute).
Espen Kjelling (NO), Moderator seminar
Espen Kjelling (b.1982) is a photographer and photo archivist. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in photography from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design and a master's degree in social anthropology from the University of Bergen. He has published the photo books Liminal Landscapes (2013) and The Mind of Primitive Man (2016) and works as a photo archivist at Archive in Nordland.
THE WRITERS
Diane Smyth (UK)
Diane Smyth is a freelance journalist who has written about photography for The Guardian, The Observer, The FT Weekend Magazine, Aperture, The British Journal of Photography, FOAM, IMA, Creative Review, Calvert Journal, Aesthetica Magazine, and more. Prior to going freelance, she wrote and edited at the British Journal of Photography for more than 15 years; she has also curated exhibitions for The Photographers' Gallery, Lianzhou Foto Festival, and Flash Forward Festival.
Maria Lyngstad Willassen (NO)
Maria Lyngstad Willassen (b. 1985). Writer, disseminator and advisor. Holds a BA in Fine Arts from Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2011), and previously graduated from Skrivekunstakademiet in Hordaland (creative writing/literary studies, 2007-2008) and Kunstskolen i Bergen (visual arts, 2005-2007). Former art disseminator at Hordaland Art Center (2012-2017), co-editor of the art book series Dublett (2013-2014), co-editor of the journal Vagant (2011-2013), art editor of the journal Replikk (2010-2011), art writer/reporter for NATT & DAG (2008-2010). Has done fiction literary consultancy work for i.a. the publishing house Forlaget Oktober (2015, 2019), contributed as tutor/advisor in Tag Team Studio's art criticism project Skrivestue (2019), led panel discussions for Atelier Noua (2019) and Kjerringøy Land Art Biennale (2019). Currently employed as advisor for art and cultural dissemination in the administration of Nordland county council. marialw.weebly.com
Karen McQuaid (UK)
Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator Photographers Gallery, London. Karen has curated exhibitions including Jim Goldberg, Open See (2009); Fiona Tan, Vox Populi, London (2012); Andy Warhol, Photographs: 1976 – 1987 (2014); Lorenzo Vitturi, Dalston Anatomy (2014) and Rosângela Rennó, Río-Montevideo (2016). She has co-curated Geraldo De Barros,