Vice-Chairperson of the Curatorial Committee |
Ira Bliatka
Independent researcher and educator Ira is an independent researcher and educator, interested in topics of diversity and inclusion, public space, social art, and participatory methodologies. She collaborates with artists, NGOs, and associations on projects that valorise art towards more empathetic, creative societies. She joined Freiraum in 2017, on a project about gentrification and its effects on ethnic and social diversity in Prague and Marseille. She holds a PhD in migration/border studies from Aberystwyth University, with a thesis on the reanimation of bordered spaces in the EU integration project, as well as a MA degree in Politics, Security, and Integration from University College London, and a BA in Political Science from Aristotle University Thessaloniki. She currently teaches artistic perspectives for social scientists in Sciences-Po Paris/Nancy, and previously taught International Politics in Aberystwyth University. She is also an amateur pianist and currently pursuing an MA degree in musicology, researching methods for musical creation and dissemination in multi-cultural urban environments.
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Member of the Curatorial Committee |
Lydia Chatziiakovou
Curator, ArtBOX Creative Arts Management Lydia Chatziiakovou is a curator. Since 2004, she co-directs ArtBOX, a creative arts management office that conceives, designs and implements contemporary art projects revolving around the exploration of art as agent of social change, based on long-term strategic planning. In this context, she conceives, curates and coordinates projects that emphasise on art for social change and the relationship between art and technology, bringing together communities, artists and institutions from Greece and abroad. Recent examples include “The New New” - Art Science Technology Festival by TIF - Helexpo, which she artistically directed (2014-2018), and “Artecitya. Envisioning the City of Tomorrow” by Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki, which she curated and coordinated (2014-2018). Between 2017-2020, she was curator and project administrator of Project LABattoir, an initiative of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, based on a concept by ArtBOX, implemented through a founding grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Currently, she directs and curates Common Lab, a programme implemented by Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki and ArtBOX, in collaboration with Helexpo, in the context of Goethe-Institut’s Excellency Initiatives 2020.
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Member of the Curatorial Committee |
Jane Dudman
Artist, Curator Jane Dudman is an artist, curator and researcher based in Cumbria. She has a research masters and a PhD in Digital Media and Fine Art from Newcastle University. Her work is currently sound and performance based with a particular focus on collaborative processes, the spoken word and everyday life. Her artistic research explores the particularity of ordinary experience through sound manipulation and performance strategies, relating the private to the public. She is currently exploring translation, transcription and collective speaking as a form of sense making. Jane has a background in participatory and socially engaged arts practice and has worked in the UK for the past 20 years creating and managing arts projects in health, education and community settings. She has directed many live art events, several international artists’ exchanges and has shown her work widely in Europe and beyond.
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Goethe-Institut Brüssel |
Aloña Elizalde
Head of Cultural Programming, Goethe-Institut Brüssel Aloña Elizalde studied Cultural Studies and Cultural Management at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and started in 2011 as a trainee at the Department of Communication at the headquarters of the Goethe-Institut in Munich. After that, she continued her traineeship for another year at the Goethe-Institut in São Paulo, where she worked at the cultural department. In 2013 she supported the cultural teams at the Goethe-Instituts in Brussels and Sarajevo for half a year each. In 2014 she returned to the headquarters in Munich, where she worked for the department of literature and translation grants until her transfer to Brussels. From September 2019 she has been working as the Head of the cultural programming at the Goethe-Institut Brussels.
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Chairperson of the Curatorial Committee |
Iskra Geshoska
Kontrapunkt, Skopje Iskra Geshoska is founder and a president of Kontrapunkt – association for development of critical theory, socio-cultural activism and contemporary cultural practices. She contributes to the local, national and international affirmation of the independent cultural sector and its political relevance. Her key focus is the development of critical thinking and critical theories, as well as the relationship of cultural and artistic practices and the political. She was Director of the independent Cultural center “Tocka”(Skopje) since its founding until its closing (2002-2010). She is actively involved in the process of local and national advocacy level of political relevance of the independent cultural sector as well as in the process of enabling regional cooperation. In the period 1998 – 2008, she was an editor at the publishing house Templum and the magazine Margin. From 2003 to 2005 she was an adviser at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia. In the period of 2012 to 2017 she was President of JADRO – an association of the independent cultural scene, a national platform 66 for advocacy in Macedonia. To date she has published over 100 essays and research papers in the field of critical theory, performing arts, visual arts and cultural policies. Established in 2001, Kontrapunkt is an organization whose main focus is socio-critical activism and the relationship between art, theoretical philosophy and politics. Kontrapunkt encourages artists and independent groups to organize themselves and generate projects, thus contributing to the development of an independent cultural scene in Skopje.
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Member of the Curatorial Committee |
Effie Halivopoulou
Artist, researcher and educator, Head of Visual Arts and Art History of Deree - ACG Effie Halivopoulou is an artist, researcher, and educator based in Athens. Her installations with painting, video, and sound are commentaries on biopolitics and biotechnology. Halivopoulou. has conducted extensive related scientific/artistic research in collaboration with the National Center for Scientific Research Demokritos, in Athens. Her current videos are collaborative projects that comment on social issues in the public sphere in the dawn of the new normal. Associate Professor and Head of Visual Arts and Art History of Deree – ACG, Halivopoulou. is the founder of the Visual Arts Program in 2008. Visiting Professor, The Burren College of Art, Ireland, and member of the Faculty at the New School for Social Research, New York. Faculty Resource Network Scholar in Residence of New York University, 2016, 2018, and 2020. Through the residencies, Halivopoulou researched socially engaged art and collaborated with the Art and Education programs at Steinhardt. In 2018 Halivopoulou. researched Analog and Digital Abstraction in the same program. In 2020 through a remote residency, Halivopoulou developed a series of abstract videos that offer a glimpse of the ruptures and collisions of contemporary visual narratives in the era of the pandemic.
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Member of the Curatorial Committee |
Achilleas Kentonis
Trans-disciplinary artist, engineer and innovation mentor, founder of ARTos Foundation Cyprus Achilleas Kentonis is a trans-discipline artist, engineer, and innovation mentor. He Studied Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photography, and Innovation. As a researcher/ scientist he participated in research at NASA, the University of Cyprus, the Aegean University and in numerous European institutions and programs. He curates art & science exhibitions and develops systemic innovation processes and hybrid cultural patterns. His critical thinking is based on distinguishing the habitual culture from humancentric embodied contemporary culture. As an artist he was selected in different International Biennales, at the fields of photography, architecture, interactive installations, cyber-art, electronic music composition/performance, sculpture, and short films (experimental, animation, documentary). He received distinctions and awards for different kind of creation, and he is a board member in a variety of organizations, associations, and foundations. He is the founder and director of Innovation Gym New York LLC, ARTos Foundation, X-dream Festival. All his initiatives are based on Creativity-Science-Innovation-& Social Impact.
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Member of the Curatorial Committee
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Maud Qamar
Goethe-Institut Brussels Maud Qamar was the coordinator of the project Freiraum from 2017 to2020 at the Goethe-Institut Brüssel.
She is French-German and did literature classes (Hypokhâgne and Khâgne) in Strasbourg before studying French-German-English translation at the Ecole Supérieure d’Interprètes et de Traducteurs (ESIT), Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. She moved to Brussels in 2004 where she specialised in literature translation at the Institut Supérieur de Traducteurs et Interprètes (ISTI). She translated youth literature for Hachette Jeunesse, the novel Niemand Nirgendwo (Personne Nulle Part) by Milena Michiko Flašar for Deburen and the new version of Der Struwwelpeter by Fil and Atak (Pierre-Crignasse) for Frémok in 2011. She worked as an editorial assistant and a translator before starting at the cultural department of the Goethe-Institut in Brussels in 2009, where she has been programming mainly in the fields of film and music during ten years. After coordinating the pan-European project Freiraum in 2007-2020, she is now the coordinator of an European project focussing on the cultural relationships between the European Union and the Arab world. |
Partner of the FREIRAUM NGO |
Daniel McFarlane
Education, Arts and Cultural Access Worker, Senior Cycle Coordinator at Trinity Access - Trinity College University of Dublin Daniel McFarlane is an Education, Arts and Cultural Access worker. His work focuses on democratising spaces and routes to Education for under-represented/under-privileged members of society. Daniel works at Trinity College Dublin in Trinity Access as a Schools & Community Outreach Team Member. He primarily works with Secondary/High School (14-18 years) students from under-represented backgrounds in areas all across Ireland's capital city. His work at Trinity Access allows Daniel to blend his internal responsibilities of working with students from under-represented areas with key cultural figures such as publishers, artists, theatre-makers, cultural programmers and European language Institutes. Daniel is committed to systemic-inclusion practices and pro-worker change in his education and creative arts programmes.
Daniel began his work with the Goethe-Institut Irland in 2018 where he co-led the Freiraum project. This project has since transformed into two programmes with the Dublin-based European Union Institute of Culture (EUNIC) and a localised partnership between inner-city secondary/high schools and their surrounding arts and culture centres. He has been a board member of the Douglas Hyde Gallery since January 2020. Daniel's work is informed by his working-class background whilst being inclusion-lead with a focus on working with low-income and under-represented social groups." |
Executive Director, Partner of the FREIRAUM NGO |
Christos Savvidis
Founding Director, ArtBOX Creative Arts Management Christos Savvidis is the founding director of ArtBOX | Creative Arts Management. Currently Artistic Director of Common Lab, a programme based on a concept by ArtBOX, realised in partnership with Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki and in collaboration with Helexpo, in the context of Goethe-Institut’s Excellency Initiatives 2020.
Christos Savvidis has been Artistic Director of large-scale events such as: Art Athina - Athens international art fair (2006-2008); Action Field Kodra visual arts festival (2004-2008); XV Biennale de la Mediterannee in Thessaloniki (artistic direction and organisation, 2011). Between 2010 and 2012, he was Co-Director of Arts Management of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki, Athens), and Artistic Director of the Museum's Project Space with Lydia Chatziiakovou. Between 2014 and 2019, he was Artistic Director of ARTECITYA by Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki and Co-organiser of the ARTECITYA by Helexpo. Between 2017-2019 he was responsible for the Concept and Artistic Director of the project LABattoir, funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. |
Member of the Curatorial Committee |
Max Spielmann
Professor, HyperWerk Institute for Postindustrial Design Prof. Max Spielmann is a board member and professor at the HyperWerk Institute for Postindustrial Design (Basel). Since 1999 he has been in charge of the Institute's Audiovisual Media programme, and since 2015 in the Theory programme. Key research areas: participatory media, Commons and new technologies.
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Partner of the FREIRAUM NGO |
Ondrej Timco
Researcher, project manager Dr Ondrej Timco holds PhD in Ukrainian studies from University College London for his research on corrupt politicians embezzling public assets through offshore schemes. In 2017, Ondrej joined the Freiraum project on behalf of the Institute for Democracy 21, where he was researching voting systems, and then later on behalf of the Institute H21, where he was managing the project of school participatory budgeting. Ondrej is one of the founding members of the Freiraum Platform and works currently as Scrum Master at BISim — a pioneer of NATO military training simulations.
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Goethe-Institut Brüssel |
Marlena von Wedel
Cultural Programme, Goethe-Institut Brüssel Marlena von Wedel lives and works Brussels and Berlin. Marlena studied video art and philosophy in Amsterdam and Paris. She recently completed a curatorial master in Leipzig. With a background in video art and film, her practice today can be located at the intersection of film and curating. She has exhibited her work internationally in countries such as Lebanon, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and the UK. Currently, Marlena is working for the cultural programme department of Goethe-Institut Brussels. In 2020 she coordinated local projects at the Goethe-Institut Brussels in the frame of the German EU presidency ship where a. o. she assisted with the Freiraum festival 2020 in Brussels.
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Member of the Curatorial Committee |
Milan Zvada
Teacher, Theatre Critic and Cultural Manager Co-Founder of Záhrada Cultural Centre at Banská Bystrica Milan Zvada was born in 1982. 2001-2006 he studied English and Philosophy at Matej Bel University in Slovakia. In 2010, he graduated from Erasmus Mundus MA in International Performance Research at the University of Tampere and University of Amsterdam. His interests and activities range from organizing human rights-related events to cultural policy, theory of theatre, translating and composing music.
He publishes articles in theatre journals and online. He works as a teacher, theatre critic and cultural manager. In 2010, he co-founded Záhrada – cultural centre based in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, where he is in charge of community development program and international artistic projects. He has curated several arts exhibitions and events, and cooperated as a dramaturge on theatre performances and festivals (www.embargofestival.sk). Currently, he is a doctoral student at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica in the field of theatre research and dramaturgy. |
