Calin Dan is a Romanian artist based in
Amsterdam and Bucharest. He works independently and within subREAL (with Josif Király).
Recent projects include
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, Bucharest (2006)
and his film
Trip. SampleCity. Three takes on Emotional Architecture, Stroom, The Hague. (2006)
Calin Dan recently took part in the exhibitions
Europart, Vienna (2006),
Biennale Cuvée, Linz (2006),
Zones of Contact at 15 Sydney Biennale, Sydney Australia (2006) and
Normalisation, Istanbul (2006).
http://www.mnac.ro/emotional.htm
BAVO (Gideon Boie and Matthias Pauwels) researches the political
dimension of art, architecture and planning. In 2003 they published the book
The undivided city and its willing executioners (Stroom hcbk). In 2005 they organized the
conference
Psychoanalysis, urban theory and the city of late-capitalism (at the Jan van Eyck Academy).
In 2006 BAVO guest edited
Andere Sinema 176 as part of their ongoing research project
The spectre of the
avant-garde, as well as organized the symposium
Cultural activism today: Stategies of over-identification
(at the Stedelijk Museum CS). They're now finalizing their second book
Too active to act. Cultural activism
after the end of history (expected date of publishing: spring 2007).
http://www.bavo.biz
Wouter Davidts is engineer-architect and postdoctoral researcher
at the Department of Architecture & Urban Planning of Ghent University (Belgium).
He teaches Architecture Theory at the Department of Architecture of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
In the Fall of 2006 he will work as a British Academy Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
In recent years he has published on the museum, contemporary art and architecture in magazines such as
Architecture
d'Aujourd hui,
Archis,
De Witte Raaf,
Kritische Berichten and
Parachute, and in several books and exhibition catalogues.
He is the author of
Bouwen voor de kunst? (AS/books, 2006). In 2000 he edited the publication
B-sites,
and recently he edited the textual part of
Denkmal ISBN 9080842427, the new volume by the belgian artist Jan De Cock
(Atelier Jan De Cock, 2006). His recent scholarly work focuses on post-war artistic attitudes towards architecture and on
the architectural nature and identity of the contemporary artists studio.
Meta Haven: Design Research consists of (among others) Vinca Kruk and
Daniel van der Velden and is based in Amsterdam. Initiated as a research project at the
Jan van Eyck Academie, Meta Haven began working on a corporate identity proposal
for the Principality of Sealand. This man-made structure in the North Sea gained international
fame as the world's smallest sovereign nation state and data haven, an internet storage facility.
Among the project's initial aims was not only to visually grasp the facts and fictions of an
ill-fated experimental nation state, but also to engage with a visual communication of - in principle -
unlimited references and associations.
From working on the Principality of Sealand and its potential as a 'stealth country', outside
globalized capitalism, Meta Haven has since developed a discursive research and design practice,
merging imagination and politics.
Based on these interests Meta Haven seeks to activate new potentials in design from the perspective of the
public proposal an un-commissioned visual model that addresses and integrates relevant issues,
whether they pertain to the politics and history of the place or institution that is identified
visually. By strategies of pro-active representation, the collective engages with political issues
where specific references are sought and ramifications are encouraged to expand.
Forthcoming projects include
Quaero (2006) and
Uncorporate Identity http://www.metahaven.net
Maria Hlavajova is curator and director of BAK - basis voor
actuele kunst in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Maria Hlavajova will curate the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2007
http://www.bak.nl
Mihnea Mircan is a curator based in Bucharest, working at the National Museum of Contemporary Art
http://www.mnac.ro and freelance.
Recently curated
Under Destruction #2 and
Jaan Toomik: Videos at MNAC and
No Significant
Incidents To Report at Galeria Noua, Bucharest. Curator of Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2005-2006).
Co-editor of the 4th issue of the magazine Omagiu, on the theme
Problems, the. Upcoming projects include
Under Destruction #3 and The History Simulator, an exhibition of Romanian videos at Videobrasil Gallery, Sao Paolo.
Edi Muka (Tirana/Stockholm) is an
international freelance curator and co-founder
and co-Director of Tirana Biennale. He is former
guest professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Tirana and former curator of the International Program
of the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana.
Florian Waldvogel studied at the Staatlichen Hochschule für
Bildende Künste Städelschule Frankfurt/Main under Prof. Kasper König. 2001-2003 artistic director
of Kokerei Zollverein | Zeitgenössische Kunst und Kritik, Essen. Curator
NIZZA TRANSFER, Frankfurt (2004).
Co-curator
Just Do It!, Linz (2005) and
Manifesta 6 in Nicosia, Cyprus (2006). Since 2006 Curator
at Witte de With, Rotterdam. Editor of
Frankfurter Positionen 01 (2001), co-editor of
Arbeit Essen Angst
(2001),
Campus (2002) and
Handbuch Antirassismus (2002),
Die Offene Stadt: Anwendungsmodelle (2003)
and
Critical Condition von Julie Ault und Martin Beck (2003),
Bank 1-3(2004),
Just do it! (2005).
Author of
Who let the dogs out (2001).