INDIVIDUALS
Tanel Rander
Artist, curator and art writer from Estonia. He has been researching East European identity, subjectivity and decoloniality, as well as borders that divide Europe into the East and the West. In 2017 and 2018 he was doing an artistic/curatorial research in Estonian/Lavian border town Valga/Valka, focusing on the ways how cultural institutions perform the border.
Alex Tamer
Master’s Degree in European and Extra-European Languages and Literatures from the University of Udine (Department of languages, literatures, communication, education, and society) following a dissertation titled ‘Learning English as a second language through Role playing games’ and graduating summa cum laude. Prior to these studies they obtained their Bachelor’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures in the same University with the dissertation ‘Dinámicas de neutralización en un chat entre hispanófonos [Language Neutralization Dynamics in a Spanishes-speaking chat]’.
Doğuş Özokutan
Wrote and directed award-winning short films. She has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a master’s degree in Visual Arts and Visual Communications Design. Doğuş Özokutan has also been working as a journalist since 2006 and has won several journalism awards dedicated to press freedom. During her career, she also worked as a communications officer at Home for Cooperation which sits at the buffer zone that divides Nicosia. She also worked for the UNDP and Build Peace Conference held in Cyprus.
Vasvi Çiftcioğlu
Award-winning, director-producer, journalist and academician who works on both sides of the division line in Cyprus. He produces bi-communal & bi-lingual tv programs and documentaries dedicated for peace aired at national broadcaster, Cyprus Broadcasting Cooperation (CyBC) since 2004. Ciftcioglu, who has a PhD in communications, specialized on Peace Journalism. He also authored a 3 lingual (Turkish, Greek and English) handbook to implement Peace Journalism in Cyprus…
Joanna Wowrzeczka
An artist and a sociologist. As a sociologist, she explores the field of art in Poland, as an artist, a dominated problem and public space. Since 1999, she has been working as a professor at the Institute of Art of the University of Silesia. Since 2010, she has been coordinating the Political Critique in Cieszyn. Co-founder of the “Szara” Gallery (of contemporary art), its curator in the years 2001 – 2005. From 2018 she has been a councilor of the City Council of Cieszyn.
Pia Tohveri
Anthropologist working with art and healing, the power of objects and knowledge networks. I like to participate in a network of like-minded groups of people.
Ville-Veli Einari Saari
I like to get things moving, and create amazing things. I like to watch the great things in work, and do small adjustments in the system when needed. My background is multifaceted, so I am proficient in many areas.
Kirill Repin
Coordinator of the summer school Viadrinicum at the European University Viadrina, devoted to the countries of the Eastern Partnership region and the larger post-socialist context. The school is designed as a trans-/cross-sectoral lab, inviting students and representatives of academia, as well as activists, artists and practitioners from various fields to exchange their perspectives and experience and experiment with new approaches and methodologies together in a hands-on manner.
Vladimir Mitev
Bulgarian Romanian-speaking journalist. Founder of the Bulgarian-Romanian cross-border Bridge of Friendship site (https://friendshipbridge.eu/). Currently working for the Romanian section of Radio Bulgaria and having cooperations with a number of Romanian media outlet. Member of the team of Cross-border Talks (https://crossbordertalks.eu) – a Polish site, which provides regional perspectives on international relations and social issues. It also promotes cross-border engagement.
Natán Guijarro e Menéndez
Valença/Tui PhD in History by University of Oviedo/Uviéu (Asturies), degree in Portuguese Language by University of Coimbra (Portugal). Teacher of Upper Secondary Level for Adults online. Author of publications in scientific reviews about…
Michael Kurzwelly
Reality construction as an applied method “The ‘great realities’ that seem to be given to us from outside are only an agreement on a reality that we humans have given ourselves as a framework. For this reason, we can create new constructions of reality by deliberately rearranging space. When we then live according to this new reality, it manifests itself as a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’, so to speak.”
Maria Kopytova
Born Russia (Siberia) studied in Moscow & St.Petersburg education in graphic design occupation in photography, contemporary art, museum and gallery installations. after years of travelling, now living in Narva, Estonia doing research on local society collaborating with Narva Art Residence, Narva Museum and other art projects…
Alden Jacobs
Co-founder and Director of Program Development at Visual Voices, an arts-based peacebuilding organization that runs projects in Cyprus and internationally. Having recognized the immense value of peace education, he prioritized the integration of peacebuilding theories and concepts into the core organizational methodology. This has supported his interest in creating space for artists to strengthen their own socially engaged practice that focuses on positive social change…
Stefan Henkel
Stefan Henkel has been designing projects at the intersection of academia and civil society since 2013, first at Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald and now at European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder). Inter alia, these projects include the summer school “Viadrinicum” and the advanced training for professionals “Ukraine Calling”. His interests lie in forms of mutual learning and dialogical knowledge transfer between diverse actors for a holistic understanding of current societal questions…
Barentskultur
Photographer, editor, culture worker and organizer specialized in the Arctic and Barents Region. Produces books, exhibitions, culture projects Sharing the same experience as other border towns gives inspiration for cooperation and meetings.
Rita Balla
Currently, Rita Balla is active as a freelancer, dealing with the management of contemporary painters and the organisation of exhibitions locally and abroad as well, its mission is to create opportunities for, mostly, Hungarian – Slovak – Czech artists to become active participants of the contemporary art scene. Its task includes the complete and full organisation of exhibitions, portfolio-building, and effective help in the elaboration of these strategies…