Israel Akpan Sunday works as a choreographer, dancer and musician between Hamburg and Lagos. His works are political and challenging, as well as poetic and sensual. As an interdisciplinary artist, he delves into profound societal aspects, including sociological, political, and economic issues, and questioning the very foundations of our systems. Having a discursive exchange with his colleagues and his audience always plays a vital role in his processes. Next to creating his own pieces and working as a performer with other choreographers, he is developing community projects in Lagos and contributing to the further development of the independent contemporary dance scene in Nigeria.

Miriam Bach is a Berlin-based performer/dancer, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in training. She worked in various performance projects (including at the University of Music and Theater Hamburg, Kampnagel Hamburg, HAU Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, GlogauAir gallery) after completing her professional dance training in Israel in January 2018 in the MASA program of the renowned Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company.

Kaaki Stephane Chinedou Ibemesi is a photographer, painter, and multidisciplinary artist whose work is deeply rooted in his Cameroonian and Nigerian heritage. Through various artistic and craft practices, he explores the cultural expressions of his origins and the creative process itself. People, along with their forms of expression, ways of life, and belief systems, captivate him – and with each observation, he shapes his own iconography. Inspired by everyday moments, emotions, and experiences, masks in Kaaki’s art express a continuous process – a transformation, a feeling, a form of communication. It is never perfection that drives him, but rather interpretation. His photographs reflect this principle, capturing moments of connection, community, humor, and care. Kaaki’s favorite color is red.

Benedicte Dahm (1997) works as an artist, illustrator and coordinator for children and youth. In 2023, she completed her master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen, and is working with drawing, sculpture, installations, animations, sound walks and printed material.
https://www.benedictedahm.com

de_coloniaLanguage transfrontier art collective, operating by critical language studies, seeks decoloniality and radical solidarity. This is a community of artists, curators, researchers, activists interested in discovering and exploring the complexities of power relations. The collective has launched the Open Air Museum of Decoloniality on Alexanderplatz (Berlin) and the University of Collective Mixed Reading – Nearby Reading Room.

Eng Kai Er (Kai, she/her) is a choreographer and performer originally from Singapore. In 2019, Kai moved to Gießen to study MA Choreography and Performance, graduating in 2022. She then moved to Hamburg to be choreographer in residence at K3 Tanzplan Hamburg for the 2022/2023 season. In her artistic work she has addressed topics such as freedom, nudity, sexuality, the social and personal meanings of work, principles of collaboration and participation, intimacy and consent, and verbal and non-verbal communication.
https://kaifishfish.tumblr.com

Herkusho is an experimental analog photographer with a deep fascination for the structures and intricacies of spaces. Using analog cameras, Herkusho explores environments, seeking to unite elements that may not immediately appear connected. Through techniques like macro photography and multiple exposures, Herkusho embraces the unpredictability of chance and memory, creating striking impressions and compositions.
https://herkusho.art/

Stepan Gantralyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1963. He studied directing and acting, German and cultural studies there. Two Goethe scholarships brought him to Germany, where he has lived since 1999 and works as an actor, singer-songwriter and painter, among other things. For over 35 years, Gantralyan has been writing songs that reflect his diverse inspiration: poems set to music, ballads and art songs. He also sings songs by other artists in more than ten languages.
https://soundcloud.com/stepan-gantralyan

Julie Hjelt Wold (1997) is an architect and artist working in the crossing between the two fields, poetically approaching human traces, memories, our relationship with the species surrounding us, and our relationships with each other.
https://juliewold.com

Cody Ellis Kluge is an interdisciplinary artist with a primary focus on performance and theater. They have been selected as a recipient of the stART.up scholarship by Claussen Simon Stiftung this year after earning a degree in Theatre-, Performance and Media Studies from the University of Hildesheim in 2023. Cody completed their studies with the auto-fictional solo performance BITE ME as part of the COMING OUT series at Schauspiel Hannover, a scenic research into the queer characteristics of the vampire.
https://www.codyelliskluge.myportfolio.com

Maciek Martios (he/him) studied directing (B.A.) at the HfMT Hamburg, after studying at the universities of Leiden (NL) and Wrocław (PL), including the Research Master Literary Studies. In Berlin, he completed further training in physical theatre. He has worked as a performer and director in independent projects in Poland, Germany and the Netherlands.
www.maciek-martios.com

Mokhtar Namdar, born in 1981, is an award-winning filmmaker from Iran. He grew up in Tehran and is dedicated to socially critical documentary filmmaking. His first documentary „The Story of Gil and Galesh“ won several awards in Iran. Since then, he has made ten more films. „A House in Fog“ has been shown at international film festivals – including Hot Docs and DokFilm – and won several awards in Germany, Canada, Portugal, Romania, Hungary, Afghanistan, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Russia. Namdar lives in Hamburg since 2020.
http://namdar.info/

Sahar Pahangeh, artist and photographer, fled Iran in 2015 and documented the protests across Europe. She took photographs in Berlin, Stockholm, Strasbourg and Hamburg. Her emotional images express the desire for freedom. „A woman who cannot freely decide about her life has no opportunity to really be herself. She is locked in a cage of rules, paternalism and violence that we must open together,“ says the artist.
https://cherrydeck.com/saharphotography

Luise Florentine Pahlke, born in Hamburg in 1998. She studied acting at the Bavarian Academy of Performing Arts from 2020-2024. In addition to her studies, she has already performed at the Regensburg Theater and regularly played at the Regensburg Academy Theater. After completing her studies, she now works freelance on various projects.
https://www.filmmakers.eu/de/actors/luise-pahlke

Maik Reif is a Pleasure Activist and Performer. Preferably Collaborations to cultivate good vibes, self love and gratefulness – acquier different critical knowledge, selfrespect and to endorse life and its fundament on this planet.
Almost graduated at, escuela de mimo corporal‘ and fully at ,university hamburg‘.

Janina Santamarina works primarily in public spaces to change everyday spatial situations. Her main material is plastic which she highlights through wind, light and movement.
https://www.janinasantamarina.com

Anupa Srinivasan is a writer and translator living in Southern California and Northern Germany. She grew up on the West Coast of the United States, mainly in Los Angeles. She earned a doctorate in literature and her stories have been published in several American journals such as Triquarterly, The Indiana Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, West Branch, The Literary Review, and more. She has won a Pushcart Prize and was the finalist for the New Letters Cappon Prize for fiction. She is currently working on her own novel as well as translations of German poetry and fiction into English.

Kabila Kyowa Stéphane Emery, a Congolese curator and researcher born in Dubie in 1993, holds a Master’s in Curatorial Practice from the University of Bergen. Based in Africa, he collaborates with the Livingstone Office for Contemporary Art (Zambia) and Waza Art Center (DRC) and is a consultant for Agency Kolkwen. He co-founded NidjeKonnexion, a platform for young artists in Lubumbashi, and is a member of ARAC, which explores alternative practices in African arts education. Currently, he is a provenance research fellow with the Greta Henkel Foundation at the MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum in Germany, focusing on a collection from Congo’s Kasai region.

Steffan Toto Jean Eric alias Straight is an artist, painter, and keen observer of life. In his works, he brings extreme and often uncomfortable life situations to the canvas – scenes he picks up from everyday life and translates artistically. His work focuses on the complex, dark, and multi-layered aspects of human existence, which he explores and makes visible through powerful portraits. Fascinated by humanity’s position within the global context, his paintings dive deeply into the complexities of human existence. His experimental visual language gives characters, emotions, and forms of expression a compelling presence, continually testing the boundaries between reality and representation.

Luis Varela is a Colombian poet living in Hamburg. His poetry has been translated into German and Portuguese and published in various Latin American and German magazines. He has been included in the anthology „Voces periféricas. Antología de poetas latinoamericanos en Alemania“ (Equidistancias, 2024) and participated in different readings such as Hafenlesung, an international and multilingual event.

Dong Zhou is a composer-performer based in Hamburg. After composition studies in Shanghai and Hamburg, Zhou is currently a doctoral student at ICAM (Institute for Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media) of Leuphana University. Since 2022 Zhou has been curating the label Patch Cord Records.
https://patchcordrecords.com