The Spectral Encounters course hosts guest lecturers who give lectures, followed by discussions and peer to peer tutorials. During the pilot phase, Ekaterina Degot, Aaron Cezar, Lisl Ponger, Jonatan Habib Enqvist, Charles Esche, Ebru Kurbak, Bronwyn Lace, Marcus Neustetter, Olfa Feki, Anne Klontz, and Nadia Ayari participated to the course.
Ekaterina Degot is an art historian, researcher, and curator focusing on aesthetic and sociopolitical issues in Russia and Eastern Europe from the 19th century to the post-Soviet era. She began her five-year tenure as Director and Chief Curator of steirischer herbst in 2018. From 2014 to 2017 Degot was Artistic Director of the Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne. Among other shows, she curated the 1st Ural Industrial Biennial in Yekaterinburg (2010, with Cosmin Costinas and David Riff) and headed the first Bergen Assembly with Riff (2013).
Jonatan Habib Engqvist is a curator, writer and occasional teacher with a background in Philosophy and Aesthetic Theory. From 2021 co-editor of the journal Ord&Bild. Founder of Curatorial Residency In Stockholm, CRIS, editor in mischief of the online journal tsnoK.se, and Artistic Director of Nya Småland on commission by four regional art museums and a university (2016-2020). He has previously curated a number of international biennales and festivals including the 5th Project Biennial of Contemporary Art D-0 ARK Underground, the VR Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), Cycle Music and Art Festival Berlin, Reykjavík, Kópavogur (2018), Survival Kit 9 in Riga, Latvia, Sinopale 6, Sinop, Turkey (2017), the 8th Momentum biennale in Moss, Norway (2015) and Reykjavík Arts Festival (2012). Formerly project manager for visual art at Iaspis (2009-2014), curator at Moderna Museet (2008-09) and employed at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (2005-07). His writing has been published widely in several languages in books and catalogues around the world.
Angelika Fitz is the director of the Architekturzentrum Wien. She is a cultural theorist, curator and author in the fields of architecture, art and urbanism, running her own office in Vienna since 1998. She has been curating projects for international museums, cultural institutions and universities. From 1998 onwards she has realised several projects in South-Asia. 2003 and 2005 she curated the Austrian Contribution to the International Architecture Biennial in Sao Paulo. She is Guest Professor at the future.lab of the Technical University Vienna, before she was Guest Professor at Da-Yeh University in Taiwan. She is editor and co-author of several publications and has contributed to various journals.
Charles Esche is director of Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; professor of contemporary art and curating at Central Saint Martins, UAL, London and co-director of Afterall Journal and Books. He teaches on the Exhibition Studies MRes course at CSM, and at Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht. Outwith the museum, he (co) curated Power and Other Things, Europalia, BOZAR, Brussels 1017; Art Turns, Word Turns; Museum MACAN, Jakarta 2017; Le Musée Égaré, Kunsthall Oslo 2017 and Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse 2016; Jakarta Biennale 2015; 31st Sao Paulo Bienal, 2014, U3 Triennale, Ljubljana, 2011; RIWAQ Biennale, Palestine, 2007 and 2009; Istanbul Biennale, 2005; Gwangju Biennale, 2002 amongst other international exhibitions. He is chair of CASCO, Utrecht. He received the 2012 Princess Margriet Award and the 2014 CCS Bard College Prize for Curatorial Excellence.
Aaron Cezar is the founding Director of Delfina Foundation, where he curates and develops its interrelated programme of residencies, exhibitions and public events. Cezar has also curated external exhibitions and performances at Hayward Gallery Project Space, SongEun Artspace, and as part of the official public programme of the 58th Venice Art Biennale. Independently and through Delfina Foundation, he sits on numerous boards, committees, and advisory groups.
Lisl Ponger is an Austrian artist, whose work is concerned with stereotypes, racism and the construction of the gaze at the interface of art, art history and ethnology. Her work involves photography, film, installation and text material. She is the curator of MuKul, the (fictitious) Museum of Foreign and Familiar Cultures which organises exhibitions on invitation from art and ethnological institutions. She lives and works in Vienna.
Ebru Kurbak received her Masters degree in Architecture from Istanbul Technical University (2002). She lectured at the Istanbul Bilgi University and the University of Arts and Industrial Design in Linz. She worked at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna as Project Leader of an arts-based research project (2014–2018). She carried out artistic residencies at La Gaité Lyrique (Paris) LABoral (Gijon), V2_ (Rotterdam), and EYEBEAM (NY) and has shown her work at international platforms such as the Ars Electronica Festival (Linz), ZKM (Karlsruhe), SIGGRAPH (US), Microwave New Media Arts Festival (Hong Kong), File Festival (São Paulo), Piksel Festival (Bergen), Istanbul Design Biennial, and the MAK (Vienna). Kurbak received the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Design Award in 2015, the LACMA Art Technology Grant in 2019, and was awarded a four-year Elise Richter PEEK fellowship by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
Bronwyn Lace is an artist from South Africa, whose practice focuses on the relationships between art and other fields, including physics, museum practice and philosophy. Lace is also the director of The Centre for the Less Good Idea, an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts based in Maboneng, Johannesburg. She lives and works in between Johannesburg and Vienna.
Marcus Neustetter is an artist, cultural activist and producer also from South Africa. Mostly process driven, his production of art at the intersection of art, science and technology has led him to work in a multi-disciplinary approach from conventional drawings to permanent and temporary site specific installations, mobile and virtual interventions and socially engaged projects internationally. Neustetter is the co-director of the contemporary art production collaboration The Trinity Session since 2000 and serves on various media art research advisory boards and is developing an Art-Science Research program as an adjunct professor with the Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth. He also lives and works in between Johannesburg and Vienna.
Anne Klontz is a curator who has a dual master’s degree in International Curating Management and Culture and Media Production. She is the Head of Exhibitions at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden where she manages the production of the annual degree exhibition. During 2019, she was the Assistant Curator of Momentum10 – The Emotional Exhibition in Moss, Norway and was mentioned as one of 19 women defining the Scandinavian art scene. In 2020, she will be curating the exhibition “2084” with Catalysti Transcultural Artists in Finland.
Olfa Feki is an architect and curator based in Tunisia. She is the director of International Festival of Photography, Videography and Digital Arts in Kerkennah. This festival aims to become an exchange platform between North Africa and the international scene, thus addressing not only professionals, but also the general public. She lives and work in Tunis.
Nadia Ayari is a painter living and working in Brooklyn, Her recent projects explore the interaction of her primary forms: the leaf and the branch. Delving into themes of survival through allegorical means, these works present visualizations of growth at a time of widespread political instability. Ayari had solo project at Luce, Turin (2009), Monya Rowe, New York (2011), The Third Line, Dubai (2013), Taymour Grahne, New York (2016), Untitled, Art Miami Beach (2016), London (2019) and participated in the 12th International Cairo Biennale (2010), the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale (2011) and Art Dubai Projects (2014). Her work was also exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, London, and Monica DeCardenas, Zuoz, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah, Institut Du Monde Arabe, Paris, Gallery Diet, Miami, DC Moore, New York, America University Museum, Washington DC, Samson Projects, Boston, Abrons Art Center, NY, and Produce Model Gallery, Chicago.