The Aral Sea was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south which began shrinking in the 1960s and largely dried up by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhstan and the Karakalpakstan autonomous region of Uzbekistan. The name roughly translates from Mongolic and Turkic languages to "Sea of Islands", a reference to the large number of islands that once dotted its waters. The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
Maurilio Manara, known professionally as Milo Manara, is an Italian comic book writer and artist.
Tibor George Kalman was an American graphic designer of Hungarian origin, well known for his work as editor-in-chief of Colors magazine.
Treviso is a city and comune (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants. Some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center; some 80,000 live in the urban center while the city hinterland has a population of approximately 170,000.
Joost Swarte is a Dutch cartoonist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or clear line style of drawing, a term he coined.
Evert Ploeg is one of Australia's most highly regarded portrait painters, who has won a range of painting prizes, such as the 1999 and 2007 Archibald Prize and was awarded the highly coveted ‘Signature Status’ of The Portrait Society of America.
Isabel Coixet Castillo is a Spanish film director. She is one of the most prolific film directors of contemporary Spain, having directed twelve feature-length films since the beginning of her film career in 1988, in addition to documentary films, shorts, and commercials. Her films depart from the traditional national cinema of Spain, and help to “untangle films from their national context ... clearing the path for thinking about national film from different perspectives.” The recurring themes of “emotions, feelings, and existential conflict” coupled with her distinct visual style secure the “multifaceted ” filmmaker's status as a “Catalan auteur.”
Alberto Campo Baeza is a Spanish architect and Full-Time Design Professor at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid from 1986 to 2017. He retired the same year. He has built a selected number of awarded buildings.
Eduardo Montes-Bradley is an Argentine-born American filmmaker known for his documentaries films Evita, Rita Dove: An American Poet, and Harto The Borges. His most recent films are Black Fiddlers and Daniel Chester French: American Sculptor He’s currently working on The Italian Factor: The Piccirilli Story.
Yorgos Kypris, born 1954, is a Cypriot sculptor who lives and works between Athens and Santorini in Greece. He continues to take part in numerous solo and group exhibitions, commissions work, designs jewelry and permanently exhibits his work through MATI, his personal art gallery. His work has been published in a number of books, articles and magazines. His best known works include the "Entrapped Fish" installation, at the Lobby of the World Bank Building, Washington D.C., commissioned in 1997, the "Gate of Knowledge" - a sculptural steel gate, erected in 1998 in the yard of St. Paul High school, Pafos, Cyprus, the body of works "Fish" (1993-), the "Parallel Notions" body of works (2001) and the "Observers", an installation of four sited figures on poles, 4,5m high each, commissioned (2002) at Fabrica Commercial Center, Fira, Santorini, Greece.
Carlos Casas is a filmmaker and artist whose practice encompasses film, sound and the visual arts. His films have been screened and awarded in festivals around the world, like the Venice Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Buenos Aires International Film Festival, Mexico International Film Festival, CPH DOX Copenhagen, FID Marseille, etc... Retrospectives of his films have been presented international festivals and cinematheques from Madrid, Mexico to Bruxelles, his work has been exhibited and performed in international art institutions and galleries, such as Tate Modern in London, Fondation Cartier, Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou in Paris, NTU CCA Singapore; Hangar Bicocca, and La Triennale in Milan, CCCB Barcelona, Matadero Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Madrid, MAAT Lisbon, GAM Torino, Bozar, Kunsten Festival des Arts Bruxelles … among others. He has collaborated with musicians and artists like Phill Niblock, Z'EV, Nico Vascellari, Prurient, Sebastian Escofet, Nastro Mortal.
ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre in Vienna, Salzburg and Klagenfurt, is a society specialized in the realisation of new forms of theatre especially of projects for contemporary new music theatre, scenic concerts, theatre for young people, theatre concerts, deaf theatre, directed space, theatrical exhibitions and other forms of the arts.
Bo Kata is a 2007 documentary film produced, directed, edited and shot by Shehzad Afzal.
André Cypriano is a documentary and fine art photographer, known for his photography of traditional lifestyles and practices of lesser known societies in remote corners of the world.
Fabrica is a communications research centre in Treviso, Italy financed by the Benetton Group. It produces Colors magazine amongst other projects.
Afra and Tobia Scarpa are award winning postmodern Italian architects and designers. Their pieces can be found in museums across the United States and Europe, including collections in MoMA and the Louvre Museum. They have collaborated with companies such as B&B Italia, San Lorenzo Silver, and Knoll International. They have won a number of awards such as the Compasso d'Oro in 1969 to the International Forum Design in 1992. Their design work consists of architecture and everyday household items including, furniture, clothing, interior design, art glass. They focused on the technical and aesthetic possibilities of materials in their designs. The couple was greatly influenced by Tobia’s father, Carlo Scarpa, a Venetian architect and designer.
Patrick Waterhouse is a British artist. His work involves photography, drawing and graphic design. He has published books of his work and been exhibited internationally. Since 2011 he has been editor-in-chief of Colors magazine. In the same year he won the Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d'Arles for Ponte City, a collaboration with Mikhael Subotzky.
Arte Laguna Prize is an international art and design competition which takes place in Venice (Italy) since 2006 and it is aimed at promoting and enhancing contemporary art. There are different contest sections: painting, sculpture and installation, photographic art, video art, performance, virtual art, digital graphics, land art, urban art and design. The competition is based in Venice, open to all, with free theme and no age restrictions. Its goal is to promote the artists and their careers through an array of opportunities.
Saodat Ismailova is an Uzbek film director whose work focuses on the history of women in Central Asia. After graduating in film making from the Tashkent State Institute, she moved to Europe, where she began exhibiting films about Central Asian culture. She has worked to develop and promote Central Asian cinema, both in Uzbekistan and Europe.
