Fashion designer, Tokyo Tominaga Wataru is a fashion designer and artist currently based in Tokyo and has lived in Helsinki, Paris and London. In 2015, upon graduation from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, he became the recipient of the prestigious Grand Jury Prize Première Vision at the 31st edition of the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography. Tominaga’s characteristic works involve the application of vinyl over twisted and pleated fabrics printed with maximalist designs, which unfolds […]
Artist, Bamako Aboubakar Fofana was born in Mali and moved to France at an early age. As a child in West Africa, he was told of stories of green leaves that made blue colours. Years later, already an established calligrapher, artist and graphic designer living in France, he recalled such stories and embarked on a dedicated journey to understand indigo and his West African heritage. Working with a living medium such as indigo, his work harnesses cycles of birth, life […]
Artist and academic, Vienna Karin Altmann is an Austrian artist, academic, art mediator and a senior lecturer at the Department of Textile Arts, University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she teaches on three main areas: dyeing with natural dyes, textile printing and textile production. Altmann’s practice is transcultural, often working with partners from Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Japan and Ghana; her projects are also often inclusive of children, people with disabilities, refugees and women under psychological or social pressure. As both […]
Founder, Studio Adrien Gardère, Paris Adrien Gardère is a designer, museographer and founder of Studio Adrien Gardère, which has established enduring relationships with major international institutions such as the Musée du Louvre, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and has worked with some of the world’s leading architects such as Foster + Partners, SANAA, David Chipperfield and Fumihiko Maki. Gardère enjoys new partnerships in which design and content provide a visual, educational and […]
Director, Rhizomatiks Architecture, Tokyo Born in Kanagawa in 1975, Saito Seiichi began his career in New York in 2000 after graduating from Columbia University with a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design (MSAAD). Since then, he has been active in creative work at the Arnell Group, and returned to Japan upon being selected for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial event. He produces works in the commercial art field which are three-dimensional and interactive while rooted in logical thought, which he […]
Lead Curator, Design and Architecture, M+, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Hong Kong Yokoyama Ikko is lead curator of design and architecture at M+, Hong Kong’s new museum for visual culture at West Kowloon Cultural District. Before joining M+, she was based in Stockholm and served as head of exhibitions at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design. As an independent curator and writer, Yokoyama worked on international exhibitions and projects, including Found MUJI Sweden, Stockholm (2016); Japanese Design Revisited for Helsinki Design […]
Academic, Vienna Sri ‘Jani’ Kuhnt-Saptodewo is an academic born in Jakarta who has written numerous books based on her research findings and interest on themes of interculturality and performing arts. Kuhnt-Saptodewo earned a MA in German Literature in 1983 and later graduated in Culture Anthropology from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich with a PhD in 1993. Since then, she has worked and taught at various institutions, including the prestigious Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, where she served as the Head of Collection […]
Artist and Co-Founder, Cemeti Institute for Art and Society, Yogyakarta Mella Jaarsma has become known for her complex costume installations and her focus on forms of cultural and racial diversity embedded within clothing, the body and food. She was born in the Netherlands in 1960 and studied visual art at Minerva Academy in Groningen (1978-1984), after which she left the Netherlands to study at the Art Institute of Jakarta (1984) and at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta […]
Curator, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow Iaroslav Volovod was born in Murmansk and is now based in Moscow, where he serves as a curator at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. He graduated from the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg State University and received a master’s degree in curatorial studies from a joint program shared between Bard College, New York, and St. Petersburg State University. He has received training from the Central Institute of Hindi, New Delhi, and Heidelberg […]
Senior Curator and Head of the Costume and Textiles Department, LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Los Angeles Sharon S Takeda is Senior Curator and Head of the Costume and Textiles Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her major exhibitions include Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015; Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915; Miracles and Mischief: Noh and Kyōgen Theater in Japan; and When Art Became Fashion: Kosode in Edo-Period Japan. The Costume Society of […]