FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Adrian Abela (b.1989) studied architecture in Malta and Milan, and obtained an MFA from UCLA. His projects lead from an interest in a particular material or narrative into an attempt at creating parallel experiences of the human condition, sustaining it with past and future realities. The conception and execution of his projects often involve other individuals; he uses architecture-derived approaches to create informed work and establish relationships that challenge people’s perspectives on the subject. Along with several solo exhibitions in Malta, he has shown in Europe, Asia, and the US. 

Basma Alsharif is a visual artist using moving and still images, sound, and language, to explore the anonymous individual in relation to political history and collective memory. She received an MFA from the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Chicago in 2007 and has been working in Cairo, Beirut, and Amman since then.

Toby Amies makes films about Art, interesting people, gardens, and CAKE. Toby saw Herzog’s “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser” in Evesham Arts Centre in 1975, and it blew his mind. Since then he has been obsessed with film and has made films of varying length and quality since his teens. He has also been a presenter and writer for BBC 2, Radio 4, MTV, Lonely Planet, and a widely-published portrait photographer. His feature-length documentary “The Man Whose Mind Exploded” was released on Netflix USA, having had a national cinema run with Picturehouse in the UK and several TV screenings with Film 4. Toby makes experimental abstract shorts for himself and regularly makes films for SkyArts, Tate Britain, Christie’s, Nowness and music videos.

Nigel Baldacchino. Born in Malta, 1989. Read for Bachelor (Hons) in Architecture and Civil Engineering (2007-2012) at the University of Malta with one semester (2010) spent at the Universitaʼ di Roma Tor Vergata. Mainly practices in : fine art photography, music production, architectural design. nigelbaldacchino.com

Ali Barder.

Uwe Bastiansen. Hamburg, Germany. Sound artist, musician and filmmaker.
stadtfischfilm.com

Ester Martin Bergsmark is a Swedish movie director and screenwriter most known for the award winning documentaries Maggie in Wonderland and She Male Snails. Their first fiction feature Something Must Break (2014) has been shown in more than fifty festivals all over the world during 2014. The film won ten awards, including the Tiger Award, 43rd Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Grand Jury Award in Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival or Best Film and Best Performance for Saga Becker in the Lisbon International Queer Film Festival. 

Ada Bligaard Soby is a Danish documentary filmmaker and director. Ada was born in Denmark and grew up in a community of historians in a 16th century renaissance castle north of Copenhagen. Educated at the School of Visual Arts, New York and Fatamorgana, the Danish School of Art Photography. She assisted fashion photographer Terry Richardson when he was making the Terryworld book and made motorcycle trips around the US with her camera and boyfriend. After four years in New York City she moved back to Denmark and became a member of the Copenhagen based filmmaker collective Super 16. She has shot documentaries for Nordic and International broadcasters in the US, China, Russia, Singapore, Finland and England.
adabligaardsoby.com

Blu is an Italian street artist that currently lives in Bologna, Italy. He started painting in a capital of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna Region and has been involved in the street art scene since 1999. His works can be seen through the world and his style is easily recognizable. They are known to be “epic scale murals.” Blu prefers to paint his works around the urban and industrial landscape. Blu’s aesthetic search is motivated by a belief in an open source philosophy. His amazing work stands as truth against political events and other socialistic controversies in today’s modern age.
blublu.org

Charlie Cauchi is a published researcher, producer, artist and filmmaker. Her current work (LATITUDE 36) formed part of the Valletta 2018 Foundation’s European Capital of Culture programme. She curated BornShorts Short Film Festival from 2012 to 2014 on the island of Bornholm, Denmark. Charlie has produced three short films the latest being From Malta to Motor City that won the Kinemastik Audience Award in 2018. Charlie is currently producing Stephanie Sant’s film Perpetual Child, supported by the Malta Film Fund. She holds both a BA and MA in Film Studies and is doctoral candidate within the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film at Queen Mary University of London.

Aidan Celeste is interested in collections and how we develop information with a personal encounter. He has also programmed a series of art house films in Malta and the odd cinema abroad, participated in festivals, and has recently moved to the Netherlands to study curating with emerging media. In Rotterdam he joined the V2_ as an archivist in training and assisted the senior curator for the development of ‘Data in the 21st Century’, an exhibition about our everyday relationship with big data. Celeste’s interest in curating is twofold: as a trained archivist with a loyalty to the artist’s original intent, and a curator who wants to exploit the object of art with the audience and their own interpretation.
cargocollective.com/buildapicture

Cara Connolly studied Fine Art Photography at the Glasgow School of Art. Since 2010, she has made documentaries for and with many artists, performers, writers, and art galleries: Michael Clark Company, David Shrigley, The Common Guild, Tate Gallery, Phil Collins, Simon Starling, Artangel. She also made a documentary, Boccia Brothers, about two hilarious and unlikely athletes going to the 2012 Paralympic Games which was screened on BBC Scotland. In 2014 she wrote and directed Bafta nominated, ‘Exchange & Mart’, a live action short film which premiered at Sundance and Berlinale. It went on to win Best British Short at Leeds International Film Festival. She is currently developing a documentary series for television about Scottish history through children’s eyes, and writing the feature script of Exchange & Mart with the development support of Creative Scotland and Film Four.

Aaron Dilloway is a sound artist / noise musician from midwest America temporarily residing in Pieta, Malta. Dilloway works with the manipulation of crude tape loops in combination with voice, tape delays and various organic and electronic sound sources. A founding member of the industrial noise group Wolf Eyes (1998 – 2005), Dilloway now performs and records solo and in ongoing collaboration work with artists such as Genesis P-Orridge, Jason Lescalleet, Vicky Langan, Dylan Nyoukis, and more. Dilloway also runs the experimental music record label & record shop Hanson Records in Oberlin, Ohio, and is an avid collector of underground music, video, and artwork.

Dina Fakoussa has been head of the Middle East and North Africa Program, formerly the EU-Middle East Forum, since March 2011.She previously worked as a program and project manager on issues regarding democratization, human rights, civil conflict resolution, and strengthening civil society, and culture in the Arab region. Fakoussa was head of programs at the Böll Stiftung in Lebanon, among other positions, and was active with other German NGOs and development institutions in Jordan and Egypt, where she planned conferences, training workshops, and publications on the aforementioned topics in addition to building up networks for political and social actors. She also wrote analyses of current political and economic developments in the Arab region. A German-Egyptian, Fakoussa studied political science at the Frei Universität Berlin and American University in Cairo. She holds a Diploma in political science and a BA in political science and economics.

Neil Fox is a London based artist. Born in 1981 he studied at Camberwell Art College and the Royal College of Art. While at the RCA he co-founded Le Gun, the art collective and publication of the same name. Since graduating in 2005, Fox’s work has been exhibited in London, Munich, Berlin and Paris.
nealfox.co.uk

Moviment Graffitti is a Maltese pressure group promoting an amalgamation of leftist sociopolitical ideas, mainly human rights, equality, environmentalism and anti-fascism. It was founded in 1994.
movimentgraffitti.org

Mark Hammarberg attended the documentary filmmaking school at Biskops Arnö. He has been working closely with Ester Martin Bergsmark for years, developing a characteristic and innovative style. Their projects are characterized by a will to experiment, an aesthetic drive and a skill for showing new images, rooted in today’s Sweden that pushes the envelope for the documentary genre. Their film, Swallow it (2007), was an experiment that has been described as a kick in the stomach of traditional film-making. Director Lukas Moodyson has been helping out during every step of the way as dramaturgist and creative supporter. Maggie in Wonderland (2008) is their feature film debut.

Kenichi Iwasa is an artist, filmmaker and musician from Japan, based in London since 1997. Kenichi’s work relies heavily on improvisation and collaboration. He is behind the Krautrock Karaoke project currently in it’s 50th edition.

Carla MacKinnon has been producing international film festivals, curating arts programmes and creating illustrative and moving image work for over 10 years. She has experience of arts production from conceptualisation and fundraising through to exhibition and distribution and from traditional methodology to cutting edge digital technology. Carla also participates in juries and panels, hosts Q&As and programmes short films for international festivals and organisations. She has taught young people aged three to ninteen in groups of five to 50+ on free standing and rolling programmes. In 2006 Carla completed an internship in the Education Department at Whitechapel Gallery. She holds an enhanced CRB certificate and has a sound understanding of good practice in child protection, health and safety and diversity, as well as a track record of fundraising and programming for social and educational initiatives.

Igor Malešević is one of the generation of Serbian drummers who left and leave a deep trail in the music industry. His performanes are described as uncontrolled, spontaneous and relaxed. As a concert and studio musician, he colaborated with numerous bands and individuals (Rambo Amadeus, Fiefdom, Bjesovi, 357, Hazari, Vasil Hadžimanov Band, Bel Tempo, Gru, Damar Trio, Bata Kanda, Milos Petrovic, Saban Bajramović, Jelić, Slađana Milosevic, Stjepko Gut, Zdravko Colic, YU group and others. He is the founder of the group ” Cosmos Shtasmos “.

Katie Metcalfe, a video commissioner for NOWNESS and programmer for short films at Sundance Film Festival.

Will Oldham (born January 15, 1970), better known by the stage name Bonnie “Prince” Billy, is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded under variations of the Palace name, including the Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music. After releasing material under his own name, he adopted the Bonnie “Prince” Billy name for the majority of his output since 1998.
royalstablemusic.com

Robert Pisani was born and raised in Canada until the age of 14 and lived for 10 of those fourteen years among the Metis Indians. He is also a Librarian and a Dj (the human jukebox variety, not the type who’ll mash and mix tracks). He has a penchant for films that are a bit odd or twee.

Ben Russell—filmmaker, artist, curator—challenges conventions of documentary representation from within to produce intense, hypnotic, and, at times, hallucinating experiences. His curatorial work follows his filmmaking, which unfolds between experimental cinema and a form of speculative ethnography; he calls it ‘psychedelic ethnography.’

Teodor Reljić is a writer of fiction with extensive experience of film criticism and cultural journalism. His debut novel, Two was shortlisted for the National Book Prize in 2015. He has also written MIBDUL, Malta’s very first serialized comic, which will be illustrated by Inez Kristina and launched in late 2019. He has been contributing the national newspaper MaltaToday since the early 2000 and is the current editor of the quarterly arts and culture publication, ENCORE. Reljić has co-written Camilla, a short film adaptation of a short story by Clare Azzopardi that won the National Book Council’s Literary Short Film Contest. Reljić’s other work in film is a forthcoming horror feature film, entitled Inheritance and slated to commence filming in 2019. 
teodoreljic.com

Alfred Sant is a Maltese politician and a novelist. He led the Labour Party from 1992 to 2008 and served as Prime Minister of Malta between 1996 and 1998. Sant is an established novelist, short story writer and playwright. His published works include plays,short stories, novels, and non-fiction.

Patti Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Called the “punk poet laureate,” Smith fused rock and poetry in her work. Her most widely known song is “Because the Night,” which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen. It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978 and number five in the U.K. In 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids.[8] The book fulfilled a promise she had made to her former long-time roommate and partner, Robert Mapplethorpe. She placed 47th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Artists published in December 2010 and was also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.
pattismith.net

Keg de Souza is an Australian artist working with mediums such as; inflatable and temporary architecture, food, film, mapping and dialogical projects to explore the politics of space. This investigation of social and spatial environments is influenced by her formal training in architecture and experiences of radical spaces through squatting and organising. She often creates site and situation specific projects with people, with an emphasis on knowledge exchange. Keg is a member of various collaborative groups, such as SquatSpace Artist Collective and the Rizzeria printmaking collective. Keg is represented by Booklyn Artist Alliance, NY for her artist’s books and zines which she has been self-publishing for over 15 years. www.kegdesouza.com

Franziska von Stenglin (*1984 in Munich, Germany) has a Bachelor in Photography from the London University of the Arts and a Meisterschüler in Fine Art from Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She is a visual artist whose projects intertwine the personal narrative with local myth and lore. In 2016, von Stenglin wrote, produced and directed her first short film, I’m a Stranger Here Myself. In November of 2017 she shot her second film, The Dust Of Modern Life on 16mm in Kon Tum, Vietnam. She currently lives in Berlin, Germany. www.franziskavonstenglin.com

Nicholas Tabone.

Miloš Tomić (1976) graduated in Film Directing from the Academy of Arts in Belgrade in 2001. He holds an MA in Animation from FAMU (Prague), class of Petar Skala. There, he also received a PhD with a thesis on discarded objects as material for film and photography. Since 2009, he has been living in Belgrade, where he teaches short video forms at the Singidunum University. In 2013, he represented Serbia at the Venice Biennale. He has filmed over 40 short fiction, documentary, experimental and animated films, which screened at numerous festivals, winning many awards.

Antonio Tufigno, a self described “paraphernal, voracious and interested human tumbleweed.”

Mario Vella. A veteran of the local music scene, Mario often loves to shove (he prefers ‘sharing’) his informed or half formed opinions down people’s throats and choking himself in the process. Unfulfilled by a job which takes up the lion’s share of his time, he often seeks refuge in movies, songwriting and petty online controversies. He also likes to eat. A lot. Perhaps even more than watching movies or penning the odd song for his band ‘Brikkuni’. Mario’s lifelong ambition is ”striking the perfect balance between obnoxious and lovable”.

Hu Wei was born in 1989. Currently works and lives in Beijing. His practice takes various media, such as video, installation, performance, and writing, to establish an artistic relationship between the reality (non-artistic gesture) and “art tales”. Combining the observation of individuality and social realism, recently he is exploring the mediation or irreconcilable phenomenology between technology and the human condition, and in which the emerging political, economic, ethical issues are embedded. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for his experimental film Butter Lamp. www.hu-wei.com

Andrew “W.I.Z.” Whiston is an English director of films and music videos. W.I.Z. has directed a number of high-concept videos for major music artists from the United Kingdom and the United States, including Massive Attack, Kasabian, Oasis, and Marilyn Manson. Once in a band himself, W.I.Z. has also directed concert films of live performances by the bands Suede, Manic Street Preachers, and Primal Scream.