Sebastian Vaida

Thi My Lien Nguyen (b. 1995) is a Swiss-Vietnamese photographer and artist based in Switzerland. She received her Bachelor's degree in Camera Arts from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2017. In her artistic practice she deals with the feeling and understanding of belonging, participation and the sense of home, whereas she is strongly interested in diasporic and post-migrant realities and stories. Through participatory and inclusive methods, performative and culinary activations she seeks to establish more inclusive spaces to create more understanding and representations between communities. She works with traditions, rituals, folklore, photography and food. Her work has been exhibited in multiple exhibitions including the 22nd Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil in São Paulo (2023), Museum Haus Konstruktiv Zürich (2023), Plat(t)form, Fotomuseum Winterthur (2022), Photo Hanoi, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA) (2021). Nguyen is part of the curatorial team at Les Complices*, a self-organised community-based off-space in Zurich, committed to support the ideas and works of queer, trans, inter, non-binary, women* and BIPoC.‍

Based in Chisinau, Moldova, Natalia Ciobanu is an internationally recognized photographer specializing in portraits and travel photography. With over 18 years of experience, she masterfully blends color and emotion, crafting images that tell profound human stories. Her work has been exhibited across Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine and has earned prestigious awards, including Gold Winner at the London Photography Awards, Finalist in the Smithsonian Contest, and distinctions from Nikon Photo Contest and Trierenberg Super Circuit. For Natalia, photography is more than just capturing moments; it’s about telling stories, connecting with people, and celebrating the beauty of the world in all its diversity. Each photograph she creates is an exploration of humanity and a tribute to the colors that define our lives.

Irish artist, Miriam O’Connor lives and works in Cork. She holds a BA in photography from Dublin Institute of Technology, and completed a Research Masters at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire in 2011. Drawing inspiration from the language, sights and sounds of the everyday, O’Connor’s practice frequently engages with matters which reflect her everyday surroundings, as well as her day-to-day experiences of being a photographer. Her projects have explored themes around looking and seeing; the relationship between camera and subject; the circulation and consumption of images and the complex nature of photographic representation.Her work has been exhibited and distributed extensively, with features in magazines and publications including; Camera Austria, Source Photographic Review, The New York Times and The Guardian. Recent solo shows include Sternview Gallery, Cork, Galleri Image, Denmark, The Third Space Gallery, Belfast and during ‘THERE THERE’ festival, Cork curated by Stag & Deer. In 2012, she received the Alliance Française Photography Award, which included a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. She was the recipient of the Emerging Irish Artist Residency Award [EIARA] in 2015 which included a month-long residency at Burren College of Art, Co. Clare. Publications include, ‘Attention Seekers’ (2012) ‘The Legacy Project’ (2013) and ‘Tomorrow is Sunday’ (2017). She was one of the selected artists for Greetings from Ireland (2015) and New Irish Works I & II (2013, 2016). In conjunction with Galleri Image, Denmark, she recently produced new work for FRESH EYES - International artists rethink Aarhus, which was exhibited during Aarhus Capital of Culture, 2017.

Marcus Gustafsson (b. 1990) is a Stockholm-based photographer and artist whose practice is autobiographical, exploring memory and its various realities. In 2013, Marcus obtained a bachelor's degree in photojournalism from Mid Sweden University. The recurring theme in Marcus's work is his autobiographical style, with human relationships serving as the common denominator. Marcus works primarily with analog techniques, occasionally manipulating photographs or complementing them with other applications such as drawing and writing. With exhibitions in Stockholm, Helsinki, Athens, and Pelt, Belgium, Marcus released his first zine, Down Here Together, with Fail Books in 2021. In the fall of 2023, Marcus completed a one-year workshop at Atelier Smedsby with photographers JH Engström and Margot Wallard in Paris, where the project Filling in the Gaps was conceived.

Camille Poitevin (b. Montreal, Canada, 1996) is a french multidisciplinary artist based in Brussels. Installation plays a central role in her practice : drawing from lens-based media, sculpture, and sound, she creates time for introspection in a fast-paced society. In doing so, she aims to challenge social norms, unfreezing preconceived ideas in human interactions, social roles, and personal identity. Camille Poitevin earned a BA in applied arts from Concordia University in Montreal (2018) and an MA in photography from ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels (2022), where she was awarded a creation grant by the King Baudouin Foundation and the Servix Prize. Her work has since been exhibited in Belgium (Beursschouwburg, BPS22, Hangar Art Center, Ateliers Mommen, HISK Gosset Site, CAL Charleroi), the Netherlands (as part of Currents#10 program at Marres Huis voor Hedendaagse Cultuur), France (FRAC Franche-Comté), and Spain (InCadaqués Festival OFF). In 2025, she participates in the collective exhibition Art au Centre in public space in Liège in the .tiff Emerging Belgian Photography program.

Emilia Martin is a Polish artist and photographer based in The Hague, Netherlands, where in 2022 she graduated from Photography & Society Masters at the Royal Academy of the Art. Working with photography, writing, and sound, she explores how the stories we tell shape the realities we inhabit. She investigates mythologies and tales, and how they fluctuate and shift throughout histories. Through her work, she aims to complicate the binary understandings of fiction and truth and their established aesthetics. Her process is based on careful research and personal, often playful approaches, through which she questions dominant narratives. The belief in storytelling is rooted in her upbringing, where she engaged with both rural mythologies and urban narratives. She grew up between two different realities: a remote farm belonging to her grandmother in rural Eastern Poland and a heavy industry coal mining urban region in the West of the country. The clash between these two realities, the narrative of extractivism against rural mythologies and the proximity of nature, formed a place that continues to ground her artistic practice. Her work is inspired and informed by her rural Polish ancestry and intersectional feminist approaches.

Jeroen De Wandel uses photography as a starting point to create new images from all sorts of material (photographic or otherwise), using his own photography in different shapes, contexts and meanings. His artistic work often starts from a personal need to react within a social context / our society. A common thread is the functioning of our brain: how we deal with zeitgeist, with information, with manipulation, with technology and how all this reflects back on our psychological well-being. Depending on the angle and location, he uses different techniques, from photography and collages to installations, sculptures and spatial interventions. He showed work in FoMu (BE) and Circulations (FR) and recently had his first solo show (2024). Follow at @jeroen_de_wandel for recent work

Peter Pflügler (b. 1987) is an Austrian visual storyteller based in the Netherlands. He holds a BA in Photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. Pflügler’s work centres on the dynamics of secrets, intergenerational trauma and silence. With the help of photography, video and text, he aims to resurrect the unseen, the unknown and the hidden. His Now is not the right time project has been shown at numerous festivals and exhibitions throughout Europe, whilst the dummy was nominated for several international prizes, including the Kassel Dummy Award.Website: peterpflugler.com

Graduated in Political Science and Urban Sociology, his work unfolds in territories left, maintained or deliberately built on the fringes of our cities. He takes them on over a long period of time and draws up a personal cartography, walking a fine line between documentary and fine art photography. He attaches particular importance to form, colour and material, which serve as points of encounter with his mental universe. In this way, he constructs a visual language that is both frontal and polysemous, offering a singular vision in which human frailties are transfigured by new lines of force. His work is regularly exhibited at festivals in France and abroad, like Athens Photo Festival, Tbilisi Photo Festival, Les Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles or Circulation(s). He was awarded the Maison Blanche Prize in 2021.

Masha Weisberg (b. 1997, Ukraine) is a visual artist currently based in Vancouver, Canada. Working primarily with photography—ranging from historical and alternative processes to experimental and mixed-media approaches—Weisberg explores themes of generational trauma, cycles of human history, motherhood, and the complex relationship between personal and collective memory. Her practice blends abstract and narrative-driven imagery, engaging with photography as a medium beyond documentation, often intersecting with installation and video art. Her ongoing projects investigate inherited histories, war trauma, and the fragility of human experience.