Biography / Version 5

Anahita Asadifar lives, studies, and works as an artist in Vienna. She employs montage as a method to construct new arguments and meanings. Her image- and time-based work explores possibilities of knowledge production and its dissemination through the compilation and reprocessing of archived knowledge and/or audiovisual material. 

Martin Brandlmayr is a composer and drummer. He works at the intersection of improvisation and composition, as well as between electronic and acoustic soundscapes. He is a member of ensembles such as Polwechsel and Trapist. With the trio Radian, which he founded, he has released a total of seven albums, five of them on the U.S. label Thrill Jockey. Martin Brandlmayr has collaborated with Howe Gelb, Mats Gustafsson, Elisabeth Harnik, Christian Fennesz, The Necks, Sachiko M, David Sylvian, John Tilbury, Ken Vandermark, Otomo Yoshihide, and many more. 

Thomas Brandstätter studied philosophy and German studies and lives and works in Vienna as a freelance author and animation filmmaker. 

Bernhard Cella is an artist, curator, and publisher. He engages with contemporary forms of visual art that transform production and distribution models. His conceptual approach not only examines entrepreneurship in art and the evolving role of artists in society but also employs a collaborative process to track the close cooperation between artists, producers, publishers, curators, and their bibliophilic audience. Cella studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Erich Wonder and at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg under Franz Erhard Walther. cella.at, sfkb.at 

Forensic Architecture is a multidisciplinary research group at Goldsmiths, University of London, that employs architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and human rights violations worldwide. The group is led by architect Eyal Weizman and consists of an interdisciplinary team of investigators, including architects, scientists, artists, filmmakers, software developers, investigative journalists, archaeologists, and legal experts. 

María Galindo is a Bolivian anarcha-feminist and psychologist. She has worked as a radio host, TV presenter, columnist, and screenwriter and has authored several books and publications. She is a co-founder of Mujeres Creando, a Bolivian collective and social movement dedicated to fighting social injustice, sexism, and homophobia. She currently writes a weekly column for Página Siete and hosts a regular radio program for Mujeres Creando. 

Manfred Grübl embraces a broad concept of art. His versatile work includes installation, performance, photography, video, and sculpture, extending these media further. Grübl intervenes in public space, making viewers active participants in his art. His approach is characterized by seeing art not as a static object in space but as interaction and communication. In 2018, he was awarded the Grand Art Prize of the Province of Salzburg. 

Barbara Kapusta is an artist and writer based in Vienna. In her works, fictional bodies articulate partial perspectives and queer agency to challenge the imperial gesture of universality and binary structures. Her recent immersive three-channel video installation, The Leaking Bodies, explores the effects of ecological, social, and emotional stress, the increasing toxicity of landscapes, and the resulting political instability, as well as how these events impact our bodies. In 2020, she was awarded the Otto Mauer Prize. 

Linda Klösel studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is a freelance author, editor, and member of the public relations office at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She has conceptualized and executed projects such as Art, Music & Environment (with Gertraud Presenhuber) and Version (with Manfred Grübl). Publications: Birgit-Jürgenssen-Preis 2004–2013 (2013), Georg Kargl – Fine Arts since 1998 – BOX since 2005 (2006). 

Kris Lemsalu is an artist based in New York and Tallinn. She studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts – School of Design in Copenhagen, and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. 

Kyp Malone is an American multi-instrumentalist and a member of the bands TV on the Radio, Iran, Rain Machine, and Ice Balloons. He writes, sings, and plays instruments for these bands. His lyrics use poetic imagery to address racism, the entertainment industry, and politics in an indirect manner. 

Milo Rau is a director, writer, and, since 2018, the artistic director of NTGent (Belgium). He has created over 50 theater productions, films, books, and actions. His theater productions have been presented at all major international festivals, including the Berliner Theatertreffen, Festival d’Avignon, Venice Biennale, Wiener Festwochen, and the Brussels Kunstenfestivaldesarts, and have toured in over 30 countries worldwide. 

Yvan Sagnet was born in Douala, Cameroon. He came to Italy in 2008 to study and worked as a farm laborer to support himself. He completed a degree in telecommunications engineering at the Politecnico di Torino. In 2011, he became the spokesperson for the farm laborers’ strike at the Boncuri farm in Nardò. This strike raised awareness, made it possible for the „caporalato“ to be considered a crime for the first time, and ultimately led to the first court case in Europe for slavery and the conviction of twelve entrepreneurs. He worked as a trade unionist for the farmworkers‘ union FLAI-CGIL and is one of the founders of the international anti Caporalato association NoCap. Yvan Sagnet has written two books, published by Fandango. 

Anna Witt’s artistic practice is performative, participatory, and political. She creates situations that reflect interpersonal relationships and power structures, as well as conventions of speaking and acting. Passersby in public spaces or specifically selected individuals and groups are often physically involved in her experimental setups. She frequently explores questions of subject formation: how we become who we are, what we do, what we believe in, what we fight for, and how this social self is intertwined with societal, political, and economic frameworks.