Dr. Sara Raza is an award-winning curator and writer specializing in global art and visual cultures from postcolonial and post-Soviet perspectives. She is the author of Punk Orientalism: The Art of Rebellion (Black Dog Press, London, 2022) and currently serves as the Artistic Director and Chief Curator of the Center for Contemporary Arts in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Raza has curated exhibitions and projects for numerous international museums, biennials, and festivals, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Milan), Rubin Museum of Art (New York), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha), the

International Center of Photography (New York), the MacKenzie Art Gallery (Saskatchewan), Maraya Art Center (Sharjah), the Tashkent Biennale (Uzbekistan), the 55th Venice Biennale (Saudi Pavilion “Rhizoma”), and the 3rd Baku Public Art Festival (Azerbaijan), among others.

Previously, she served as the Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator for the Middle East and North

Africa at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and as Curator of Public Programs at Tate Modern in London. Raza is the West and Central Asia Desk Editor for ArtAsiaPacific magazine and has written extensively for artist monographs, books, scholarly catalogues, and academic journals.

She is the recipient of the 11th ArtTable New Leadership Award for Women in the Arts and was recognized by Deutsche Bank and Apollo magazine as one of 40 Under 40 global art specialists (Thinkers category). Raza is a finalist for the Walter Hopps Curatorial Excellence Award and was awarded the Arts Council of England Emerging Curator’s Award (2004–05).

Sara holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature and History of Art and an MA in 20th-Century Art History and Theory, both from Goldsmiths, University of London. She earned her PhD from Middlesex University, London, and previously pursued MPhil-PhD studies at the Royal College of Art. From 2021 to 2023, she was a Red Burns Fellow at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and has taught on the Master’s Curatorial Practice program at the

School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2024, she was a Visiting Professor at New York

University’s Institute of Fine Arts (Vilcek Curatorial Program). She currently teaches in NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication and is a Core Critic and Faculty member in the MA Painting and Printmaking Department at the Yale School of Art.

Salma Tuqan is a contemporary art and design curator and cultural strategist. She is the Director of Nottingham Contemporary, a leading centre of contemporary art in Europe. Prior to this she was Deputy Director of Delfina Foundation, an interdisciplinary non profit dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange and developing creative practice through residencies, exhibitions and public programming. From 2011 – 2019 she worked as the Contemporary Middle East Curator of art and design at the V&A where she was responsible for Middle Eastern art and design programming and acquisitions at the museum, co-curated the biennial international Jameel Prize exhibition, and co-founded the Culture in Crisis stream.

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She works closely with cultural organisations on strategy and is a committee member of the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research at the British Museum (London), Arab Image Foundation (Beirut), Art on the Underground (London) and Rivers Institute (New Orleans).

Emre Baykal (1965, Istanbul) worked as Associate Director (1995–2000) and Director (2000–2005) of the Istanbul Biennial and as Exhibitions Director at santralistanbul (2005–2008). He was appointed as the curator of the Turkish Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. Baykal, who joined Arter's team as Exhibitions Director and Curator in 2008 and served as Chief Curator between 2016–2023, has assumed the position of Director at Arter as of January 2024. He curated the exhibitions Şakir Gökçebağ (As It Seems, 2024), Sarkis (ENDLESS, 2023–2024), Elina Brotherus (Large de Vue, 2023), In Its Own Shadow (with Gizem Uslu Tümer, 2023–2024),ThisPlay (2022–2023), Füsun Onur: Opus II – Fantasia (2021–2022), Precaution (2021–2022), Ayşe Erkmen (Whitish, 2019–2020), What Time Is It? (with Eda Berkmen; 2019–2020), Ali Kazma (timemaker, 2015), Füsun Onur (Through the Looking Glass, 2014), Volkan Aslan (Don’t Forget to Remember, 2013), Envy, Enmity, Embarrasement (2013), Mona Hatoum (You Are Still Here, 2012), Deniz Gül (5 Person Bufet, 2011), Second Exhibition (2010–2011), Tactics of Invisibility (with Daniela Zyman; 2010–2011) as part of Arter’s exhibition programme and contributed to various publications.

Renowned as a strategic cultural consultant and a devoted art collector, Benedicta is actively shaping cultural change on a global scale. Her engagement with artists, institutions, and art market systems reflects a continuous quest for innovative formulas driving impactful social change.
Benedicta’s collecting practice has evolved into a personal statement in response to current political contexts, reflecting her commitment to empowering those who build bridges and celebrate differences. She stands as a passionate advocate for challenging the status quo, employing critical lenses to influence collective thinking and foster societal change through art.

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Benedicta M Badia is an active cultural change agent, constantly engaging with artists, institutions, and art market systems worldwide. Seeks those at the forefront of developing innovative and impactful formulas for social change. Challenges the status quo through critical lenses, influencing collective thinking and foster societal change through art. Believes that the art ecosystem can play a crucial role in shaping social conventions and human behavior, thus making it a territory of public interest. Her engagement with the arts, including her art collecting practice has evolved into a personal statement in tension with the current political contexts. She is passionate about empowering those who are building bridges and celebrating differences by initiating conversations that demand attention. Highly engaged in developing strategies that challenge political and socio-economic status quo, identity formation, and concepts of patrimony, private property, which disrupt stereotypes, privilege, gender roles, and aesthetics givens.

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Benedicta M Badia

Actitud 1963 LLC

Compañia Colaborativa

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Anissa Touati is a transnational curator and a researcher at Brown University (USA) where she is developing the notion of “Entangled Legacies of Space”. She is the curator of the Biennale BCK, Rhodes Island, Greece, 2026. Most recently, she served as guest curator 2023-2024 of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, curator-at-large of Paris Internationale from 2020-2023 and has been the artistic director of Contemporary Istanbul from 2018-2019, introducing the concept of “Mediterraneanism. Over the past decade, she has taken on the role of artistic director at several international locations, advised, curated or co-curated exhibitions and projects in many different countries including ARCO Madrid (Spain), Chalet Society (France), Thalie Foundation (Belgium), BEMA Museum (Lebanon), Mughal Museum (India), Lagos Biennial (Nigeria), Broad Museum (USA) amongst others. Anissa Touati has lectured at numerous places such as MIT (Boston), Harvard GSD (Boston), University of Zürich (Switzerland) amongst others and writes for exhibitions catalogs, art galleries or journals such as Flash Art, Apartamento.

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