Germaine Acogny (Allahé, 1944) is an international dancer, choreographer and teacher. She has become a true ambassador of African dance and culture. This year she was awarded the Golden Lion of Dance at the Venice Biennale.
Mustapha Benfodil (Relizane, 1968) is a writer and journalist. He lives and works in Algiers, where he is a reporter for daily newspaper El Watan. He has covered events in a number of Arab world countries, including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco
Hourya Bentouhami (Troyes, 1979), is a French-Moroccan philosopher, professor at the University of Toulouse II and member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Her research work deals with nonviolence and civil disobedience.
Rosa María Calaf (Barcelona, 1945) is a graduate in Law and Journalism. She worked for RTVE (Spain’s public broadcasting service) for almost three decades as a correspondent in New York, Vienna, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Rome and Beijing, among others.
Alejandro Castellote (Madrid, 1959) is an independent curator, essayist and professor of photography. He directed the Photography Department at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid from 1985 to 1996, where he produced the FOCO Festival (1985 to 1989).
Jon Cazenave (San Sebastian, 1978) is an economist and visual artist. His approach to photography stems from an intimate anthropological perspective to develop a contemporary creative language grounded in ancestral signs and symbols.
Aïda Colmenero Dïaz (Madrid, 1981) is a creator, actress, choreographer, dancer, filmmaker and performing arts curator. She is Germaine Acogny’s sole Spanish disciple. She is the founder and director of the multidisciplinary project Ella Poema.
Josep Maria Esquirol (Mediona, 1963) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona, where he teaches contemporary philosophy and directs the Aporia research group (focused on the relationship between philosophy and psychiatry).
Luis García Montero (Granada, 1958). Director del Instituto Cervantes, es catedrático de Literatura Española y autor de una amplia obra poética, narrativa y ensayística.
Luis González Palma (Guatemala, 1957) is a photographer who lives and works in Córdoba, Argentina. In 1999, he received the Photo España Baume & Mercier Award.
Najat El Hachmi (Nador, 1979) is a writer who has lived in Catalonia since the age of eight. With a degree in Arab Studies from the University of Barcelona, she often works with newspapers and radio stations.
Nathalie Handal (France-Palestine, 1969) is a French-American poet and writer raised in France, Latin America, and the Middle East, and educated in Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The novelist Claire Messud describes her as “a contemporary Orpheus.”
Rémi Larue (France, 1989) holds a PhD in Political Studies from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris and currently works as a social worker in the Île-de-France region.
Martine Mathieu-Job (Blida, 1952) is professor emeritus at the University of Bordeaux Montaigne and a member of the Society of Camusian Studies. She is the author of several essays on colonial and postcolonial literature of the Maghreb and the Indian Ocean.
Amie Mbye (Oslo, 1993) is a dancer and teacher specialising in Afro-modern and urban dance, and a member of the Aïda Colmenero Dïaz company, with which she has worked in numerous theatres and festivals.
Edgar Morin (Paris, 1921). Writer, social Anthropologist and philosopher Edgar Morin is one of France’s leading thinkers. He developed a method for engaging with complexity: as reality, as knowledge and as a contemporary challenge.
Noa (Tel Aviv, 1969) is a Yemeni-born, New York-raised singer, songwriter, poet and percussionist who has performed on the world’s most prestigious stages.
Nuccio Ordine (Diamante, 1958) is a philosopher, professor of Italian literature at the University of Calabria and one of the leading contemporary experts on the Renaissance and Giordano Bruno’s thought.
María Pagés (Seville, 1963) is a pioneer in flamenco dance as a contemporary cultural expression. If there is one thing that defines the multifaceted creativity of this iconoclastic creator, it is her deep-rooted, ethical sense of culture.
Christian Phéline’s (Paris, 1945) family has lived in Argelia for many generations. He has held various positions in the French administration, both in culture and in media.
Franck Planeille (Cavaillon, 1962) is a secondary school principal. Holder of a master’s degree for his work on Albert Camus, he is also a lecturer, exhibition curator and writer.
Anne Prouteau (Lorient, 1965). Senior lecturer in French literature at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers (France) and vice president of the Society of Camusian Studies, she is involved in promoting the work of the writer.
Carme Riera (Palma de Mallorca, 1948) is a writer in Spanish and Catalan languages and holds the Goytisolo Chair at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Abdo Shanan (Orán, 1982). Photographer artist. He studied Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Sirte (Libya). In 2012, he did a professional internship at Magnum Photos Paris which gave him the opportunity to rehearse his photographic approach and do his first report for the Rukhmagazine .
Alicia M. Sintes (Menorca, 1969) is a theoretical physicist. She began her career at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), where she received her PhD in 1996.
Camille de Toledo (Lyon, 1976) is a writer who holds a PhD in Comparative Literature. He teaches at the Contemporary Writing Workshop at l’ENSAV (La Cambre), Brussels.
Juan Valbuena (Madrid, 1973). He is a founder photographer of the NOPHOTO agency, director of the publishing house PHREE and professor and coordinator of the International Master of Photography and Project Management at the EFTI School of Photography.