Emese Mucsi

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.‍

Top researches the topics of mass surveillance, privacy, data collection.In his practice, he layers a traditional approach to documentary research with a more experimental use of new technologies (such as facial recognition, movement analysis, and deepfakes). The artist uses these technologies to visualise and examine scenarios in which people can protect themselves and their rights by gaining knowledge and reclaiming control of surveillance tools.  ​ Top’s projects addressing human rights, police misconduct and facial recognition during protests aim to contrast the abstract nature of the algorithmic mechanisms behind mass surveillance, by providing a concrete visualisation of the phenomenon and confronting the public with the extensive amount of surveillance societies are subjected to and the ethical risks deriving, finally offering theoretical solutions.

Marija Mandić (b. 1990, Novi Sad, Serbia) is an artist whose practice spans photography, text, drawing, and found footage. Her work delves into the themes of identity, memory and the past, often within a familial context, blending personal narratives with broader social issues. In 2023, Mandić was a finalist for the Mangelos Award, part of the Young Visual Artists Awards network. She won the Fotograf Magazine (CZ) open call in 2022 and received the VID Foundation for Photography grant in 2021 for her project White Bee. Her accolades also include the Dositeja scholarship, a grant from the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic, and the Mali Princ Foundation award. Mandić holds a PhD in Visual Communication from the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem, where she lectured from 2015 to 2019.

Nayara Leite (b. 1989) is a Brazilian artist and writer based in Bergen, Norway. She holds an MFA from the Bergen Art Academy and an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication. Nayara works across text, performance, film, photography and installation. Through autobiographical narrative, political news, archival material and letters to close friends, she produces a portrayal of the reality in which the LGBTQ+ community lives in Brazil and in Norway. She has exhibited and/or held performances at Bergen Kunsthall, Palmera, Lydgalleriet, Isotop, Bergen Kjøtt and KODE 2 in Bergen; Preus Museum in Horten; Studio 17 in Stavanger; Oslo Negativ, Kunstnerforbundet and Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo; and Momentum Biennale in Moss.‍

Daria is a lens-based artist currently living and working between Kyiv and Paris. Originally from Odesa, Ukraine, Daria came to France to pursue an M.A. in Photography & Video at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris, graduating in 2023. In her artistic practice, Daria explores the connections between past and present, focusing primarily on the youth and cultural, social and political contexts in which young people live. Her work was exhibited across Europe and the U.S., including La Villette (Paris), Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool), Hangar (Brussels), Mystetskiy Arsenal (Kyiv), The Gallery at Dobbin Mews (New York). Daria is a finalist of the 39th Hyères festival (2024), Palm* Phot Prize (2022) and a recipient of Beyond the silence grant by Magnum Photos & Odesa Photo Days (2024), as well as a grant for contemporary documentary photography from CNAP.

Benedetta Casagrande is an artist, writer, curator and educator working with photography. Her practice unfolds through slow research (term coined by Carolyn F. Strauss); slowness as a principle of observation, of attunement, of deceleration and constant repositioning, in an attempt to situate the human experience of the world within wider webs of relations, times and spaces. As a medium which is fundamentally based on encountering the world, she works with photography as a tool to enter in relation to the surrounding environment and its animal, vegetal and objectual elements, cultivating a relationship with the non-human. Her research reflects on the material histories of the photographic medium, investigating its role in the dynamics of environmental ruination and experimenting with sustainable darkroom techniques. Benedetta is the winner of the Luigi Ghirri Prize (2024), of FE+SK Book Award (2024), and received the honorable mention from the jury of the Francesco Fabbri Prize for Contemporary Arts (2024). She is the commissioned artist for Photo Città della Pieve 2025. Her first photobook, All things laid dormant (Skinnerboox, 2024) was shortlisted for the Arles Authors Book Award and Singapore International Photography Festival Book Award. Her work has been exhibited in national and international exhibitions, including Triennale Milano (Milan, 2025), Ph Museum Days (Bologna, 2024), Fotografia Europea, Palazzo dei Musei (Reggio Emilia, 2024), Photo Brussels Festival (2024), ADI Design Museum (Milano, 2023), INSTANCE (Shanghai, 2021) and Photo Ireland Festival (2019).

Laura Paloma (*1995) is an artist and writer based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Her practice questions the relationship between image, object, text, language, and play online. She is interested in the détournement and misuse of corporate social media platforms, as well as the negotiations that take place between the user and the platform. She works with DIY, lo-fi, and self-publishing techniques, as well as with found or recycled physical and digital materials. Her projects address ideas of authorship, materiality, and performativity of digital and networked images and texts. Context-based and site-specific, her practice explores various formats, ranging from installations to online and print publications, as well as long-duration social media performances.
​ ​She has exhibited her work in several off-spaces in Switzerland, made a live desktop performance for Screen Walks (Photographers’ Gallery London & Fotomuseum Winterthur), was nominated for Prix Photoforum 2023, and has published a zine with Edition Taberna Kritika, Bern. In 2024 she was artist-in-residence at hangar.org in Barcelona and house guest at Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. 
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Andrea Camiolo (Leonforte, 1998) is an Italian photographer and editor, currently a PhD candidate in "Science for Artistic Production and Heritage" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania. In 2022 he was selected as one of the finalists of Paris Photo Carte Blanche, won the Comisso Prize and the Best Portfolio Prize at the Ragusa Foto Festival.
 In 2023 he was selected as one of the finalists for the Luigi Ghirri Prize/Young Italian Photography #10, he was a finalist for the Terna Prize and lastly one of the winners of the ‘Italy is a Desire’ call for new works promoted by Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea (DGCC) of the Ministry of Culture. 
Andrea has exhibited his projects in several group exhibitions at various institutions, including: MUFOCO Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea; Palazzo Binelli, Carrara; Casa Testori, Milan; MIA Photo Fair, Milan; Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia; CAMERA Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Turin; Palazzo Cosentini, Ragusa; Photo Open Up, Padua; Palazzo Giacomelli, Treviso; Verzasca Foto Festival. His works have been acquired in the collection of MUFOCO - Museo Fotografia Contemporanea in Cinisello Balsamo and in private collections. He is co-founder of DORSOPRESS, a small independent publishing house focused in contemporary photography.

Ilias Lois pursued his education at the Department of Photography & Audiovisual Arts at the UniWA and furthered his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Venice. His artistic endeavours have garnered international recognition, with his works featured in institutions, festivals, and prominent photography publications. In 2018, he received the title of “Young Greek Photographer” from APhF, and in 2019, he earned the “Lensculture Emerging Talent” award for his series, Aisle Seat. In addition to his artistic pursuits, Lois serves as editor of the photography magazine Velvet Eyes. He is also a regular contributor to the Athens Photo Festival, where he recently curated the exhibition Good Advice & Other Recipes (2022) at the Benaki Museum. He contributes to the field of photography education as a teacher at the Hellenic Centre of Photography and Paper Drop Lab, where he is in charge of project development and curation classes. In the summer of 2024 he graduated with a Master of Photography: Research and Methodology from UniWA. Lois’ work is usually developed in long-term series, in which the interplay of different photographic genres is attempted, mixing staged photography and quasi-documentary strategies. His projects are inspired by the systematic observation of communication between people, the human manipulation of materials and technology and body language. The artist’s approach pays close attention to the practices of transferring a three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface, as well as to the reverse process that follows. He is particularly interested in the sequencing of photographs while researching and practising non-linear forms of narration, both in his personal and curatorial work.

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.