AIMEE MULLINS
Athlete, Actress, Fashion Model
Growing up between Pennsylvania and County Clare, Ireland, Aimee found her love of performance at an early age, and has defied conventional description ever since. Aimee first brought international attention as an athlete as the first person in history to compete in the NCAA as an amputee. Her film debut was as the star of the cult fave 'Cremaster 3' by art world star Matthew Barney. Aimee dived into modeling for Alexander McQueen's 1999 London show. In February 2011, she was named as the new Global Brand Ambassador to the world’s largest beauty brand L’Oreal Paris, another cultral milestone. An influential voice in today’s culture, she is regularly invited to share her ideas at various corporations and global conferences like TED and TED MED.
ALİ AKAY
Lecturer, Critic, Writer, Curator
Prof. Dr. Ali Akay was born in Istanbul in 1957. He studied sociology, philosophy and politics at Paris VIII University, and graduated in 1979. He completed his doctoral degree in philosophy at his alma mater in 1986. Akay has taught at the Sociology Department of Mimar Sinan University. He received a title of Associate Professor in 1992, and became a Professor in 1998. He has published many articles and books on art-sociology and philosophy in Turkish, French, German and English magazines, books and catalogues such as “Konu-m-lar”, “Michel Foucault İktidar & Direnme Odakları”, “İstanbul’da Rock Hayatı”, “Kıvrımlar”, “Postmodern Görüntu”, “Armağan”, “Sanatın Sosyolojik Gözü”, “Minör Politika”, “Sanatın ve Sosyolojinin Ruh Hali”, “Kapitalizm ve Pop Kültür”, “Tekil Düşünce”, and “Sanatın Durumları”. Akay has organized and curated numerous art exhibitions in national and international galleries and museums. He is an art curator and art adviser of Istanbul Modern and Akbank Culture and Art Center.
ALİN TAŞÇIYAN
Film Critic
Alin Taşçıyan was born in 1969 in Istanbul. She graduated from the University of Istanbul with a BA in journalism and public relations (1991). She began to work for the “Milliyet Art Review” and the “Milliyet” daily newspaper since 2008. She has been an adviser and programmer for many film festivals in Turkey. She has served in several national and international film festival juries. She is a member of the European Film Academy and president of the Turkish Film Critics’ Association (SIYAD)
ANJA RUBIK
Model & Editor-in-Chief - 25 Magazine
Anja Rubik is a Polish model, founder and Editor-in-Chief of 25 Magazine, founded in 2012. Contributors include Inez and Vinoodh, Marina Abramovic, Daniel Arsham, Alex Prager, and Hedi Slimane among others. She was a Victoria’s Secret model and featured in the 2011 Pirelli Calendar photographed by Karl Lagerfeld, receiving numerous top model rankings by Vogue.
ANTON CORBIJN
Photographer & Film Director
Anton Corbijn was born in 1955 in Strijen, Holland, as the son of a Protestant minister. Corbijn began his career in Groningen, first using his father’s camera for photos in 1972 at an open-air concert of the pop group Solution on the Grote Markt (the central square in Groningen) and was hooked on photographing music immediately. In 1974, he followed an eighteen-month course in photography at the intermediate technical college in The Hague, after which he worked as an assistant to Gijabert Hanekroot in Amsterdam. Stimulated by the prevailing punk attitude of the times, he decided to go independent in 1976, and was the chief photographer for the main Dutch pop-music magazine OOR for a considerable time. In 1979, he moved to London to be closer to the music he liked (post punk, e.g. Joy Division, Magazine, PIL Ltd.etc.), working with the musical weekly New Musical Express. He associated with NME until 1985, meeting many of the people during this period whom he has since become famous for photographing (U2, Depeche Mode, Captain Beefheart, etc.) For Anton, love of music became love of photography. Complete generations have grown up with Corbijn’s pictures. Corbijn started making music videos in 1983 and has concieved more than sixty videos and one hundred album covers with artists as diverse as Nirvana, Joni Mitchell, Front 242, Henry Rollins, Metallica, Naomi Campbell, Depeche Mode, Johnny Cash, U2, David Sylvian,Nick Cave etc. The photographs of David Bowie, Miles Davis, and Captain Beefheart are known world-wide. He has been a major image-builder for U2 (due to his album covers for The Joshua Tree, Rattle&Hum, Achtung Baby, POP, for example, and also as a result of his video clips), and for Depeche Mode (with more than 15 video clips and 5 CDcovers, and the designs for the stages for 2 world tours.)
BARBAROS ALTUĞ
Author, Literary Agent
Seza Paker’s is a rare example of a truly conceptual practice. Characterised by a way of thinking, her art is fluid, elusive, discursive and poetic. Manifesting a fundamental commitment to openness as an aesthetic and philosophical position, Paker employs a wide variety of expressive forms including installation, photography, film, sound, collage, drawing and more. Accordingly her works and exhibitions can be understood as collections of intertwining threads of thoughts and lines of enquiries and proposals, articulated as images, sounds and sensations that flow side by side, sometimes eliding, sometimes evading each other, the dynamics structured through techniques of metaphor, association, juxtaposition and suggestion, all of which serve to cultivate and sustain an ambiguous relationship between form and content throughout.
BEN GORHAM
Perfumer
A native Swede, born to an Indian mother and a Canadian father, Ben grew up in Toronto, New York and Stockholm. He graduated from the Stockholm art school with a degree in fine arts, but a chance meeting with perfumer Pierre Wulff convinced him that he’d rather create fragrances than paintings. With no formal training in the field, Gorham, sought out the services of world renowned perfumers Olivia Giacobetti and Jerome Epinette, explaining his olfactory desires and letting them create the compositions. As an outsider in the beauty industry, Ben is somewhat of an anomaly and has been recognized for his personal style and connection to fashion and art in several international magazines such as French Vogue, Vanity Fair, Elle, V Magazine and Fantastic Man to name a few.
BLAIR CHIVERS
Artist
Blair Chivers is a Canadian artist who lives and works in Toronto. “We live in an amazing time where much of the finest and most esteemed art is available to the average first-world citizen. The best books, music and films are ours to enjoy at our leisure. This is very beneficial to our entire society. However, when we look at the visual art world it seems much less advanced. Today when artworks are easily manufactured in quantity – photographs and prints – the art world still chooses to make them rare and expensive. Is this the most optimum arrangement for our culture?” Blair’s practice combines ideas and inspiration from the worlds of fashion, wine, music, books and film and shapes them into new ways of thinking about art that could bring us closer to a more democratic and advanced visual art world.
DAN THAWLEY
Editor-in-Chief A Magazine Curated By
Dan Thawley is an Australian born journalist and editor. Thawley joined fashion title A Magazine Curated By, as online editor in 2009 and became Editor-in-Chief in 2010, working with the likes of Giambattista Valli (2010), Rodarte (2011) and Stephen Jones (2013). A wider interest in the arts and discovering young fashiontalent has led to freelance contributions for international titles including American Vogue, Vogue Italia, Interview Magazine, i-D, GQ China, AnOther Magazine, *Wallpaper and New York Magazine’s The Cut. Thawley is currently Features Editor of the Finnish biannual fashion title SSAW, and consults both emerging designers and established houses on creative content projects. He currently resides in Paris, France
DAVID ADJAYE
Architect
David Adjaye OBE is recognised as a leading architect of his generation. Adjaye was born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents and his influences range from contemporary art, music and science to African art forms and the civic life of cities. In 1994 he set up his first office, where his ingenious use of materials and his sculptural ability established him as an architect with an artist’s sensibility and vision. He reformed his studio as Adjaye Associates in 2000 and immediately won several prestigious commissions. In Oslo he designed the Nobel Peace Centre in the shell of a disused railway station (completed in 2005). In London his design for the Whitechapel Idea Store pioneered a new approach to the provision of information services (2005). Later projects in London included the Stephen Lawrence Centre, with teaching and community spaces (2007), Rivington Place, an exhibition venue and resource centre (2007), and the Bernie Grant Centre for the performing arts (2007). Adjaye Associates’ largest completed project to date is the £160 million Moscow School of Management Skolkovo (2010). Adjaye frequently collaborates with contemporary artists on art and installation projects. Examples include The Upper Room, with thirteen paintings by Chris Ofili (2002), Within Reach, a second installation with Ofili in the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2003), and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art for the 21 st Century Pavilion that was designed to show a projection work by Olafur Eliasson, Your Black Horizon, at the 2005 Venice Biennale. The Upper Room is now in the permanent collection of Tate Britain. Adjaye is now collaborating with Okwui Enwezor on the design of the forthcoming 56th Venice Art Biennale.Adjaye has taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had previously studied, and at the Architectural Association School in London, and has held distinguished professorships at the universities of Pennsylvania,Yale and Princeton
DELFINA DELETTREZ FENDI
Designer, Jeweller
Delfina Delettrez Fendi is a designer and jeweller based in Rome. She founded her company, Delfina Delettrez, in 2007. Since the inception of her brand, she has developed a signature perspective using a wide material vocabulary, manifested in her original use of figurative surrealism and natural iconography including hands, eyes, bees, and lips. These adorn different parts of the anatomy, in a continuous game of echoes. The unique aesthetic of Delfina Delettrez’s work comes from the marriage of classical goldsmith techniques with innovative contemporary materials, progressing traditional Italian craftsmanship to create modern, futuristic jewels. Her kinetic pieces - tourbillon bracelets and rings with spinning concentric layers of precious metal, or expandable hinged bracelets named “Detaille Unique” - utilize the excellence of traditional Italian handicraft, mixing it with postmodern inspirations, the pieces a fusion of past and future. Delfina Delettrez’s designs are hyper-modern, but still hand-made in her Roman atelier that she established in 2008. This year she opened her first boutique in Rome, on Via del Governo Vecchio. Delfina Delettrez is the youngest designer included in the permanent collection of fine jewellery at the Louvres Musée des Arts Decoratifs; her work has been part of the museum since October 2010. In June 2012, gallery Antonella Villanova featured a solo exhibition in Florence entitled “Delphinarium”, Delfina Delettrez path as a jeweler. In December 2012, a solo exhibition of Delfina Delettrez was showcased by Antonella Villanova gallery at Design Miami 2012. Delfina Delettrez presented her ‘Never Too Light’ collection at Almine Rech Gallery, Paris in September 2013. In 2014 she created a short film to launch her “Gold Vein” collection. The film charts an imaginary, temporal journey beyond space and time to create a surreal vision of another world. In September 2014 she presented her ‘HANDroid’ collection at Almine Rech Gallery, Paris.
FERDINANDO VERDERI
Creative Director
Ferdinando Verderi is a creative director based in New York. He is a founding member and partner at Johannes Leonardo, an internationally awarded boutique creative agency with a global client history which includes Chanel, Google, Ted.com, Nike, Yale University and Adidas Originals among many others. Ferdinando’s work is characterized by its subversive approach. Starting from a highly theoretical method, his creative process aims to introduce new forms to publishing and advertising.
JEAN-CHARLES DE CASTELBAJAC
Fashion Designer
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is a Fashion Designer who is both emblematic and unique to our time as evidenced by his 40 years of design that even today retain a unique position among his contemporaries. Initiator of a bold cross between fashion and art, since the 1970s, he led the way in democratizing art by transposing it in a conventional ultra feminine wardrobe, giving meaning to each of his clothes. Iconoclastic and avant-garde, he mixes without complexes and with great poetry design, music, art, film or theater. This taste crossed over easily with meetings of minds and multiple collaborations with those that matter in contemporary art. Amazing collaborations follow with many artists such asRobert Combas, Ben, Loulou Picasso, Gérard Garouste, Hervé Di Rosa and decisive meetings with Keith Haringand Jean-Michel Basquiat who bring a poetic and resolutely Pop dimension to proceeding. All these historic collaborations that he keeps developing with the young generation definitely enroll Jean-Charles de Castelbajac as a bold cross and polymorphous artist, opened to the other artists and to the current cultural movements
JEFFERSON HACK
Founder of Dazed Media
Jefferson Hack is the maverick founder of Dazed Media. His pioneering work over the past twenty years has profoundly influenced the global media landscape. As co-founder of the iconic magazines Dazed,AnOther, Another Man, the influential web platforms Nowness.com, DazedDigital.com and Anothermag.com, Hack has consistently been at the forefront of innovation and change at the cutting edge of magazines, journalism, short film, photography, television and digital media for over two decades
JOSÉ PARLA
Artist
José Parlá (born 1973) has received critical acclaim for his works, which lie at the boundary between abstraction and calligraphy. Composed from layers of paint, gestural drawing and found ephemera, his work evokes the histories of urban environments. Parlá paints revelations — transcriptions of the process — proof of the history of our neighborhoods. Parlá’s work shows that words, signs, and marks come to mean more; over time, in this symphony of diversity, both incongruous and in harmony, that surrounds our contemporary life. His practice originated in graffiti’s experimental and collaborative approaches during the eighties. These markings expose his drive to say or divulge the passing of time, in the moment. Recent solo exhibitions include, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, New York, Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, Haunch of Venison, London UK. Parla’s work is in the permanent collections of The National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba; The British Museum, London, United Kingdom; The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, POLA Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan; The Burger Collection in Hong Kong and The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection, Dallas, Texas. In 2012, the 11th Havana Biennial selected the Wrinkles of the City: Havana, Cuba project, which was completed in the same year for a vertically integrated collaboration between Parlá and French artist JR, and exhibited in 2013 at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York City. Parlá and JR co-directed a documentary by the same title that was awarded the Grand Prize for Documentary Short and Parlá was recently commissioned by ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER for his monumental mural painting, ONE: Union of the Senses, the largest painting of it’s kind in New York City, in the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, THE BARCLAYS CENTER in Brooklyn and the BROOKLYNACADEMY OF MUSIC, André Balazs’ Chiltern Firehouse, London, UK; North Carolina State University’sHunt Library by SNØHETTA; and at Concord City Place, Toronto, Canada. In 2013, MoMA curator Sarah Suzuki moderated the PopRally panel discussion, Writers and Writers: Narrative on the page and in the Streets, in which José Parlá participated in 2013. José Parlá lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
KONSTRUKT
Music Band
Konstrukt came together in 2008 in Istanbul. Their big debut was the recording they did with Brötzmann. In a short period of time, the group started to attract not only Turkish but also the European improvisational music environment. They made recordings with groups such as Brötzmann, McPhee, William Parker, Akira Sakata, Marshall Allen, Evan Parker, Alfred Harth, Eugene Chadbourne, Alexander Hawkins, Okay Temiz and have participated in International festivals such as Akbank Jazz Festival (Turkey), Saalfelden Jazz Festival&Tarcento Jazz, Villa Ada, Castelfranco (Italy), Radialsystem (Germany), Café Oto&Islington Mill (UK)
LATİFE TEKİN
Author
Latife Tekin is one of the most influential Turkish female authors.She was born in 1957 in Kayseri, Turkey. She continued her education in Istanbul. In 1983, her famous novel Sevgili Arsız Ölüm (Dear Shameless Death) was published. The magic realism in the book was drawn from the Anatolian folklore and traditions. Latife Tekin's childhood in Kayseri, a multicultural city at a central point in Anatolia, influenced both her first book and the others in this aspect.
MIROSLAW BALKA
Artist
Miroslaw Balka was born in 1958 in Otwock, Poland where he continues to work. Solo exhibitions include ‘Fragment’, National Centre For Contemporary Art, Moscow; ‘Nachtgesichten’, WRO Art Center, Wroclaw (2013); Akademie Der Kunste, Berlin and CCA Warsaw; ‘Between Honey & Ashes’, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2011); Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2010); Modern Art Oxford, Oxford and Tate Modern, London (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Rijeka and Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2007); K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art,Strasbourg (2004); Kroller - Muller Museum, Otterlo (2001); Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland (2002) and Stedelijk Museumvoor Actuelle Kunst (SMAK), Gent (2001). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions including ‘Sculpture in the Close’, Jesus College, Cambridge; ‘Art Basel Unlimited 2013’, Basel; ‘Glasstress: White Light/White Heat’ and ‘The Encyclopedic Palace’ at the 55th Venice Biennale, Palazzo Cavalli, Venice (2013); ‘Building Memory’ CCA, Tel Aviv, HMKV, Dortmund and Museum Stzuki, Lodz (2010); SITE Santa Fe 6th Biennale, New Mexico (2006); Sydney Biennale (2006); Venice Biennale (2005, 1993 and 1990) and Documenta IX (1992). Comprising installation, sculpture and video, Miroslaw Balka’s work has a bare and elegiac quality that is underlined by the careful, minimalist placement of objects, as well as the gaps and pauses between them. Often using his own body and his studio as a template or first point of reference, Balka’s work might incorporate personal or self-referential substances such as ash, felt, salt, hair and soap. Balka’s work deals with both personal and collective memories, especially as they relate to his Catholic upbringing and the collective experience of Poland’s fractured history. Through this investigation of domestic memories and public catastrophe, Balka explores how subjective traumas are translated into collective histories and vice versa. His materials are simple, everyday objects and things, but also powerfully resonant of ritual, hidden memories and the history of Nazi occupation in Poland.
MURAT TABANLIOĞLU
Architect
Born in 1960 in Istanbul, Murat Tabanlıoğlu completed his high school education in Istanbul High School (Former, Istanbul Male High School) and graduated from Architectural Department of Vienna University of Technology in 1992. With the experience which he had gained in Vienna by working with important architects, he founded Tabanlıoğlu Architects in 1990 in cooperation with his father, Dr. Hayati Tabanlıoğlu.Some of the awards he received in national and international competitions are; 1988, Bodrum International Airport Project, first prize; 2000, Ankara Doğan Printing Center “Europe for Constructional Steelwork”, one of the four best steel structures in Europe; 2001, Istanbul Municipality Office Buildings, first prize; 2002, Media Town Chamber of Architects’ Structural Design Award; 2005, Grand Prizes in two different field in Cityscape Architectural Review Awards with Galataport and Istanbul Modern and in 2006, again a Grand Prize in Cityscape Architectural Review Awards with Kanyon.
NINOS DU BRASIL
Music Group
An Italian percussion duo, Nico Vascellari and Nicolo Fortuni, with a background in visual art. Through their aptitude with drumming, they fuse the seeminglydisparate influences of punk, tribal techno & batacuda, emerging with a sound that is truly singular. NDB take their rhythmic backbone from Brazilian carnival music & the duo injects each track with the frothy attitude of punk & the shuffling dancefloor domination of techno.
PARKER POSEY
Actress
PARKER POSEY, one of the most acclaimed actresses in American independent film, has appeared in over 90 films and television productions. When she received “Special Jury Recognition” at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 for THE HOUSE OF YES, it was the first time that honor had been bestowed on an actor and not a film, a tribute to her unique contribution to the independent film world as well as her performance. She received nominations for a Golden Globe® (Best Supporting Actress, “Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay”) and two Independent Spirit Awards (BROKEN ENGLISH and PERSONAL VELOCITY). Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Posey studied acting at the State University of New York at Purchase, and got her first break with a role on the daytime soap opera “As the World Turns.” Her first major role in a feature film was in Richard Linklater’s cult classic DAZED AND CONFUSED. Throughout the 90s, Posey starred or costarred in numerous independent films and was nicknamed “Queen of the Indies.” She has worked with Woody Allen on IRRATIONAL MAN and this summer’s CAFÉ SOCIETY,worked with Hal Hartley on FLIRT, AMATEUR, as “Fay Grim” in his trilogy of HENRY FOOL, FAY GRIM and NED RIFLE; and has been a steady member of Christopher Guest’s stock company for his mockumentaries WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, BEST IN SHOW, A MIGHTY WIND, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, and the upcoming MASCOTS, set in the world of competitive mascots. Posey’s other independent films include SLEEP WITH ME, PARTY GIRL, DRUNKS, THE DOOM GENERATION, FRISK, KICKING AND SCREAMING PARTY GIRL, THE DAYTRIPPERS, SUBURBIA, BASQUIAT, THE HOUSE OF YES, CLOCKWATCHERS, WHAT RATS WON’T DO, THE MISADVENTURES OF MARGARET, DINNER AT FRED’S, THE VENICE PROECT, GUSHY, THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY, THE SWEETEST THING, THE EVENT, ADAM & STEVE, THE OH IN OHIO, BROKEN ENGLISH, SPRING BREAKDOWN, HAPPY TEARS, INSIDE OUT, THE LOVE GUIDE, PRICE CHECK, HIGHLAND PARK, HAIRBRAINED, AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR, GRACE OF MONACO, and upcoming, THE BRITS ARE COMING, THE ARCHITECT, and MY ART.She has also worked in many larger-budget films, including: YOU’VE GOT MAIL, SCREAM 3, JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS,THE EYE, LAWS OF ATTRACTION, BLADE:TRINITY, SUPERMAN RETURNS, where she played Lex Luthor’s sidekick Kitty Kowalski.
PAUL SEVIGNY
DJ/Restaurateur
Paul Sevigny is an American DJ and restaurateur, coowner of New York City's Beatrice Inn along with Andre Saraiva. With a unique blend of rock, punk, and metal, Sevigny has solidified his status as an Alist DJ with an impressive client list that includes Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Hard Rock Cafe, Coca-Cola, Mick Jagger, and Michael Bloomberg
ROBERT MONTGOMERY
Artist
Robert Montgomery follows a tradition of conceptual art and stands out by bringing a poetic voice to the discourse of text art. Montgomery creates billboard poems, light pieces, fire poems, woodcuts and watercolors. He was the British artist selected for Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012, the first biennale in India. Montgomery has had solo exhibitions at venues in Europe and in Asia, including major outdoor light installations on the site of the old US Air Force base at Tempelhof. The first monograph of his work was published by Distanz, Berlin in 2015.
RUPERT FRIEND
Actor, Writer, Director
Rupert William Anthony Friend (born 1 October 1981) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his roles as Mr. Wickham in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice, Lieutenant Kurt Kotler in the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Prince Albert in the 2009 film The Young Victoria, and Peter Quinn on the Showtime series Homeland. He also starred in the 2015 action film Hitman: Agent 47.
SERRA YILMAZ
Actress
Serra Yılmaz is a Turkish actress. [ She has appeared in more than forty films since 1983. On a number of films she collaborated with Ferzan Özpetek. She plays the lead role in the theatre piece La Bastarda Di Istanbul, adapted from Elif Şafak's 2006 novel The Bastard of Istanbul The Bastard of Istanbul and staged in March 2015 by teatro di Rifredi in Florence , Italy.
SEZA PAKER
Artist
Seza Paker’s is a rare example of a truly conceptual practice. Characterised by a way of thinking, her art is fluid, elusive, discursive and poetic. Manifesting a fundamental commitment to openness as an aesthetic and philosophical position, Paker employs a wide variety of expressive forms including installation, photography, film, sound, collage, drawing and more. Accordingly her works and exhibitions can be understood as collections of intertwining threads of thoughts and lines of enquiries and proposals, articulated as images, sounds and sensations that flow side by side, sometimes eliding, sometimes evading each other, the dynamics structured through techniques of metaphor, association, juxtaposition and suggestion, all of which serve to cultivate and sustain an ambiguous relationship between form and content throughout.
SILVIA VENTURINI FENDI
Creative Director of Accessories and Menswear at FENDI
Silvia Venturini Fendi represents the third generation of the family founder of the historical maison. At the end of her academic studies in Italy and in London, she starts her professional training in Los Angeles where she oversees the production of fashion shows and events. In 1987 Silvia Venturini Fendi becomes creative director of the Fendissime line. In 1992 she seconds Karl Lagerfeld in the creative direction and in 1994 she is given responsibility of leather goods accessories. In 1994 Silvia Venturini Fendi creates the Selleria line, retrieving the tradition of Roman master saddlers, made up by unique items in Roman leather characterized by the hand-made stitching. In 1997 Silvia Venturini Fendi creates the Baguette that within a few months becomes a cult bag and a worldwide success, owing FENDI the Fashion Group International award for accessories in 2000. Spy, B FENDI, Peekaboo and 2JOURS are also other creations from Silvia that acknowledge her as one of the most creative talent of our times. More recently, Silvia Venturini Fendi has also been given creative direction of the Menswear and Kidswear lines. Since 2010, she holds the Presidency of AltaRoma, an institutional tool to promote fashion in the city of Rome.
SVEN SCHUMANN
Journalist, Publisher
The German former model Sven Schumann is a brilliant interviewer and an aspiring writer. He created The Talks, a successful online interview magazine that he updates weekly, featuring only the most sought-after icons — from Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins, Mick Jagger, and Bill Murray to Viktor & Rolf, Nick Cave, and LeBron James.
ŞELALE KADAK
Journalist
She started working as an ‘intern reporter’ at Sabah in 1990 as a student at Istanbul University School of Communication. As of 1998 she worked at Sabah as a columnist and tried to observe and analyze the business world. She wrote about the interviews she had with the CEO s and presidents of the leading national and international companies in her column ‘Misafir Odası’ and then ‘İş’te Hayat’ on Sundays. In 2012, she started doing a program ‘İş’te Hayat’ on A Haber tv and she brought the leading figures of the biggest Turkish companies onto screen. She still continues to work as a columnist at Sabah.
THURSTON MOORE
Musician
Although a key member of the critically acclaimed art/punk rock band Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore has also been involved in numerous side projects, including the Dim Stars with Richard Hell and Even Worse. His first solo album, Psychic Hearts (recorded during and immediately after his wife and Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon’s pregnancy in 1994), with ex-Half Japanese guitarist Tim Foljahn and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, had an appropriately offhand feel but was far from sloppy. Along with carrying Sonic Youth into the 2000s, Moore collaborated with artists including DJ Spooky and Nels Cline, wrote music reviews and other pieces for Arthur magazine, and issued a book, Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture, in 2005. His second song-based album, Trees Outside of the Academy, arrived in 2007, and featured largely acoustic arrangements and cameos by Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis, Samara Lubelski, and Moore’s fellowSonic Youth member Steve Shelley. In 2010, Moore guested on the Hat City Intuitive’s A Ticket for Decay and began laying the foundation for another solo effort, Demolished Thoughts, which appeared the following year. Following Moore’s separation from lifelong bandmate, wife, and partner Kim Gordon in late 2011, Sonic Youth’s future became incredibly uncertain and put on indefinite pause. Despite the unclear circumstances surrounding their split, Moore and Gordon worked in collaboration with Yoko Ono the following year on the album YOKOKIMTHURSTON. By 2012, Moore had begun touring and recording with new act Chelsea Light Moving, as well as joining black metal group Twilight on guitar. The year 2013 saw the release of @, a collaborative album of sax/guitar improvisations with fellow N.Y.C. fringe dweller John Zorn. 2014’s The Best Day saw Moore shedding the softer,acoustic moods of Demolished Thoughts for a return to his signature rock sprawl and daydreamy lyrics.
WARIS AHLUWALIA
Actor, Designer
Waris Ahluwalia, described by the New York Times as a “modern day Marco Polo” is driven by a deep and abiding desire to create products and experiences that captivate, transport, and shift perception. Working across the globe, and across disciplines, Waris exhibits an unwavering commitment to creating a more thoughtful way of living. His HOUSE of WARIS jewels bring together old world techniques to hatch timeless creations, coveted by collectors and sold at the world’s finest boutiques. His partnership with Forevermark, a De Beers company, ensures not only the beauty of the diamonds but also the positive impact on local communities. Waris was nominated for the Vogue Fashion Fund, awarded a CFDA Fashion Incubator grant and included in Vogue’s 10 Most Impactful people. His dedication to a considered way of life extends to his personal style. Working with the finest tailors has earned him a place on Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed List, amongst others. As an actor Waris has worked with some of the most influential directors of our time including Wes Anderson,Spike Lee and Luca Guadagnino. Believing in the art of storytelling, he appears in a dozen other movie shorts and cinematic creations of his own. Most recently, Waris launched HOUSE of WARIS RARE, a celebration of craftsmanship and the artisan. This devotion to craft is a chance to bring tradition into the modern age. The first iteration of RARE is a branded retail experience inside Venice’s historic Gritti Palace, in partnership with Starwood Hotels. “It’s not just aesthetics and objects we come across when we seek out craftsmanship – it is humanity - the foundation of my work.”
AIMEE MULLINS
Athlete, Actress, Fashion Model
ALİ AKAY
Lecturer, Critic, Writer, Curator
ALİN TAŞÇIYAN
Film Critic
ANJA RUBIK
Model & Editor-in-Chief - 25 Magazine
ANTON CORBIJN
Photographer & Film Director
BARBAROS ALTUĞ
Author, Literary Agent
BEN GORHAM
Perfumer
BLAIR CHIVERS
Artist
DAN THAWLEY
Editor-in-Chief A Magazine Curated By
DAVID ADJAYE
Architect
DELFINA DELETTREZ FENDI
Designer, Jeweller
FERDINANDO VERDERI
Creative Director
JEAN-CHARLES DE CASTELBAJAC
Fashion Designer
JEFFERSON HACK
Founder of Dazed Media
JOSÉ PARLA
Artist
KONSTRUKT
Music Band
LATİFE TEKİN
Author
MIROSLAW BALKA
Artist
MURAT TABANLIOĞLU
Architect
NINOS DU BRASIL
Music Group
PARKER POSEY
Actress
PAUL SEVIGNY
DJ/Restaurateur
ROBERT MONTGOMERY
Artist
RUPERT FRIEND
Actor, Writer, Director
SERRA YILMAZ
Actress
SEZA PAKER
Artist
SILVIA VENTURINI FENDI
Creative Director of Accessories and Menswear at FENDI
SVEN SCHUMANN
Journalist, Publisher
ŞELALE KADAK
Journalist
THURSTON MOORE
Musician
WARIS AHLUWALIA
Actor, Designer
