Abel Ferrara
Film Director & Screenwriter
Abel Ferrara first drew a cult audience with his movie ‘The Driller Killer’. He followed it with ‘MS.45’ a ‘”rape revenge” film starring Zoe Tamerlis.
In 1990, he created one of his most-well known films, ‘King of New York’, starring Christopher Walken as a gangster. In 1992, he directed ‘Bad Lieutenant’ , starring Harvey Keitel as a sex-addicted drug-using cop. In the year of 1996, ‘The Funeral’ which is directed by Ferrara and starred by Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, Isabella Rossellini and Benicio del Toro.
In April 2013, Ferrara began shooting a fictionalized version of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case titled “Welcome to New York”. It stars Gerard Depardieu in the role of Kahn.
Ali Akay
Prof. Dr. Ali Akay was born in Istanbul in 1957. He studied sociology, philosophy and politics at Paris VIII University and graduated in 1979, going on to complete a doctoral degree in philosophy in 1986. Akay has taught at the Sociology Department of Mimar Sinan University, receiving the title of Associate Professor in 1992, and becoming a Professor in 1998. Amongst his publications in languages such as Turkish, French, German and English, His books such as “Konu-m-lar”, “Michel Foucault Iktidar ve Direnme Odaklari”, “Rock Life in Istanbul”, “Kivrimlar”, “Postmodern Goruntu”, “The Sociological Eye of Art”, “Capitalism and Pop Culture” have been published in several languages.
Akay has organized and curated numerous exhibitions in national and international galleries and museums. He is also an active curator and advisor of Istanbul Modern, Akbank Culture and Art Center.
Alin Taşçıyan
Film Critic
Alin Tasciyan 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 in 1992. During the 16-year period at this media group she has been a correspondent, film critic and editor of the “Milliyet Art Review”. Meanwhile, she made various cinema programs for the “Turkish Radio and Television” (TRT 2) cultural channel, including “Magic of Cinema”, which screened almost 500 classic films over ten years. She programmed and presented the “Thematic Films Ribbon” for the “News Channel 24″ between 2007 and 2012. She has been a critic and a columnist for the “Star” 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).
Alphan Eşeli
Film Director & Screenwriter
Alphan Eseli is a Turkish film director and screenwriter. He started his career as,commercials and music video director and photographer. His first feature film- The Long Way Home was written and directed by Eseli and released on 8th of March, 2013 in Turkey The film has won numerous prestigous international prizes including the Fipresci Prize and Golden Zenith at the Montreal World Film Festival, new talent award at Hong Kong Film Festival and nominated for the Sutherland Award at the 57th BFI London Film Festival.
Armand Limnander
Deputy editor - W Magazine
Armand Limnander is the deputy editor of W magazine. Prior to that he was the features director at T: The New York Times Style Magazine, the editor of V Man magazine, and a senior writer at Vogue and Style.com. Limnander grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, and moved to the United States to attend the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of the books Brazilian Style (Assouline, 2011) and Private: Giancarlo Giammetti (Assouline, 2013).
Ayşe & Ece Ege
1993 First fashion show at the Institut du Monde Arabe during Paris Fashion Week, SS/1994
2002 Fashion show at Seoul Fashion Week, FW/2002-2003
2010 Istanbul Contrast exhibition, at LE MUSÉE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS in Paris for the Turkish Season in France
2010 Istanbul Contrast exhibition, at the ISTANBUL MUSEUM OF MODERN ARTS for the Istanbul Capital of Culture Events
2013 Istanbul Contrast collection pieces, shortlisted by Victoria & Albert Museum’s Jameel Prize III
2013 Dice Kayek has won the Jameel Prize 3 for Istanbul Contrast collection, Dice Kayek is the first fashion house ever to win the prestigious Jameel Prize, an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition bestowed by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the world’s leading museum of art and design.
2014 “Victoria and Albert Museum” has acquired the Dice Kayek’s award-wining “Hagia Sophia”, “Dome” and “Caftan” to museum’s permanent collection.
Barbaros Altuğ
Literary Agent
Barbaros Altuğ: After working in several magazines he started Istanbul Copyright Agency, the first literary agency to represent Turkish authors in 1999. His list of writers includes the greatest names in Turkish literature like Ayse Kulin, Ahmet Altan, Perihan Magden, Latife Tekin, Hasan Ali Toptas, Halit Ziya Usakligil, Buket Uzuner, Kursat Basar, Mehmet Murat Somer and Halide Edib Adivar. The works of the writers he represents have been published in more than 40 countries. He published a work of fiction in Turkish and Greek with 12 writers from Istanbul called Istanbul of Writers and working on a Turkish Literature Series project with US Publisher Dalkey Archive to publish selected Turkish authors in English. He writes a column in Turkish daily Taraf since 2011.
Beyhan Murphy
Choreographer & Artistic Director
Born in Istanbul, artistic director & choreographer Beyhan Murphy is a graduate of TED College(Ankara) and London School of Contemporary Dance.She lived and worked in the UK between 1978-1992 as a freelance dancer-choreographer & teacher.
Since 1992, she has worked in Turkey and has become one of the leading dance artists in the country. She has been the artistic director of Istanbul State Ballet and founder and director of Modern Dance companies of Ankara and Istanbul, Arts Advisor to the General Management of State Opera & Ballet, Director of Performing Arts of Istanbul 2010 European Culture Capital Agency. She has written, choreographed and directed several big dance-drama productions among which are; Afife, Travelogue (1 & 2), Rosegarden, Of Beauty & Love and Barbarossa. Amongst building a repertoire of original works which have also toured abroad (Germany, Georgia, Ozbekistan,USA, Egypt, Netherlands, China, UK, France, Slovenia,Kazakistan, Bosnia, Tailand, Spain) With support from the Biritish Council, Goethe Instituut,French Cultural Institute and other similar foreign cultural offices, BM is also the prime leader in bringing to Turkey many well known international choreographers, dance artists and teachers. She is also a leader in developing cross-over projects and creating inter-diciplinery work, initiating projects with photographers, designers, composers. She has prepared programmes for special evenings for several NGO’s and Ministries. She was the official artistic director of the 2013 ‘Turkish Cultural Year in China’ Opening Gala (Beijing & Shanghai) and has been appointed as the Advisor of Performing Arts of Turkish Cultural year in Australia and Europalia 2014. Ms.Murphy is a leading authority in Dance and Performing Arts in Turkey and creates opportunities for many artists to develop their work and has trained a generation of dancers and arts management staff. She is the holder of awards granted by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism , Mevlana Foundation, Rotary Club, and IBAFF Premio mias Barzaj. She is the Artistic Director of ‘Modern Dance Theatre Istanbul’; a contemporary-modern dance project group based within Istanbul State Opera & Ballet.
Ceylan Ertem
Musician
Ceylan Ertem was born in Sakarya, as a child she was a chorist in the municipal choir and she took guitar lessons.
In 1999 she moved to Istanbul for further musical education and she began her musical singing studies.
In 2000 she founded the band ‘Anima’ with Tunçay Korkmaz. She then studied Musicology in Yildiz Technical University.
In 2006 the first album of Anima, ‘Animasal’ was released from Sony-BMG. In 2007, Anima has produced/recorded music for the Handan ‹pekçi film ‘Sakl› Yüzler’ in Baykufl Music Studios.
In 2010, Ceylan Ertem’s first solo album ‘Soluk’ was recorded and released. Directed by Da€han ‹fl and screenplayed by Ceylan Ertem, the video of the song ‘Çok Yak›n’ was shot within the year and it was shown in Istanbul International Independent Film Festival (IF).
Delfina Delettrez
Designer
Delfina Delettrez Fendi is a designer and jeweler 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 use of surrealist and natural iconography including hands, eyes, bees, and lips. She has one store in Rome located on via del Governo Vecchio. She is the youngest designer to join the permanent collection of fine jewelry at the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Decoratifs in October 2010. In June 2012, gallery Antonella Villanova featured a solo exhibition in Florence entitled “Delphinarium”, a comprehensive look at Delettrez’ path as a jeweler. In December 2012, a solo exhibition of Delfina Delettrez was showcased by Antonella Villanova gallery at Design Miami/ 2012.
Didem Dayı
Graphic Designer & Academician
Didem was born in Istanbul, 1973. After graduating from the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, she has worked in several agencies as an art director. She did her masters by her published work named ‘ Uncommercial Graphic Products in Turkey’ and she did her PHD by her published work ‘ Establishing new meanings for printed graphic materials throughout the well-known images. She is the author of the book ‘Goruntu Yonetimi and
Gundelik Hayat’. Besides her three solo-exhibitions, she has contributed several exhibitions internationally and nationally. She has been continuing her career as an academician in the Marmara University and designer.
Efe Çakarel
Founder of MUBI
Efe Cakarel founded MUBI, a video on demand platform, after he discovered that he couldn’t watch ‘In the Mood for Love’ in a café in Tokyo. Previously, Efe was with Goldman Sachs in London and New York, where he worked on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity investments. He earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and MBA from Stanford.
Efe ranked 3rd in the 1994 European Math Championship in Geneva, Switzerland. He currently advises Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President of the European Parliament, on Turkey’s accession negotiations with EU. If he were to give you directions, you’d never get lost, and you’d arrive at least 5 minutes early.
Erman Akçay
Fanzine Maker
Erman Akçay, born 1982 in Istanbul, graduated from Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty- lives and works in Istanbul. He is a multi-media visual artist making paintings, artist books, zines and art prints. Akcay's incessant artistic output began in 1990s, making punk zines and graphic art.
Ertuğrul Özkök
Journalist
Ertuğrul Özkök is a Turkish journalist and a daily columnist. Between 1990 and 2010, he was the editor-in-chief for Hurriyet, a daily newspaper published in Turkey and some European countries. He is the vice-president of Dogan Holding and member of the board of directors of World Editors Forum.
He is also known as the author of “Sanat, İletişim ve İktidar”- 1982, “Kitlelerin Çözülüşü”- 1987, “Elveda Başkaldırı”- 1987,“Stalin Baroku”- 1989, “Arta Kalan Zamanda”- 1998 , “Tuhaf”- 2010, “Yedi Büyük Günah”- 2012, “Kırk7”- 2013 ve “Bir Beyaz Türk’ün Hatıra Defteri”- 2014
Goga Ashkenazi
Chairwoman & creative Director – Vionnet
Currently the Chairwoman and Creative Director of the 100 year old fashion label Vionnet, Ashkenazi possesses a degree in Modern History and Economics from Oxford University, has taken fashion design courses at Moscow State University of Design and Technology, and has sat on the board of a number of multi-national companies with global business interests.
Hakan Tamar
Radio DJ
Hakan Tamar has started his radio career after the private radio stations had been established. He has been regarded as one of the most influential individual in the music scene of Turkey at 90’s. He has continued his career as a TV presenter, columinst, promoter and DJ.
He has been broadcasting in the one of the most popular and significant radio stations- standart.fm and radiofil.fm. Also his DJ-sets can be listened in several places in Istanbul.
Harun Tekin
Singer, Musician and Poet
Harun Tekin is a Turkish singer, musician, and poet. He is one of the founding members and the vocalist of the Turkish rock band Mor ve Ötesi which is regarded as one of the most successful Turkish Alternative Rock band.
Harun Tekin has been an influential figure since 1990’s of the Turkish Alternative Rock scene.
Hussein Chalayan
Fashion Designer
Hussein Chalayan was born in Nicosia, Cyprus and was graduated in 1993 from London’s Central St Martins School of Art and Design. In 1994 Hussein Chalayan started his own label. He was named British Designer of the Year in 1999 and in 2000.
In 2002, Chalayan moved his internationally lauded fashion show from London to Paris. The Chalayan collections are known for innovative design, beautiful tailoring and draping and an elegant minimalist aesthetic. The ready-to-wear collection is regularly featured in top fashion magazines and international press as well as carried in the world’s best boutiques and is favoured by actresses, musicians and artists
In his art and fashion work Chalayan uses film, installations and sculptural forms to explore perception and the realities of modern life. Chalayan lectures regularly about his work and has exhibited in museums worldwide including the V&A in London, The Kyoto Costume Institute, The Musée de la Mode-Palais du Louvre in Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MOMA in New York.
He has directed several short films since 2003. Chalayan represented Turkey in the 2005 Venice Biennale with his film Absent Presence. In 2005, the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands hosted a retrospective of his work. In 2010 Chalayan opened two exhibitions in London at the Lisson Gallery and Spring Projects. Critically acclaimed solo exhibitions opened in London at the Design Museum (2009), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo (2010), Istanbul Modern (2010) and most recently at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris (2011).
Throughout the years Chalayan has partnered with artists, musicians, actors and members of the design, art, theatre and fashion fields including Tilda Swinton, Nick Knight, Antony Hegarty and Michael Clark.
In February 2008 he was appointed Creative Director of Puma. In 2011 Rizzoli published the monograph on his work entitled Hussein Chalayan. 2011 also saw the launch of the first Chalayan fragrance Airborne produced by Comme Des Garcons perfumes. In the beginning of 2014 Chalayan was appointed to be the designer of the Demi Couture Collection of the House of Vionnet.
In 2012 Chalayan was named one of 100 all time Fashion Icons by Time Magazine.
James Nares
Painter
James Nares (b. 1953 in London, lives and works in New York) James Nares’ paintings seek to capture the very moment of their own creation.They are most frequently made in a single brush stroke, recording a gestural passage of time and motion across the canvas. Using brushes of his own design, he repeatedly creates and erases his strokes, over and over again, until he feels he has made one that represents a precision of balance between intent and improvisation. Nares’s films and videos reference many of the same preoccupations with time, movement, rhythm and repetition, while also ranging further afield in their scope. His work is included in a number of public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
José Parlá
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 is a documentarian of city life. Using the backdrop of New York City and many other towns, he re-makes in paint what can appear to be photorealist fragments of what he sees in the chaos and rush of the metropolis. His paintings reflect the accumulated memories and experiences, the walls that show a place that was, but no longer is — built over, renewed in some other configuration. 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.
Recently, Parlá’s solo exhibitions have taken place in Tokyo, Japan with Yuka Tsuruno Gallery and Haunch of Venison in London. The artist’s work is in the permanent collections of The British Museum, London; The Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York, POLA Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan; and The Burger Collection in Hong Kong. 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 Best U.S. Premiere Documentary Short in 2013 at The Heartland Film Festival, Indianapolis, IN. This year, for the Caldera Arts Program at The Portland Art Museum Parlá collaborated with participating youth for his Signature Roots workshop and installation. Parlá started painting in the early 1980s, exhibiting his works in the streets of Miami, and studied at Miami Dade Community College, New World School of the Arts and Savannah College of Art & Design.
In addition to his 70-foot-long painting at Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center, Parlá has also made permanent mural paintings at BAM FISHER – Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY; André Balazs’ Chiltern Firehouse, London, UK; North Carolina State University’s Hunt Library by SNØHETTA; and at Concord City Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2013, Parlá was invited to participate in dialogues held as part of NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio’s Talking Transitions initiative with Manon Slome, Chief Curator of No Longer Empty; and spoke with Anne Pasternak of Creative Time at the Standard Hotel’s Standard Talks:
Outside the Lines event, moderated by Sunny Bates. 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 a dialogue with GZA of the Wu- Tang Clan, historian Alan Ket, and Adam Mansbach, New York Times-bestselling author.
JR
Photographer, Contemporary Artist
JR exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catching the attention of people who are not typical museum visitors. In 2006, he created Portrait of a Generation, portraits of suburban “thugs” that he posted, in huge formats, in the bourgeois districts of Paris. This illegal project became “official” when the Paris City Hall wrapped its building with JR’s photos. In 2007, with Marco, he made Face 2 Face, the biggest illegal exhibition ever. JR posted huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities. In 2008, he embarked on a long international trip for Women Are Heroes, in which he underlines the dignity of women who are often the targets of conflicts, and created The Wrinkles of the City. In 2010, his film Women Are Heroes was presented at Cannes. In 2011 he received the TED Prize, after which he created the Inside Out project. His most recent project involves a collaboration with New York City Ballet.
Liya Kebede
Model, Actress, Designer & Maternal Health Advoca
Liya Kebede is an accomplished actress, supermodel, designer and maternal health advocate. She has been featured on multiple American and international VOGUE covers and has appeared in runway shows and major print campaigns for top designers around the world. FORBES has named her one of the top 15 highest earning models and she was recently named as a global brand ambassador for L’Oreal in the cosmetic, skincare, and hair care categories.
Kebede established herself as a leading actress starring in the title role of the National Geographic Film DESERT FLOWER. She can currently be seen in Costa-Gavras’s political suspense thriller CAPITAL alongside Gad Elmaleh and Gabriel Byrne. The film, which is an adaptation of Stephane Osmont’s best-selling novel, “Le Capital,” was released in limited US theatres in October 2013. She recently wrapped production on French director Eric Bartonio’s 419, a thriller set in Nigeria as well as Samba pour la France by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache. Prior to that, she filmed Hilary Brougher’s INNOCENCE, about a group of vampires living among students at a private school. Liya was last seen in Giuseppe Torrnatore’s THE BEST OFFER alongside Geoffrey Rush and Jim Sturgess, released in Italy in January 2013 and shown at The Berlin Film Festival soon thereafter. Additional film credits include THE GOOD SHEPHERD, LORD OF WAR, MARSUPILAMI and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s BLACK GOLD.
Kebede’s clothing line, lemlem, is available at select retailers worldwide and expanded to include a home collection last year. lemlem is a fresh, chic and modern women’s and children’s clothing line with a spirit undeniably African. The brand’s inspiration arose during a trip with her husband to their native Ethiopia. While visiting thousands of traditional weavers who no longer had a market for their goods, Kebede felt a need to preserve their art form while simultaneously creating job opportunities. Meaning “to bloom” or “to flourish” in Amharic, lemlem is handmade in Ethiopia from natural cotton and is rooted in tradition, but woven with a modern touch. It aims to add a sense of diversity to the clothing market while fueling prosperity in another. lemlem provides another voice for African causes as well as a beautiful embodiment of its traditions and culture.
Mehmet Tez
Music Editor
He has started his journalism career as a reporter in the Aktuel Magazine. He worked as a columnist on arts, culture and music in the Radikal Newspaper and made several interviews. He has publıshed the Rolling Stone Magazine with his team as the Editor-In-Chief. Since 2009, he has been working in the Milliyet Newspaper as a columnist on arts and culture, music and the political issues about Turkey and he has a website- ‘hafifmuzik.org’ in which he writes about arts and culture, music and the political issues about Turkey.
Murat Menteş
Poet and Novelist
Murat Mentes is a Turkish poet and novelist. He illustrates his extraordinary style as “ I am designing my novels as a car travelling at 300kmh”. His published works are; Kuzgunun Gölgesi, Kaosa Mütaevazi Bir Katki, Aynali Barikatlar, Dublörün Dilemmas›, Korkma Ben Varim, Garanti Karantina and Ruhi Mucerret.
Pamela Golbin
Chief Curator & Author
Pamela Golbin is an internationally renowned figure in the Fashion industry, with extensive historical knowledge of cultural and design issues. She is a leading expert in contemporary Fashion and has organized landmark exhibitions worldwide. Ms. Golbin is also a successful published author and is invited to lecture on a regular basis all over the world. Currently, Ms. Golbin is Chief Curator of Fashion and Textiles at Les Arts Décoratifs in the Louvre Palace in Paris. Since 1993, she has been responsible for one of the three largest public collections of dress and textiles worldwide. In 1997, she inaugurated, with the museum team, the largest permanent gallery exhibition space (16000ft²) devoted to Fashion. Ms. Golbin has organized numerous exhibitions including major retrospectives on iconic fashions legends such as Cristobal Balenciaga, Valentino and the award winning retrospective on Madeleine Vionnet. She has created benchmark projects such
as the inaugural exhibition of the French year in China at the National Museum in Beijing and co-curated a comprehensive XXth century Fashion exhibition at the
celebrated OCA museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ms. Golbin is the author of a dozen respected books translated in several languages of which the latest include monographs on the avant-garde couturier Madeleine Vionnet and “Louis Vuitton-Marc Jacobs”, that
accompanied her latest exhibition.
Peter Beard
Photographer, Diarist & Author
Peter Beard began taking photographs and keeping diaries at an early age as a way to preserve his favorite things. His enduring relationship with Africa—landscape, wildlife and peoples—began with early travels to the continent in the mid-1950s and became the predominant artistic and intellectual site for his explorations, discoveries and development of his very special world-view. Beard adds collaged historic photographs, ephemera, printed text, found objects, diary pages, animal blood, ink, and watercolor to create unique artworksHis primary concern, a result of direct close observation and introspection, is with our changing environment. 2015 will mark the 50-year anniversary of The End of the Game, his prescient first book documenting the history and future of African wildlife. He has collaborated with many of the greatest artists of our time: Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Josef Albers, and Richard Lindner.
Robert Montgomery
Artist
Robert Montgomery makes billboards, recycled sunlight poems, fire poems and watercolours. He has realised major outdoor light installations on the site of the old US Air Force base at Tempelhof in Berlin, and in the old imperial port city of Kochi-Muziris in India, as the British artist selected for the 2012 Kochi-Muziris Biennale. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions at venues including KOP, Breda, NL; Athens Festival, GR; 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, IT; The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK; Galerie Nuke, Paris, FR; Guido Costa Projects, Turin, IT; 20 Hoxton Square Projects, London, UK; Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva; The Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle-Gateshead, UK, The Edinburgh Art Festival, UK; Anna Lupertz Gallery, Berlin; and C24 Gallery, New York. Monographs on his work have been published by Galerie Nuke, Paris, and monokultur, Berlin.
Serdar Gülgün
Ottoman Art Expert
Serdar Gülgün’s passion in Ottoman Art led him to London and he did a Master’s Degree at the university of London SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). Being an Ottoman Art Expert he worked for Sotheby’s London for a short while in the Islamic Art Department. Coming back to Istanbul, Gülgün started to organize exhibitions of his private collection in the Topkapi Palace. For 2 years he was the narrator of Ottoman Art Of Living Documentary. He wrote Louis Vuitton’s European Cities Guide’s Istanbul part for 4 years. Being an art historian and a designer, he started to restore and design the interiors of historical Ottoman buildings and won many awards on the subject.
Shirley Manson
Musician & Actress
Shirley Manson is the lead singer for the alternative rock band Garbage. She is grateful to be called a musician. She has also been known to act, albeit as a robot on TV. She loves showing off for a living and as such has enjoyed a professional career in music spanning more than 3 decades. Her hero is Patti Smith. She loves animals. And she wants to be as good a friend as she possibly can be but sometimes she is not. In 2015 she will release a brand new studio album and embark upon a world tour with Garbage.
Stefano Tonchi
Editor-in-Chief - W Magazine
Stefano Tonchi has been Editor-in-Chief of W since March 2010. Under Mr. Tonchi’s direction W has been a finalist 7 times in the past two years for the prestigious ASME Awards, with two nods in the General Excellence category. In 2013, Tonchi’s team won an ASME for Photography as well as 9 Society of Publication Designers (SPD) medals. In 2012, W won a Webby Award for the signature web-series “Screen Tests.” The Daily W iPad app was also nominated for a 2012 Webby Award and was honored as a 2013 min’s Best of the Web finalist.In 2012, Mr. Tonchi oversaw the publication of W’s first-ever special-edition book, W: The First 40 Years, a photographic celebration of the magazine’s 40th anniversary.
Prior to W, Mr. Tonchi was the creator and Editor-in-Chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, In 2008, T was awarded Magazine of the Year from the Society of Publication Designers.From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Tonchi was the Fashion Creative Director for Esquire. In 2001, Esquire earned the Magazine of the Year award from the Society of Publication Designers.
Tarkan Gözübüyük
Musician & producer
He has been a member of Mezarkabul since 1987, with whom he has released six albums, and he is also well known as a music producer in Turkey. His authentic way of playing is admired by many bass guitarists. After joining Mezarkabul, he worked on several other projects as a producer. As a producer, he contributed to the albums of famous
Turkish rock artists like Şebnem Ferah, Özlem Tekin, Teoman, Demir Demirkan, Ogün Sanlısoy (the former vocalist of Mezarkabul) and bands like Knight Errant, Kül, Mor ve Ötesi and Athena.
Tim Walker
Photographer
Tim Walker’s photographs have entranced the readers of Vogue, month by month, for over a decade. Extravagant staging and romantic motifs characterise his unmistakable style. After concentrating on photographic stills for 15 years, Walker is now also making moving film.2012 saw the opening of Walker’s ‘Storyteller’ photographic exhibition at Somerset House, London. The exhibition coincided with the publication of his book, ‘Storyteller’ published by Thames and Hudson. In a 2013 collaboration with Lawrence Mynott and Kit Hesketh-Harvey, he also released The Granny Alphabet, a unique collection of portraiture and illustration celebrating grandmothers. Walker received the ‘Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator’ from The British Fashion Council in 2008 as well as the Infinity Award from The International Center of Photography in 2009. In 2012 Walker received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.The Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London include Walker’s photographs in their permanent collections. Tim lives in London.
Tunç ‘Turbo’ Dindaş
Graffiti Artist
Tunc ‘Turbo’ Dindas has started tagging on the streets in 1984 and after 30 years he has still been doing graffiti. He has been regarded as one of the most successful graffiti artists in the Turkish graffiti scene. His books have been considered as a reference and he was invited to do graffitis by The Netherlands, Italy, England and Bulgaria.
Waris Ahluwalia
Designer & Actor
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.”
Abel Ferrara
Film Director & Screenwriter
Ali Akay
Alin Taşçıyan
Film Critic
Alphan Eşeli
Film Director & Screenwriter
Armand Limnander
Deputy editor - W Magazine
Ayşe & Ece Ege
Barbaros Altuğ
Literary Agent
Beyhan Murphy
Choreographer & Artistic Director
Ceylan Ertem
Musician
Delfina Delettrez
Designer
Didem Dayı
Graphic Designer & Academician
Efe Çakarel
Founder of MUBI
Erman Akçay
Fanzine Maker
Ertuğrul Özkök
Journalist
Goga Ashkenazi
Chairwoman & creative Director – Vionnet
Hakan Tamar
Radio DJ
Harun Tekin
Singer, Musician and Poet
Hussein Chalayan
Fashion Designer
James Nares
Painter
José Parlá
Artist
JR
Photographer, Contemporary Artist
Liya Kebede
Model, Actress, Designer & Maternal Health Advoca
Mehmet Tez
Music Editor
Murat Menteş
Poet and Novelist
Pamela Golbin
Chief Curator & Author
Peter Beard
Photographer, Diarist & Author
Robert Montgomery
Artist
Serdar Gülgün
Ottoman Art Expert
Shirley Manson
Musician & Actress
Stefano Tonchi
Editor-in-Chief - W Magazine
Tarkan Gözübüyük
Musician & producer
Tim Walker
Photographer
Tunç ‘Turbo’ Dindaş
Graffiti Artist
Waris Ahluwalia
Designer & Actor
