Skinder Hundal • Director Arts, British Council

As Director Arts for the British Council, Hundal oversees multiple art forms and major arts activity which includes cultural programmes for annual bilateral seasons such as the British Pavilion exhibitions at La Biennale Arte and La Biennale Architettura, Venice. Hundal was previously CEO/Director of New Art Exchange, a contemporary arts space in Nottingham where over the past 12 years he has cemented a reputation for connecting diverse arts and cultural projects between the UK and overseas, working across art forms.

His international experience includes projects for TED Global, Google Cultural Institute and for the UK’s official arts programme for the First World War Centenary. Major projects under his tenure at New Art Exchange includes Here, There & Everywhere, an ambitious international programme of artistic development, cultural exchange and artist residencies between the UK and Africa, South Asia, South Korea, Middle East, North America and Europe. In 2019, he was awarded an MBE for his contribution to visual arts.

Dirk Boll • Deputy Chairman 20th & 21st Century Art at Christie’s

President of Christie's in London. Trained as a lawyer with a post-graduate MA in Art Management. PhD degree in Art Law. Professor for Art Management (Hamburg). Published author (Adjacent).

Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766, considered the world's leading art and luxury business; its portfolio of global services includes art appraisal, art financing, international real estate and education. Christie’s has a physical presence in 46 countries.

Alex Farquharson • Tate Britain Director

Alex Farquharson is a curator, writer and lecturer and the Director of Tate Britain. He was the first Director of Nottingham Contemporary, which since opening in 2009 has become one of the leading centres for contemporary art in the UK. While his specialism is contemporary art, his exhibitions and programmes have often created dialogues between the art of today and historic and modern art. He has numerous solo and group exhibitions he has curated and co-curated featuring very significant artists of our time.

His writings include Isa Genzken (Phaidon), Richard Wright (DCA), Thomas Demand (Prada Foundation) and Sean Landers (Kunsthalle Zurich), and has often written for Frieze, Artforum and Art Monthly on both art and curating. He has taught and lectured widely, in particular on the Curating Contemporary Art MA at Royal College of Art. He is a Trustee of Raven Row and is currently a member of the Arts Council Acquisitions Committee.

Hans Ulrich Obrist • Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries

Hans Ulrich Obrist is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. A few years ago, ArtReview named him the most powerful figure in the art world. Prior to the Serpentine, he was Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991 he has curated more than 350 exhibitions.

Most notable the Swiss Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Biennale in Venice (2014) and Cities on The Move series (1996–2000). Obrist has lectured internationally at academic and art institutions, and is contributing editor to several magazines and journals. He has published about 482 books and counting.

Mikolaj Sekutowicz, CEO and Curator, Therme Group

In his role as Curator and CEO of Therme Group’s cultural program, Mikolaj is instrumental in the creation of a global debate about culture, sustainability and the future of urban development. This venture has been hugely successful, leading to a global calendar of talks and discussions that have taken place at Design Miami/, at the Venice Biennale, Serpentine Galleries’ art and architecture program and Frieze Academy’s Art and Architecture conference.

Mikolaj has also initiated and overseen the creation of an advisory board comprising of some of the most well-regarded figures from the fields of art and design and has developed partnerships with prominent institutions worldwide.

Rebecca Salter • President of the Royal Academy of Arts

The leading painter and printmaker, Rebecca Salter, is the first female President in the Royal Academy’s 251-year history. Formerly a ceramicist, she specialises in woodblock printing, combining Western and Eastern traditions.

The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution, which since its beginning was positioned along with the French, as the most significant professional art societies in Europe. It is a place where art is made, exhibited and debated. It is home to Britain´s longest established art school, it has been championing artists and architects for more than 250 years, it hosts major exhibitions by historic and living artists. With 85,000 members, the Royal Academy has the third largest friends organisation in the world.

Sarah Wilson • Professor at the Courtauld Institute of Art

President of Christie's in London. Trained as a lawyer with a post-graduate MA in Art Management. PhD degree in Art Law. Professor for Art Management (Hamburg). Published author (Adjacent).

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a research-led higher education institution, home to the largest community of art historians and conservators in the UK. The Courtauld is well known for its many graduates who have become directors of art museums around the world. These include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery, London; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the British Museum, London; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco; the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Museo del Prado, Madrid, etc, including the current Tate’s Director.

Curated by
Johanna Afrodita Zuleta

A Crosspollinator and strategic connector, specialised on high-level leadership alliances and advisory, working with presidents, governments, philanthropists, museums, institutions, grassroots movements, communities and influential leaders across the globe. She has focused over the last decade in fostering a development and integration between the worlds of politics, corporate and arts & culture at a strategic level. In tandem to publishing and producing events as a content creator and curator.

She worked in the production of several reports for Official State Visits to the UK (by appointment of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II), initiating an arts & cultural section within the reports. She was part of the team producing the official publication for the G20 in 2018 in Argentina, and curated a programme of events in Davos during the World Economic Forum 2020 - 50th anniversary.

“ This is beyond an art forum. We are offering a bolder leadership that bridges silos, to execute urgent solutions. Strengthening the relationships of the art sector in Britain and globally, through a closer more dynamic dialogue, as well as enabling an inter-sectoral understanding on how to build and inspire better wholesome communities. By working on a broader vision together, this art forum will catalyse opportunities for activating solutions.”

Produced by Samsung

Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at news.samsung.com/uk.

“ Samsung’s heritage in driving innovation across industries is at the heart of our business. The rapid adoption of digital into the art world has forced institutions, galleries and artists to embrace new ideas and technologies. This event is an opportunity for the renowned leadership across all spheres of the art world to come together, share ideas, concerns and opportunities, as we go forward into the years ahead. Samsung’s innovative display solutions such as NFT ready TVs, and the Samsung Wall digital canvas, are just two examples of how technology supports innovation within the art sector. I am excited that we can share this experience with everyone globally online.”

Damon Crowhurst, Head of Display at Samsung Electronics Co.

Produced by British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We build connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. In 2019-2020 we reached over 75 million people directly and 758 million people overall including online, broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934 we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body. We receive a 14.5 per cent core funding grant from the UK government. www.britishcouncil.org

“ Working with Samsung and our speakers and audience participants at this moment is a symbol of where science, arts and technology unify with an illustrious knowledge base of panellists at the top of their game. To create meaningful dialogue and enable collective values for collaboration means for an exciting space to rethink and build cultural relations with culture and creativity centred as the key driver for positive shift, the healing we desperately seek and also determine the new genuine truths of our time.”

Skinder Hundal MBE, Global Arts Director, British Council

About Samsung KX Hub of Innovation

Samsung KX is one of Samsung’s global showcases along with ‘D’Light’ in Seoul and ‘837’ in NYC and the building was awarded BREEAM ‘excellent’ in 2020 for its high sustainability credentials.

Samsung KX is a 20,000 sq. ft experience space located in the heart of London’s Coal Drops Yard. Coal Drops Yard was originally established in 1850 to handle the eight million tonnes of coal delivered to the capital each year.

The area reopened in October 2018, reinvented by the acclaimed Heatherwick Studio, which has interwoven a contemporary design with the surviving structures and rich ironwork of the original Victorian coal drops.

This hub of innovation brings together culture, community and cutting-edge technology in a dynamic environment alongside local partners. Samsung KX was designed to give guests the ultimate immersive brand experience where they can discover, be inspired and learn through a range of stimulating events, workshops and performances in both physical and virtual formats.

Georg Bak • Art Advisor & Curator, Crypto + Blockchain Art

Bak served in senior positions for Hauser & Wirth in Zurich and London and as an art advisor at LGT Bank in Zurich before running his own gallery SCHEUBLEIN + BAK in Zurich for seven years. He specialised in generative art and curated shows such as "Thinking in Algorithms", "Against Photography" and "Perfect & Priceless. Value Systems on the Blockchain".

Bak currently advises digital art collectors and companies in the blockchain industry and is a strategic art advisor to 4ARTechnologies. He is also on the curatorial board of RARE Art Festival in New York, an advisor of MoCDA ( Museum of Contemporary Digital Art London), a board member of Art Identification standard (AIS) and an independent curator of digital art exhibitions.

Brendan Dawes • Artist

Brendan Dawes is a UK based artist using generative processes involving data, machine learning and algorithms, to create interactive installations, electronic objects, online experiences, data visualisations, motion graphics and imagery for screen and print. Time and space are often consistent themes within his work.

A Lumen Prize Alumni, his work has featured in many exhibitions across the world including Big Bang Data in thirteen cities, three MoMA shows in New York together with his Cinema Redux work becoming part of the permanent collection of New York´s Museum of Modern Art in 2008. His recent Art of Cybersecurity work is featured in Art

Alex Estorick • Editor-in-Chief at Right Click Save

Alex Estorick is a media theorist whose work seeks to develop socially progressive approaches to new technologies. Experienced across educational, editorial and museum platforms, Alex’s approach to innovation depends on interdisciplinary understanding and deep media genealogies. As Editor-in-Chief at Right Click Save, he aims to drive critical conversation about NFTs, blockchain, and Web3 culture. He is also Contributing Editor for Art and Technology at Flash Art, establishing the magazine’s digital column, “The Uncanny Valley” as a bridge between contemporary art and new media. He contributes to numerous publications – from Frieze to the Financial Times – and recently published the first aesthetics of crypto art: A data-driven study of the early genesis of the NFT phenomenon using machine learning and co-occurrence network analysis.

His work as a trustee for the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art involves industrial partnerships, fundraising and tailored strategies that embrace London’s local art and tech communities. He has a BA from the University of Cambridge, where he read History of Art at Pembroke College, an MA in Digital Media Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a Graduate Diploma in Law from The University of Law.

Freda Isingoma • Contemporary African and Diaspora art collector, founder of KIISA

Freda is an entrepreneur and investment banking professional who has worked in multinational and leading investment institutions in UK, US and South Africa. She has over 20 years’ experience in establishing successful business initiatives and managing investment funds. Freda has been collecting Contemporary African and Diaspora art for 20 years. In 2018 she founded KIISA. KIISA provides innovative investment fund and impact solutions that drive the growth, visibility, knowledge and sustainability of the Contemporary African and Diaspora art market.

Furthermore, KIISA provides strategic advice, research and due diligence on art patronage, investment, and market positioning for businesses within the art eco-system. She speaks on international platforms discussing art as an alternative asset, art ecosystem development and the impact of art investment on the global art world. Freda is a member of the Zimbabwe Pavilion Advisory Committee for the upcoming Venice Biennale in 2022 and the Advisory Board of Ayoken, a newly launched NFT platform focused primarily on the African and diaspora arts.

Audrey Ou • TRLab co-founder and CEO
(a curated NFT art platform)

Audrey Ou is CEO and Co-Founder of TRLab, a full-service platform that fuses NFT technology with fine art. TRLab works with artists, foundations, and institutions to develop curated NFT collecting experiences that prioritise education, access and ongoing innovation. TRLab’s team has successfully conceived and launched NFT projects with leading digital and traditional artists, including “Your Daytime Fireworks”, an interactive collecting experience with renowned contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang that has been nominated for the 2022 Lumen Prize. “The Calder Question”, an education-driven NFT experience devoted to Modern art master Alexander Calder launches in October 2022.

Prior to TRLab, Audrey was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Olive Capital focusing on consumer technology. Her involvement in contemporary art derives from her family’s engagement with Rockbund Art Museum since its formation in 2010, where she assisted with solo exhibitions of artists such as Cai Guo-Qiang and collaborations such as the Hugo Boss Asia Art Project. Audrey is a member of the Asia Art Committee and Young Collectors Committee at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She holds a B.A. in History from Princeton University and a M.S. in Applied Analytics from Columbia University.

Ozan Polat • NFT Collector

Ozan Polat is a Partner at Dialectic, a crypto-native family office that uncovers ciphers in opaque markets thereby unlocking extraordinary value. Polat first engaged with NFTs before the term was coined: An avid collector, he traded JPEGs of Rare Pepes via Counterparty protocol on Bitcoin. Since then Polat has been a constant in the space. Through Dialectic, he is an early investors in several NFT platforms and is actively collecting the defining 21st century cultural assets through their collection “1of1”.

Thomas Stauffer • Art Advisor, Founder of Gerber & Stauffer Fine Arts, President of the Swiss Art Trading Association.

Thomas Stauffer, Co-Founder of GSFA, a leading independent art advisory firm, has been a passionate art collector since his teenage years. With a keen eye for anticipating lasting market developments and an excellent worldwide network of contacts, he has made himself a name internationally for finding important artworks off-market in private collections.

Thomas Stauffer has degrees in Economics and Human Resource Management as well as a post-graduate degree in Arts and Cultural Management. He advises on art as an investment to Swiss Banks. Since 2021 he is the President of the Swiss Art Trading Association.

Moderated by: Richard Foster Fletcher • Chair of MKAI.org

Richard Foster-Fletcher is the Founder and Executive Chair of MKAI; Morality and Knowledge in Artificial Intelligence. Richard speaks about AI ethics, digital inclusion, and the convergence of technologies. His first book will be published in 2023 by Bloomsbury about digital trust. Richard leads the MKAI initiative to connect diverse perspectives to potential AI risks, supports several climate change adaptation blockchain projects and has collaborated with the United Nations to support their behavioural change for sustainability agenda via his media work.

Hoor Al-Qasimi • Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, President of the International Biennale Association

Hoor Al Qasimi, is the founding director of the Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation, Al-Qasimi has spent the last two decades working tirelessly to make the UAE the centre of the region’s art scene and a hub for dialogue between East and West via exhibitions and assemblies.

With a passion for supporting experimentation and innovation in the arts, Al Qasimi has continuously expanded the scope of the Foundation over its 10-year history to include major exhibitions that have toured internationally; artist and curator residencies in visual art, film and music; commissions and production grants for emerging artists; and a wide range of educational programming in Sharjah for both children and adults.

Shiva Lynn Burgos • Artist, collector, founder Indigenous artists cultural exchange (The Mariwai Project)

Shiva Lynn Burgos is an artist from New York currently living and working between Paris, London and Papua New Guinea. Her conceptual and collaborative practice unifies concepts of evolution, competition, natural and social selection. Across this multidisciplinary practice she integrates field-collected and found objects with contemporary materials and technology as a resource for examining the shifting value systems of currency, spirituality, custom and provenance.

Experiencing the remote river village of Mariwai, Papua New Guinea she formed The Mariwai Project, a collaboration with the indigenous artists of the region who are considering contemporary forms and influences. As an initiated clan member, Burgos supports the recognition of these living cultures by creating a direct link with ethnographers and museum collections. The Mariwai Project includes philanthropic support for art, culture, health, education and development in the region. Work from The Mariwai Project is currently on view in the permanent collection of The Ethnologisches Museum, Humboldt Forum, Berlin.

Bice Curiger • Art historian, Critic, Director of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation in Arles, Co-founder and editor of Parkett magazine // online from Zurich

Art historian, art critic, Director of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles (France). A leading figure on the international art scene Bice Curiger was curator at the Zurich Kunsthaus for twenty years and in 2011 was selected to curate the 54th Venice Biennale, being the third women in history to do so.

She is co-founder and editor of Parkett magazine as well as editorial director of Tate Etc. She has been an independent curator for various international art galleries, museums and exhibitions, including for the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (France), the Hayward Gallery in London (UK), the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She is also the curator of the Engadin Art Talks, Switzerland.

Touria El Glaoui • Founding Director of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair

Touria El Glaoui is a Franco-Moroccan entrepreneur, founding director of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which is held every year in London, New York City, Marrakech and Paris. The fair, which draws its name from the 54 countries that make up the African continent, is dedicated to promoting the awareness and emergence of the contemporary African art market globally. El Glaoui began her career in the banking industry before founding 1-54 in 2013.

Parallel to her career, she has organised and co-curated exhibitions of the work of her father, the Moroccan artist Hassan El Glaoui, in London and Morocco. Through the years, Touria has chaired and spoken globally in several conferences and debates on contemporary African art and women in leadership at leading institutions. She is also on the Christie’s Education advisory board in London.

Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza • Contemporary art collector, producer, philanthropist, climate and ocean advocate, Founder TBA21 // Online

Founder and Chair of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21), Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza is an advocate for social and environmental justice, philanthropist and patron of the arts, supporting the production and creation of new work that fuels engagement with the most pressing issues of our times. TBA21 stewards the unparalleled TBA21 Collection with more than 200 commissions, and the foundation’s outreach with exhibitions, fellowships, residencies, educational and public programming, and policy interventions.

All activity of the foundation is fundamentally driven by artists and the belief in art and culture as a carrier of social and environmental transformation and change. With the initiative #MuseumsForUkraine Francesca also united over 100 museum and art professionals to support Ukraine since the onset of the war, taking from the experience she gained from her father and his work in cultural diplomacy in the 1980’s in the Soviet Union.

Karla Zerressen • Langen Foundation

Karla Zerressen’s late grandmother, Marianne Langen, founded the in Neuss, Germany, to share her rare Japanese art collection with the world. With the help of the Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando, she created the perfect space to represent the collection, full of Japanese art dating from the 12th to the 20th century.

Today, Zerressen is the third generation of women leading the foundation, who has exhibited contemporary shows by artists like Olafur Eliasson, Alex Katz, Leiko Ikemura, Otto Piene, and Richard Deacon, and presents other private collections like the Viehof and Burger collections.

Moderated by: Oscar Guardiola Rivera

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera is a writer and professor of human rights and political philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. After leading the student movement that initiated a wave of constitutional reform throughout Latin America in the late 1990’s, he continued his studies in the United Kingdom where he obtained an LLM with Distinction at University College London, and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. He is the writer of the award-winning What If Latin America Ruled the World? which was listed as one the best non-fiction books of 2010 by The Financial Times.

Dr Guardiola-Rivera is also the co-editor of the contemporary art and theory journal Naked Punch: An Engaged Review of Arts & Theory, and has engaged with an extensive range of publications and broadcasters, including Granta, El Espectador, the BBC World Service Nightwaves, and Al-Jazeera to name but a few. He is currently the Deputy Postgraduate Director of the Department of Law at Birkbeck, University of London and is recognized as one of the most representative voices of contemporary Latin American philosophy and literature.