Keynote Speakers

VINCE BRIFFA

UNIVERSITY OF MALTA

Vince Briffa is a painter, multimedia artist, curator and researcher. His cross-disciplinary and trans-mediatic work consists of painting, gallery and site-specific artwork, sculptural objects, video and installations.
He was awarded the prize ‘Omaggio all’Arte ed all’Innovazione a Venezia 2019’ at the 2019 Venice Art Biennale. In addition has been exhibited in numerous prestigious venues including the Malta Pavilion, Venice Art Biennale, 1999 and 2019; Pierides Museum, Cyprus; Palais des Nations, Switzerland; Museum of Modern Art, Liechtenstein; Casoria Museum, Naples; Villa Manin Contemporary Art, Italy; MAC, Argentina; Palais Liechtenstein, Austria; Museum of Fine Arts, Romania, Museum of Modern Art, Israel, and Malta International Contemporary Art Space MICAS.
Briffa has curated exhibitions internationally including the NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf; the Münchner Künstlerhaus, Munich; Les Rencontres Arles; De Harmonie, Leeuwarden; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta amongst many others.

DENİZ SÖZEN

UNIVERSITY OF BRIMINGHAM

DENİZ SÖZEN is a visual artist and researcher of mixed Turkish-Austrian heritage and a lecturer in History of Art at the University of Birmingham. She specializes in contemporary art and decolonial methodologies in the context of globalisation and diasporic art. Recent publications include contributions to the Routledge Companion to African Diaspora Art History (ed. Eddie Chambers), and to the Third Text Special Journal Issue ‘Polyphony: method, voice, archive’. In 2022 she was awarded an ACE grant to curate the multilingual digital archival exhibition Maker Unknown exploring gaps and blind spots in the history, categorisation and provenance of non-European artefacts in the Camberwell ILEA collection. Her work has been presented in different contexts internationally.

BAGER AKBAY

ARTIST, DESIGNER, EDUCATOR

Storyteller of Robot Poet Deniz Yilmaz. Bager’s artworks are exhibited in Ars Electronica, Todays Art and Transmediale festivals. He is the co-author of Programming Scratch for Kids, co-founder of Iskele47 Studio and co-curator of Istanbul Maker Faire. Bager is currently a member of Amber Platform which hosts art and technology festivals since 2007 and Baska Bir Okul Mumkun NGO which works in the democratic school movement. Currently teaching in Todays Art History at Istanbul Mimar Sinan University and Marmara University and Programming for Puppeteers at Berlin Ernst Busch University and running an “Art Talk Show” at FLU TV.

UĞURCAN AKYÜZ

UNIVERSITY OF TOROS

Prof.Dr. Uğurcan Akyüz is currently serving as an art consultant and as the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Design, and Architecture at Toros University, Mersin.
Prof. Dr. Uğurcan Akyüz’s works have made significant contributions to art both technically and conceptually. His efforts, especially in the field of digital art, have pioneered the development of this discipline in Turkey. In recent years, he has explored the intersection of AI and art, introducing technological approaches that offer new creative possibilities to artists. He continues to inspire artists working in this field by researching the intersections of technology, artificial intelligence, and art.