Born to a Kurdish family in 1971, Erkan Özgen lives and works in Diyarbakır. Özgen made
his debut into the Turkish art world in 1998 and since then has participated in exhibitions and
events in Albania, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Iran, Italy,
Israel, Lebanon, Montenegro, Holland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,
Austria, the United Kingdom and the United States. Özgen primarily works with video,
photography and installation. Most of his recent films address migration and human rights,
often criticizing overcharged nationalism and military absolutism.

Han Nefkens is a Dutch writer and art activist. In 2000 he began collecting international contemporary art, and his Han Nefkens H+F Collection comprising approximately 500 works is now housed in a number of European museums. He later set up ArtAids, which employs art in the fight against the stigma surrounding HIV. Through the Han Nefkens Foundation, he also supports young artists, writers and fashion designers with commissions, residencies, prizes and stipends.In Spain, the Han Nefkens Foundation-MACBA Award focuses on artists from the Mediterranean area while the Han Nefkens Foundation-BACC Award for Contemporary Art in Bangkok is given to promising young Asian artists.
For many years, Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge has been organizing highly distinctive exhibitions at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam with works by established and up-and-coming fashion talents. The Han Nefkens Fashion Award is given every two years to young designers exploring the area between fashion and art.

Hilde Teerlinck is CEO/Artistic Director of the Han Nefkens Foundation. From 1994 to 1999 she was coordinator of the Mies van der Rohe in Barcelona where she invited renowned artists such as Jeff Wall, Panamarenko, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Thomas Ruff to create site-specific interventions. Not much later, she moved to Perpignan, where she founded an art center linked to the École de Beaux-arts. In 2002, she was appointed director of the Center Rhénan d’Art Contemporain (CRAC Alsace) in Altkirch and from 2006 to 2014 she was the director of the FRAC (Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain) Nord-Pas-de-Calais where she developed a new building with the architects Lacaton & Vassal. She has curated a large number of exhibitions worldwide and was part of the curatorial teams for the Beaufort Biennial 2016, Palais de Tokyo at the Lyon Biennale 2015, Triennale Kortrijk 2018-2024  amongst others. Recently, she was curator for the Belgian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale with Francis Alÿs in 2022. She is an advisor and board member for several international museums and foundations.