Curator of the 5th edition Celeste Prize 2013
Ami Barak is an independent curator and art critic based in Paris. He was the President of the International Association of Contemporary Art Curators – IKT from 2002 to 2005. Former Head of the Visual Art Department at the City Council of Paris (2003-2008), he was the Artistic Director and Coordinator of ‘Nuit Blanche’ (“Sleepless Night” Contemporay Art Festival) in Paris in 2003 and 2004. He initiated the public commissioning program “Art for the Tram”, with Sophie Calle/Frank Gehry, Dan Graham, Peter Kogler, Claude Lévêque, Christian Boltanski, Bertrand Lavier, Angela Bulloch and Didier Fiuza Faustino. He has curated numerous international exhibitions among which, in the recent years: House Trip, ArtForum Berlin (2007, Berlin); co-curated Can Art Do More? (2008, Art Focus Jerusalem); Re-construction, Young Artists Biennial 3 (2008, Bucharest); For Ever Young, (2008, Anne+, Paris); Elixirs of Panacea (2010, Palais Benedictine, Fecamp); The Borrowed Garden (2010, Gardens of Palais Royal, Paris); Romances sans paroles (2010, Kunsthalle, Mulhouse); Communism Never Happened (2011, Curated_By, Charim Galerie, Vienna); Play Time, a selection of works from the Klosterfelde Collection (2011, L.A.C., Sigean); His most recent major curatorial project was Art for the World [the Expo] the City of Forking Paths, the Sculpture Project of the Expo Boulevard at the World Expo Shanghai 2010 featuring twenty monumental sculptures of Chinese and International artists. In 2011, he was the co-curator of the Romanian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. In 2012 Foreigners everywhere (works from Pomeranz collection in JMW Vienna, Austria as well as Molecular Gastronomy, Young Artists Biennial 5 (Bucharest) And soon in early 2013 I am also... Douglas Gordon- a survey, Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He is currently a Lecturer at the Paris Sorbonne I University and works as an art adviser.

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Ferran Barenblit (Buenos Aires, 1968) is Director of the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, Spain. In 2003 he was nominated Director, of the new Centre d'Art Santa Mònica CASM, Barcelona. Exhibitions curated by Ferran include: Standards of Reality (Otis College of Art & Design, Los Angeles, 2005); Irony (Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona / KMK, San Sebastián, 2001-2002); Who’s taking the surplus value? (Co-curated with David G. Torres and Montse Romaní. La Capella, Barcelona, 2000); Circulos invisibles / Anatomías del alma (12 exhibitions in two seasons, Espacio 13. Fundación Joan Miró, 1996-1998). He has lectured at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles; Royal College of Art, London; Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris; Ludwig Museum, Budapest; CIMAM International Meeting, Barcelona; Fundació La Caixa, Barcelona; Universidad Juan Carlos I, Madrid; Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Artium, Vitoria; Marco, Vigo; Macba, Barcelona; Townhouse, Cairo; Association of Japanese Art Critics, Tokyo, Japan. Other: Free-lance curator (1996-2002); Assistant Curator, The New Museum, New York (1994-1996)Member of ADACE (Spanish association of Museum Directors, Board member presently), IKT, AICA.

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Iara Boubnova is curator, art critic, and founding Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia. Since 1997, she has been a lecturer at the New Bulgarian University, Visual Arts and Communication Department. Born in Moscow in 1961 and graduated from the Moscow State University in 1983. As an independent curator, she has curated over 25 individual and group shows in Bulgaria, where she lives since 1984 and abroad. Her most important projects include: ‘Locally Interested’, Sofia, ‘Station Sofia’ (together with Luchezar Boyadjiev) in ‘Translocation’, Vienna (both 1999); ‘Bulgariaavantgarde. Contending Forces II’, Munich (1998); ‘The Prying Game’ (together with the first-year students of the Centre for Curatorial Studies, Bard College), USA; ‘Menschenbilder. Foto- and Videokunst aus Bulgarien’, Berlin; ‘ARS EX NATIO. Made in BG’, Plovdiv, Bulgaria and ‘Erato’s Version’ (both together with Maria Vassileva) – all in 1997; ‘Bulgarian Glimpse Show’, Moscow (1996); ‘In Search of Self-Reflection’, Plovdiv (1994); ‘Object Bulgarian Style’, Sofia (1993). She curated and organized Bulgarian participation at the: 48 Biennale di Venezia (together with Nedko Solakov, the participating artist in 1999); the 3rd Biennial in Cetinje, Montenegro, Yugoslavia (1997); the 4th St. Petersburg Biennial (1996); the 4th Istanbul Biennial (1995); the 22nd Sao Paulo Biennial (1994) and the Tirana Biennial (2001). She was the co-curator of the ‘Reconstructions’, the 4th Biennial in Cetinje, Montenegro, Yugoslavia and of the ‘Boundless Borders’ Public Project, travelling 2002.
In 1999 she participated in The Getty Summer Institute for Art History and Cultural Studies at Rochester University, USA and in 1997 she was an Arts Link Program visiting lecturer at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, USA. In 1995 and 1994 she had fellowships to study Management of Art Institutions in Vienna and London. Iara Boubnova was a Getty Foundation’s Grant Program Fellow for 1995
Since 1985 she has been a registrar-curator for East-European Art and, since 1997, Chair of the Museum Board at the National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia. Iara Boubnova has more then 200 publications on contemporary art in Bulgarian and foreign periodicals as well as in international catalogues.

Katrina Brown, Director of the Common Guild, Glasgow, Scotland. She was Director of the Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Arts in 2010 and 2012. Glasgow-born Brown has almost 20 years of experience as a curator including significant roles both at Tate Liverpool and Dundee Contemporary Arts, where her programme made the city an internationally acclaimed centre for the visual arts. Brown’s longstanding relationship with Glasgow’s visual arts community dates back to 1991 when she joined the Committee at Transmission and includes a spell at Tramway, working with Charles Esche (now Director of the Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven). Brown was also Visual Arts Projects Curator of the first, Radiance Lighting Festival. In 2006 Katrina Brown established the Common Guild, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to producing a dynamic, international programme of contemporary visual art projects, exhibitions, and events. Hugely respected in the visual arts world, Brown has brought her expertise to a range of other professional appointments including Venice Biennial Advisory Committee (British Council) 2008-09; Comité technique d’Achat (purchase committee), FRAC des Pays de la Loire, 2005 – 2008; Board of Governors, Glasgow School of Art, 2004; Selector, Beck’s Futures, 2004; Selector, Jerwood Artists Platform, 2003.

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Florence Derieux (born 1973 in Nîmes, France) is an art historian and curator. Since 2008 she is the Director of the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in Reims, where she has organized exhibitions of the artists Anna + Peter, Francesco Arena, Boris Achour, Sylvie Auvray, Tom Burr, Julien Carreyn, Dexter Dalwood, Plamen Dejanoff, Latifa Echakhch, Cyprien Gaillard, Marine Hugonnier, Eugene van Lamsweerde/Ines van Lamsweerde/Vinood Matadin, Nicola Martini, Nick Mauss, Ciprian Mure#1;an, Emilie Pitoiset, Lili Reynaud Dewar, Clément Rodzielski, Sterling Ruby, Emily Wardill, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, among others. Previously she was Curator at Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2000-2002); Deputy Director of the Picasso Museum in Antibes (2002-2004); Curator for Contemporary Art of the Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne (2005-2006) and Associate Curator of Le Magasin-Centre National d’Art contemporain in Grenoble (2007). She also served as Tutor of the Ecole du Magasin’s International Curatorial Training Programme in 2006-2007, and simultaneously taught Art History and Exhibitions History at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier and the ECAL-University of Art and Design in Lausanne in 2007-2008. Florence Derieux has published numerous catalogues, contributed texts to a number of publications, and written for magazines such as Flash Art, Mousse Magazine, Art Press, Frieze, Frog, South Magazine. She is a member of ICOM – International Council of Museums since 2000 and of IKT – International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art since 2001. Since 2012, she is a member of the Artistic Committee of Etant donnés, the French-American Fund for Contemporary Art.

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Dominique Fontaine is a curator, consultant on contemporary art, media arts and arts management. In 2005, she founded aPOSTeRIORI, a non-profit curatorial platform – researching, documenting, developing, producing and facilitating innovation in diverse contemporary art practices. Dominique graduated in visual arts and arts administration from the University of Ottawa, and studies curatorial practices at De AppelStiching Curatorial Training Programme (Amsterdam). Her ongoing research, “Evidence: Inter-documentation”, surveys contemporary visual art practices by Black artists, curators, critics, theorists, and art historians as a response to a gap concerning the accessibility of updated material on diverse artistic propositions from Africa and its Diaspora. Since 1992, she has curated and organized several contemporary art events in Canada and abroad. Her recent curatorial projects included “Images, Imageries, Imaginaires” – International Photography Exhibition of the World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures (December 2010); “Forms and topographies: African Cityscape in flux”, Thessaloniki Biennale, Greece (2009); “Moshekwa Langa: Unlimited”, Art Star Video Biennial (2005); and “Zineb Sedira”, Art Star Video Biennial (2003).

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Having worked at Nicholas Robinson Gallery and Claire Oliver Gallery in New York, NY and as the Associate Director of Contemporary Art at BRIC Arts Media Bklyn, Brooklyn, NY, Christian Fuller recently joined Recession Art, Brooklyn, NY as their Associate Director. He studied Creative Writing and Literature at Naropa University and Sculpture and Painting at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. When he’s not doing studio visits, mounting exhibitions, or making sure everything is level, he can be found taking care of his thirty plus plants at home or making music under the moniker Young Fossil. He’ll be curating the exhibition Open Notions and Broken Boundaries opening October 23rd at Recession Art and The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY.

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Mihnea Mircan is the artistic director of Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerpen. From 2005 to 2006 he was curator of Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. At the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Mircan curated exhibitions such as: "Sean Snyder" (with Florin Tudor), 2007; "SUBLIME OBJECTS", 2007; "Video Works. Jaan Toomik", 2006; and the "Under Destruction" site-specific interventions, 2004–2007. Other curatorial projects include: "Since we last spoke about monuments", Stroom, The Hague, 2008; "Low-Budget Monuments", 52nd Venice Biennial, Romanian Pavilion, Venice, 2007; "No Significant Incidents To Report", Galeria Noua, Bucharest, 2005; and "Revolutions Reloaded" (with Marco Scotini), play_gallery, Berlin and Galleria ARTRA, Milan, 2004. Mihnea Mircan contributes regularly to international publications, having written for monographs of Mircea Cantor, Deimantas Narkevicius, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor. He has curated 'An Image instead of a Title' at Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany and 'History of Art, the' at the David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK. And has collaborated with artist Hans van Houwelingen in 'Until it stops resembling itself'.

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Gean Moreno is based in Miami. He has curated various exhibitions as an independent curator. He has also contributed essays to a number of exhibition catalogues and books. He is Contributing Editor of Art Papers magazine. Since December 2008 he is Founder and Director [NAME] Publications, Miami, USA. Between June 2002 to December 2007 he was Director of Programming, Locust Projects, Miami. Organized exhibitions with numerous artists, including Mark Leckey, Eric Wesley, Phil Collins, Alex Bag, Oliver Payne/Nick Relph, Laura Parnes and Nathan Carter. Gean has curated Lugares de Transito as invited regional curator, Tabacalera, Madrid, 2012; Vanishing Points, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, 2011; Drawn and Quartered, World Class Boxing, Miami, 2010; Contemporary Miami Artists: Creating a Scene Freedom Tower and Art Center/South Florida, Miami, 2007; If Water Crystal, Crystal Water, Ingalls & Associates, Miami, 2007; Don’t Torture the Rotten Ducklings (organized with Nicholas Frank) Inova, Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee, 2007; Conditions of Display Moore Space, Miami and Locust Projects, Miami, 2007; Advancing Specifically To Get Lost World Class Boxing, Miami, 2006; Constant Disturbance Spanish Cultural Center, Miami, 2006; The Hills Have Eyes, Ingalls & Associates, Miami, 2005; Lumpen Decadents, Ingalls & Associates, Miami, 2004; Semina and Graffitti Composition, Lemon Sky Projects and Editions, Miami, 2004; The Longest Winter, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Fl, 2002.

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Ian Alden Russell is a curator and researcher working between Europe and the United States. He is currently the curator of the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University. Apart from curating gallery exhibitions, he specializes in working with artists to creatively activate public spaces through collaborative arts practice. He is also interested in the application of new media in the arts, cultural and heritage sectors. To date he has held major research fellowships in Ireland and the United States ranging in focus from public art to material culture studies and digital humanities initiatives.

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Co-Artistic Director of ROUNDTABLE: The 9th Gwangju Biennale (Korea, 2012). As it has often throughout her career, Swastika's curatorial approach for the Gwangju Biennale continues an exploration of the transformative realities of mobility, namely on the impact of the simultaneous loosening / tightening of borders and geo-political notions and the increasing flows of goods, people and information as a result of globalization. In 2012 she curated Art Dubai’s 2012 Indonesian focused Marker Program. In 2011 she curated the Biennale Jogja XI with Suman Gopinath (India). The Biennale Jogja XI / Equator # 1, was the first in a series of five international biennales to take place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, aimed at exploring Indonesia’s cultural engagement with the participating countries. Shadow Lines, the first edition, included forty artists from Indonesia and India collaborating in the exhibition that suggests imaginary lines that draw people together and pull them apart; it also refers to geo-political borders and the creation of modern states in South Asia. Recent shows include: “The Past The Forgotten Time” (Amsterdam, Jakarta, Semarang, Shanghai, Singapore, 2007–2008); “Manifesto: The New Aesthetic of Seven Indonesian Artists” (Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore, 2010); and solo exhibitions for Eko Nugroho, Tintin Wulia, Wimo Ambala Bayang, and Jompet Kuswidananto. In 2000, she joined KUNCI Cultural Studies Center to promote and to emerge cultural studies discourses in Indonesia. Within 2000 - 2004, Alia was actively published her essays in academic journals and presented her research in seminars and workshop. From 2002 - 2004, Swastika was Associate Editor for SURAT and Artistic Manager at Cemeti Art House, one of Indonesia’s most reputable art spaces. Since 2008 she has curated exhibitions for Ark Galerie, Jakarta. In 2005, with a grant from Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), she joined staff exchange programme in UfaFabrik, Berlin, Germany. In 2006, she received a grant from Asian Cultural Council to conduct a research and internship at The Asia Society, New York. Swastika received additional study grants from the Art Hub (Shanghai, 2007) and the National Art Gallery (Singapore, 2010). She graduated from Communication Department Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

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Gaëtane Verna is Director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada’s leading non-collecting contemporary art gallery. Up to 2012 Gaëtane was Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Musée d’art de Joliette, in Lanaudière, Quebec. From 1998 to 2006, she was the curator of the Forman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University. In her more than fifteen-year career, she has gained invaluable experience in presenting and organizing many exhibitions by emerging, mid-career and established Canadian and international artists such as Vasco Araújo, Luis Jacob, Kimsooja, François Lacasse, Oswaldo Maciá, Ed Pien, Gabor Szilasi, Javier Tellez, Denyse Thomasos, and Bill Viola among others. Verna holds a DEA and a Masters degree from the Université Paris | Pantheon Sorbonne as well as an International Diploma in Heritage Administration and Conservation from the Ecole National du Patrimoine (France). Since 2006, she has served a Board member of the Montréal Arts Council as well as the President of the Visual Arts Committee.