Nikhil Chopra works at the boundaries between theatre, performance, live art, painting, photography and installation. He devises fictional characters that draw on his own personal history and memory. He inhabits these characters in largely improvised performances that last up to a few days.
Based in Toronto, Johannes Zits is a multi-disciplinary artist who explores art making through various media, including video, digital imaging, photography, collage and painting. His work intends to draw attention to both the conventional image making process as well as the way images from mass media are disseminated and consumed. Since graduating with a BFA from York University in 1984, Johannes Zits has shown his work across Canada as well as internationally in a variety of venues. His most extensively toured performance piece “A Digital Twist” was performed in Santigo, Chile; Caen, France, Berlin, Germany and Toronto, Canada.
David Hancock lives and works in Manchester and is currently employed as the Residency Co-ordinator at the Chinese Arts Centre. He studied Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, graduating in 1996, and was included in that years Northern Graduates exhibition at the Royal College of Art.
In 1999, he was selected for the John Moores 21 Contemporary painting exhibition, and in 2000 his work was included in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. In the same year he was a resident Artist at Work at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and had his first solo exhibition in a Public Art Gallery at Cartwright Hall in Bradford.
In 2001 David was the first artist to have a solo exhibition at Comme Ca's new Chorlton Mill Gallery in Manchester, and won City Life's Visual Arts Exhibition of the Year 2001. He was also profiled in the March edition of Art Review. His work was Commended in the BP Portrait Prize and he was Shortlisted for Fresh Artist 2001 at the Business Design Centre. David had solo exhibitions at the View 2 Gallery, Liverpool, and at the Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax. He was also included in Battle for Realism at Inside Space in Selfridges and Perverse Pop at Catto Contemporary in London.
In 2002 David was Shortlisted for the BOC Emerging Artist Award and throughout October, embarked upon a one-month artists residency, funded by the Arts Council and British Council, at DDM Warehouse in Shanghai. As part of this, he exhibited a selection of his Beautiful People series. In 2003 David had solo exhibitions at the Kirkby Gallery, Merseyside, the Storey Gallery, Lancaster, and at Comme Ca in New York. In 2004 he co-curated the touring group exhibitions We didn't mean to be bad kids, TV made us do it that commenced in Warrington and travelled to Glasgow and Hertfordshire University and Le Petit Paysage that debuted in the Liverpool Biennial Independents 04 before travelling to Comme Ca, Manchester.
In 2005, David exhibited at The City Gallery, Leicester. He was also included in 'Young Masters' as part of ArtFortnight London and 'Children of the Grave' at the Agency. In 2006 David curated the group show 'Jerusalem' and was included in 'i-POD Killed the Video Star' curated by Ken Pratt at Showroommama in Rotterdam. David had his first solo show in London at the Agency. In 2007 he had a solo exhibition at Transit, Mechelen, Belgium and will appear in 'Teenage Kicks' curated by Ken Pratt at Vegas Gallery, London.
Lu Di was born in Tian Jin in 1983, he moved to Manchester in 2002, studied classical music performance and new media design and in 2009 graduated from Manchester Metropolitan studying Interactive Arts.
His work has been exhibited in different galleries and festivals in the UK, China and Kosovo. Selected exhibitions include - Chinese Arts Centre (Manchester), Manchester Design and craft Centre, Green Room (Manchester), Royal Standard, The Long Night, AND Festival (Liverpool) and Expoart 40 Gallery (Prishtina, Kosovo).
The East Village was an artist’s quarter in the outskirts of Beijing. The area reached international fame in the 1990s when musicians, artists and critics, who were looking for free space, began to live there. A great deal of innovative and experimental art works have been made and developed there, the performance work in particular has gained a lot of international attention. During this period the artists worked on their own individual projects but also began to produce collaborations. . “To add one meter to an anonymous mountain” is one of the most well known collaborative events performed by artists from that area, Yingmei Duan participated in this piece.
At that time Duan was focusing on painting self portraits. However being based in the East Village widened her horizons and prompted her curiosity, which led to her interest in performance art. The final turning point came when she began to study at the HBK Braunschweig in Germany, where she got to meet the seminal performance artist Marina Abramovic. Since that time Yingmei Duan has dedicated herself to performance as artistic expression.
(Artists in the East Village include: Cang Xin, Duan Yingmei, Gao Yang, Kong Bu, Li Guomin, Ma Liuming, Ma Zongyin, Rong Rong, Tan yeguang, Wang Shihua, Xu Shan, Zhang Binbin, Zhang Huan, Zhu Ming, and Zuoxiao Zuzhou)
Marcio Carvalho, born in 1981 in Lagos, Portugal, is a visual artist and an independent art curator.
He holds a master degree in Visual Arts at ESAD in Portugal, and he is currently finishing his master in performing arts, in SODA master class at Udk/Uffer studios, Berlin.
He works with installation, photography, video and performance participating in exhibitions and festivals all over Europe, Africa and Canada.
He is the founder and curator, together with Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and Savvy Contemporary, of the performance art program CO-LAB editions, in Berlin, he is the founder and art director of the artist residence program Hotel25 in Berlin and he initiated "The Powers of Art", the first international TV Show dedicated to showcasing a crossing between performing arts and paranormal activity.
A versatile Playwright/ Director, Performance artist, Theatre Trainer and Arts Administrator who strives on exploring the limits of creativity, Nelson Mapako has been practicing professional theatre arts since 1992. He was born in Zimbabwe in 1972 where he kicked off his artistic career with Tikwele Drama Group in Hwange. Later on he formed Ezemvelo Creative Artists. He has also worked for the Zimbabwe Association of Community Theatre as a field officer for the Matabeleland region, Amazulu Arts Consultants as Programs Officer, Theatre and Development Initiative as Artistic Director and Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo as the inaugural Festival Administrator.
Mapako has also worked for 6 years in Swaziland (Seconded by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo province.) where apart from being the Programs and Training consultant for Swaziland Theatre for Children and Young People he was running individual theatre projects. While in Swaziland he established the Iphi ‘Africa Project. Of late 2011/ 2012 he has conducted Acting workshops for Intwasa Arts Festival ko Bulawayo in Zimbabwe as well as ParticNelson Mapako is a prolific artist who received training in Community Theatre between 1994 and 1998 through the mentorship of the late international acclaimed artist Ngugi wa Mirri. He is a holder of a Training of Trainers Certificate in Community Theatre, A General Certificate in Intellectual property from WIPO, A Diploma in Program Management and Monitoring. He has written/directed several stage & television productions including Television puppetry productions in Swaziland (Mantentekazane Swazi Television) and Zimbabwe (Khuluza ZTV) and has also featured as an actor both on stage and television. He is a recipient of the Zimbabwe’s prestigious National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding Theatrical Production (OUTCAST) in 2004. He was also a nominee for the NAMA award in 2003 for his production (SIX ALL OUT) Mapako’s other works have been performed at international arts festivals such as HIFA (Social Hanger 2003) in Zimbabwe, Matiwane Manana Arts Festival in Swaziland and Out the Box in Cape Town, South Africa. Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo,Ibumba Arts Festival in Zimbabwe as well as the SASOL Schools Arts Festival (A project for Grahamstown Arts festival)in Witbank South Africa. ipatory Theatre Workshops for PLAN Zimbabwe/Intwasa Arts Festival.
His international collaborations include working with Yingmei Duan – a performance artist from Germany as well as Laway arts South Africa/Netherlands. Nelson’s works are pregnant with artistic, social, developmental and political issues that affect the existence of humanity. His latest work is “A drop in the Land” done in collaboration with Laway Arts South Africa/Netherlands.
Xiaohan Han
Xiaohan Han was born in 1974, and began his professional music career in 1993. He is a musician and composer of contemporary music who adopts elements of old national music from Northeast Asia.
韩萧寒
1974年出生。1993年开始职业音乐生涯，是中国当代融合东北亚民族音乐元素的作曲工作者。
