Graduated from IPL’s School of Social Communication, post-graduated in Marketing Management from ISEG. She has a Master’s degree in Contemporary Art from the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Catholic University of Lisbon, where she was a guest lecturer between 2015 and 2017. She has worked in various companies in her field - Seat (1996-1998), Communications Manager; Novodesign (1999-2002), Project Manager; Euro RSCG Portugal (2002-2003), Senior Account; Croquidesign (2003-2007) Communications and Strategy Manager. In 2007 she started the Appleton Square project as a founding partner, which in 2018 changed its legal status to a non-profit organisation. Since then she has been executive director of the Appleton Cultural Association. She is responsible for the overall management, which includes: artistic/programming direction, financial management, communication, human resources, relations with artists, galleries, investors and patrons. In 2020 she launched the Appleton Podcast, which already has around 160 conversations with various players in the Portuguese art system. She has already published some texts on artists, including Michael Biberstein, Ângela Ferreira, Maria Ana Vasco Costa and Teresa Pavão, among others. She provides consultancy and advisory services in the areas of artistic programming and cultural management.

Meriem Berrada is an artistic director and a curator. She also works as an independent consultant alongside consulting firms in cultural engineering and strategy. She lives and works between Marrakech and Paris. Meriem Berrada is renowned for her ability to develop and lead innovative cultural projects. In 2016, she was instrumental in establishing the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) in Marrakech, becoming its artistic director in 2018. Her notable initiatives include La Chambre Claire, a photography competition supporting emerging African talents, and Passerelles, a socially engaged initiative integrating art with community outreach. Her dedication to the continent’s cultural ecosystem led her to create the MACAAL Bootcamp, a comprehensive training program for young cultural professionals across Africa, focusing on industry skills, leadership, and personal development. Recognized for her contributions, Berrada was featured in Apollo art magazine's "40 Under 40" influential art world figures and in the French ranking 100 Femmes de Culture. She continues to mentor emerging talents through projects like NOOR Photo and Duvangu residency (Gabon). Berrada serves on prestigious juries, including those for the British Journal of Photography CNAP/ Ateliers Médicis, Goethe Institute South Africa. Berrada was recently appointed as the artistic director of Tasweer photography biennale (Qatar). In 2021, Meriem Berrada was the co-curator of the 13th edition of the Rencontres de Bamako (Mali), and the head curator of the exhibition What is forgotten and what remains at the National Museum of Immigration History – Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris, as part of the Africa2020 cultural season. Her curatorial practice critically explores the intersections of art and craft in contemporary narratives. Her recent exhibitions include Display: Sara Ouhaddou (Berlin and Marrakech) Fieldworks: Amina Agueznay (2024) and Our Land Just Like A Dream: Joël Andrianomearisoa (2022), along with contributions to major conferences such as Harvard’s Future of Africa-based Curatorial Practice symposium in 2022 and Museums Round Table held in San Francisco in 2023. Berrada’s expertise makes her a vital force in promoting African and Arab arts within global contemporary narratives.

Since March 2000, Xavier Canonne has been the director of the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium. Before coming to the Musée, he was the director of the collection of the Province of the Hainaut (modern and contemporary art) from 1987 to 2000. He has curated many exhibitions and has edited and written various books and studies. He has curated several exhibitions, among them Intimate Man Ray (2003); Scenes of Atget (2004); Lee Miller a Life (2005); and Surrealism in Belgium in the Fine Arts Museum in Mons-BAM (March—April, 2007). Canonne is the publisher of the review "Marées de la Nuit". He is the author of the several books, including Looking at the U.S. – 1957—1986, published in 2009; Requiem pour un homme seul, Le Samouraï de Jean-Pierre Melville, 2010; and René Magritte, The revealing images, published in 2017. Xavier Canonne received his Doctorate in Art History and Archaeology from the Sorbonne University in Paris, with a doctoral thesis dedicated to Surrealism in Belgium.

Billy Fowo is a curator and writer based in Berlin and working at SAVVY Contemporary – The Laboratory of Form-Ideas, Germany. With a practice that spans various fields such as the sonic, linguistics and literature, Fowo is interested in pluri-epistemic approaches that redefine what we consider to be knowledge and the spaces in which it is disseminated. He graduated from de Appel’s Curatorial Programme 2023 and acted between 2021 and 2023 as a Tutor at the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) in the framework of their COOP Academy. He has co-curated several projects such as Hope Is A Discipline - New York (2024), Amsterdam (2023), Unraveling The (Under-) Development Complex, An Ode to Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, 50 Years On (1972 - 2022) - Berlin (2022), Wata Go Lef Stone, On the Perpetuity of Accara Across the Oceans, an offering within A Parábola Do Progresso - São Paulo (2022), ENIGMA #59: ROMAN – a retrospection on / by Paris-based artist Bili Bidjocka - Berlin (2021). In 2023, he was part of the Selection Committee for the Future Generation Art Prize 2023/24, and his writings have been published in several catalogues and online platforms.

She holds a BA in Fine Arts from the New School for Social Research in New York and a Master's degree in Management from ESADE. She is a cultural manager, independent curator, photographer's agent, editor, and documentary photography professor. She has directed the Photographic Social Vision Foundation in Barcelona since 2001. She has worked at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, and for the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam as Secretary of the 2018 competition jury. As a talent nominator, she collaborates annually with the Incipiens Albert Camús Prize, the Leica Oscar Barnack Award, and the Joop Swart Masterclass scholarship. She has served on the jury of the Poy Latam, Luís Valtueña, Joven Talento FNAC, Luis Kasado, and Zampa awards, and was also a member of the graphic editing panel of the Covid Archive in 2021 and 2022. She represents and manages photographic Archives of Spanish authors such as that of Joana Biarnés, the first female photojournalist in Spain, the French photographer Jacques Léonard, Leopoldo Pomés, Ferran Freixa, Isabel Azkarate, Manuel Outumuro, Anna Turbau, Oriol Maspons, and Eugeni Forcano. Since 2014, she has been a member of the Committee of Experts promoting the National Photography Plan of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government), and since 2021, a member of the National Photography Museum and Image Center Platform.

Master of Curatorial Studies by the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. He is associate curator of the PLMJ Foundation’s contemporary art collection. He is curator and vice-president of EMERGE-AC, a cultural association for the promotion of Contemporary Art. He began his activity as an independent curator in 2003. He created the independent project EMPTY CUBE in October 2007 that has presented projects by artists, designers and architects. (www.emptycube.org) He was President of the Portuguese Section of AICA - International Association of Art Critics, from March 2013 to December 2015. He creates, in 2018, the independent publisher emptycube_reader. He regularly writes about artistic projects in catalogues, publications and websites.

Johan Vikner is the Global Director of Exhibitions at Fotografiska – The Contemporary Museum of Photography, Art, and Culture. With a background in art history and linguistics, Johan has worked with photographers and artists for more than a decade, curating exhibitions and bringing their stories to audiences worldwide. He is passionate about visual storytelling and fostering dialogue through photography, ensuring that artists’ perspectives resonate across cultural and geographic boundaries. Based in Stockholm, Johan is part of Fotografiska’s global exhibitions team, collaborating with artists, institutions, and collectors across the globe. His work spans multiple markets across Europe, the U.S., and Asia, supporting Fotografiska’s museums in Stockholm, New York, Berlin, Shanghai, and Tallinn, with an upcoming location in Oslo. Dedicated to values of diversity and equality, and innovation in curatorial practice, Johan continuously explores new ways to engage audiences, making photography an accessible and thought-provoking medium for people from all walks of life.