Borderline Offensive Talks

Researcher at University West/Högskolan Väst, Sweden. Her research focuses on identity development and social integration in various context, such a schools, neighborhoods, and countries. What makes young people feel that they belong, to what and to whom? Trying to understand the processes, she explores the factors that promotes and hinders the creation of a shared "we". Coming from an artistic background, Ylva is also interested in the role of art in identity development.

Actor and cultural activist from Sana'a Yemen, using his craft for social and political change and development of performing arts scene in Yemen. As part of the Rawabiit Cultural and Media foundation, he has produced plays, stand-up comedy, radio and TV shows. Abduljabbar was the first ICORN artist-in-refuge in Helsingborg, Sweden from 2016–2018, period during which he was part of several local artistic productions and projects.

Visual artist from Slovakia. In her work she deals with various topics and the language, for example folklore and folk creation appear as the greatest visual sources of inspiration.

Researcher at the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. She specialises in the cultural sociology of migration, wanting to understand better the role of shared cultural meanings in the production of "otherness" and "closeness" in society. For her Ph.D., she studied civically engaged festivals in Central European cities organized to promote more inclusive urban environments. Besides her academic career, she cooperates with several NGOs in Slovakia that focus on migration, human rights, and urban space.

Actor and director in Theatre Na Peróne. Theatre Na Peróne is a professional independent theater that has been operating in Kosice since 2005. The repertoire of the theater contains authorial performances for adults and international projects with a strong author testimony of the founding members.

Professor at the Minerva Art Academy, Groningen, the Netherlands.

Game developer, filmmaker, animator, designer based in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. He runs STUDIO PUSHPLAY since 2016. Initially Isaak focused on creating trailers and other post-production oriented projects, but over time he cast a wider net ranging from motion graphics to producing an as of yet unannounced documentary series.

Lecturer at the University of Arts in Belgrade. She has graduated in art history (Belgrade) and completed MA in management in culture and cultural policy (Belgrade and Lyon). Currently, she is a PhD candidate at the University of Arts in Belgrade (museum management and development).

Visual artist , lives and works in Belgrade. Attended University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences before going to the Belgrade Art School. Her works were featured in several exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including the +MSUM – Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova.

Visual arts collective founded in 1990 at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. While experimenting through their work, they focus primarily between the medium of poetry and design. "Architecture of the human relationships" is their main concept.

Chairperson of Multi Kulti Collective and Bulgarian coordinator of European website on integration. Multi Kulti Collective (MKC) is one of the leading Bulgarian not-for-profit organizations working on migrant and refugee integration, community development and human rights since 2011. It operates both on grass-root and policy level to achieve bigger impact and social change both nationally and European.

Theatre director, playwright, and translator. Founder of 36 Monkeys, an NGO "for contemporary alternative art and culture, and one of the creators of the "ProText" platform, devoted to research, promotion and the presentation of new plays, young writers and new aesthetics.

Programme Manager at Plovdiv 2019 European Capital of Culture. Stanislava has two published poetry books – "Nie s teb razlichni" and "Dajdovnitsa". She won the national singers' contest "Hit–1". For a balance and to support of logic, reads balances as a Master of Accounting. She speaks several foreign languages – English, French and Russian.

Founder of Symβiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Council of Europe Network of Schools. Despina Syrri served as Education Specialist at the UNICEF Refugee and Migrant response in Greece, Advisor to the Regional Cooperation Council Political department in Sarajevo and Senior Expert on the Roma Integration 2020 in Belgrade.

Programme Officer at the Croatian Centre for Peace Studies. Centre for Peace Studies is a non-governmental and non-profit organization promoting non-violence and social change through education, research and activism. It was founded in 1996 in Pakrac and formally registered in Zagreb the following year.

Studied at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University in Prague. Since 2013, Zuzana has been organizing the Košice Artist in Residence program. The program was established as one of the key development projects for Košice – European Capital of Culture 2013 and since 2016 it has been operating as an independent civic association, which Zuzana founded with curator Petra Housková. In addition, Zuzana and Petra founded the Šopa Gallery in 2015. Zuzana has long-term cooperation with Creative Industry Košice, where she is involved in international projects focused on the development of the culture and creative industry.

Award winning Dutch playwright, (social) game designer and transmedia content producer. After graduating from the 'Writing in Performance' school at the Utrecht School of Arts he worked as an independent creative writer on several Dutch and international productions. He has worked at the National Theatre Studios in London and the Royal Dutch Theatre.

Actor and director in Theatre Na Peróne. Theatre Na Peróne is a professional independent theater that has been operating in Kosice since 2005. The repertoire of the theater contains authorial performances for adults and international projects with a strong author testimony of the founding members.

Playwright, cultural activist and director at Ettijahat Independent Culture based in Syria. Today, Ettijahat conducts its work based on three primary goals: to support established and budding young artists in producing their work; to improve the general environment for Syrian cultural and artistic work; and to integrate cultural work with social change initiatives.

Strategic manager at Center for Cultural Decontamination based in Serbia. She is a member of the Team Europe EU Delegation in Serbia as an independent expert for issues regarding EU integration and EU public policies.

Curator and representative of Anadolu Kultur (Turkey). Anadolu Kültür was founded as a not-for-profit cultural institution in 2002 when individuals from various fields of the art world, the business world and civil society came together to support the production and sharing of culture and art in cities across Turkey and abroad. Saliha is a founder of Hayy Open Space / İzmir and was co-founder of online culture and art magazine GriZine.

Actor, director, dramaturge and founding member of Zoukak Theatre Company (Lebanon). He performed in more than 15 performances in the past ten years, directed several major plays devised by Zoukak. With Zoukak, Junaid leads psychosocial interventions in different regions across Lebanon that target various communities and age groups; including drama-therapy workshops in different mediation techniques, in addition to the facilitation and creation of collective theatre performances.

Head of cultural department, Ramallah Municipality (Palestine). Sally took part in the project 'Future Heritage' which is a cooperation project between Ramallah Municipality, Palestine and Public Art Lab, Berlin in the field of visual arts, handcrafts and technology.

Director and owner of Community Arts Lab XL, Dutch laboratory for art and society (the Netherlands).

Director of Museum of Humour and Satire in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. Museum organizes one of the more significant cultural events in Bulgaria, the Gabrovo Biennial of Humour and Satire, once conceived as a bridge between East and West. Held every other year since 1973, the Biennial has exhibited works by artists from all over the world for 46 years, showcasing the best achievements of humor and satire in Bulgarian and world art.

Petko Dourmana is a visual and transmedia artist and organizer of interdisciplinary projects between art and information technology. He is co-founder of the InterSpace Media Art Centre, Sofia, which is a non-commercial combination of artists, computer scientists, and media activists.