Haig Aivazian
Haig Aivazian’s practice grapples with the metamorphic nature of three technologies: artificial light, computation, and law. He examines the ways in which the administration of light and darkness makes and unmakes persons and transforms material conditions of architecture and geography—how they are inhabited and moved through by humans, animals, objects, machines, and other strange creatures. Aivazian was the Artistic Director of Beirut Art Center (BAC) from 2020 to 2022, where he founded and edited thederivative.org.
Orian Barki
Based in New York, filmmaker Orian Barki specialises in shooting and editing her own raw, character-driven documentaries, with works featured on ESPN, PBS, Vogue, and Dazed, among other platforms. Her debut animated feature, Bouchra, co-directed with Meriem Bennani, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) before screening at the New York Film Festival (NYFF) and ICA London. The critically acclaimed film won the Grand Prix at the Festival International du Film Indépendant de Bordeaux and the Gold Q-Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, amongst other awards. Distributed by Film Movement, Bouchra will launch its US and French theatrical releases in the summer of 2026.
Meriem Bennani
Meriem Bennani’s practice grapples with the hybridity of contemporary cultural flows and global online media. Combining reality television, documentary, animation, and science fiction, her work utilises a ‘hyperactivity of genre’ to reflect the disjointed state of digital mediation. Bennani amplifies these narratives through immersive installation settings where moving images are mapped onto sculptural projection structures. Blending humour and critique, and frequently rooted in Moroccan life, her work navigates the intimacy of family while analysing larger systems of power across a networked world. She holds a BFA from the Cooper Union, New York, and an MFA from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
Cheng Ran
A representative of China’s new generation of video and cross-media artists, Cheng Ran explores film, poetry, drama, novel, and installation. He participated in the artist residence programme at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in the Netherlands (2013–2014), and he founded the art space, Martin Goya Business, in 2017.
Relying on a vibrant, experimental spirit, he excels at changing the sense of space, structure, and one’s conception towards objects through undefined use of materials. His switch between texts and visual language allows the audience to float between reality and imagination, presenting the poetics of nihilism. By re-patching aesthetic elements into a unique language, his works reflect the existential state of the Chinese young generation under globalisation. Cheng focuses less on identity and more on discovering new values from diverse cultures. His work reflects deep thoughts on universal themes including boundary, distinction, confrontation, and marginalisation in an all-round way.
Hu Wei
Hu Wei lives and works in Beijing. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and obtained an MA from the Dutch Art Institute in the Netherlands. He works in a variety of media, including filmmaking, installation, printed images, performance and drawing. Hu’s interest often begins from ‘silenced’ and local microhistories or archives, using the cinematic frame as a means to process and reflect on the ways in which (trans)personal narratives of social, cultural and historical belonging structure our experiences. His work unfolds through research, translation, and imagination, combining moving images and essayistic aesthetics to explore the porous and speculative connections between art and reality, as well as the precarious relationship between affect and value judgments in different political and economic contexts.
