Sheffield Fringe
  • Minou Norouzi is a is a filmmaker, film curator, and writer based in London (UK) and Athens (GR). Her research examines the objectification the real in the context of interdisciplinary documentary practices. Her films have been shown at South London Gallery (London), Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow), Telic Arts Exchange (Los Angeles), and at film festivals including the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Kasseler Dok Fest, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. As an independent film curator, she initiated the Arts Council England funded Sheffield Fringe project in 2011 and has organized film-related events at Bloc Projects (Sheffield), Whitechapel Gallery and Close-Up Film Centre (London), UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art (New York),  SALT Beyoğlu (Istanbul) and the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art among other venues. minounorouzi.com films texts

  • Gareth Evans is a writer, curator, presenter and the Film Curator of London’s Whitechapel Gallery. He programmes PLACE, the annual cross-platform festival at Aldeburgh Music in Suffolk and produced the essay film Patience (After Sebald) by Grant Gee as part of his nationwide arts project The Re-Enchantment (2008 – 2011) with Di Robson for Artevents. He has curated numerous film and event seasons (eg Armenia, JG Ballard, Portugal, Romany etc) in London and nationally. He conceived and curated the six week season John Berger: Here Is Where We Meet across London in 2005 and co-curated and co-ordinated All Power to the Imagination! 1968 and Its Legacies, a two month cross-media and multi-institutional season in London marking the 40th anniversary of the events of 1968. He was editor of the international moving image magazine Vertigo from 2002 – 2009. He is on the curatorial team of the Whitstable Biennale.

  • Adam Hyman is the Executive Director and Programmer for Los Angeles Filmforum. He has programmed over 200 shows since 1998, including historical retrospectives, tributes, and contemporary practitioners. Programming highlights include Shirley Clarke retrospective in 1998, a tribute to the late artist Nam June Paik, held at LACMA and co-presented with the Korean Cultural Center; several programs of animated documentaries, and experimental animation. Hyman has been a documentary filmmaker for the past fourteen years. He co-produced the 2007 Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning feature documentary Operation Homecoming and is currently directing and producing a film on R&B sax legend Big Jay McNeely. A native Angeleno, Hyman has an MFA in Film Production from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. lafilmforum.org

  • Adam Pugh is a curator, writer and designer based in Norwich. He is currently running a two-year project for the Independent Cinema Office around artists’ moving image, in partnership with LUX. He established and ran Aurora, a festival of artists’ moving image, in Norwich (2005 – 2009), and has since worked on freelance projects as a curator for the Barbican Art Gallery, London Film Festival, OUTPOST Gallery, Animate Projects and Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, among others; and established the curatorial platform Promontories as a means to present projects, screenings and publications, including ‘Invisible Fabrick’, a series of screenings and talks centred around a new commission by artist Jessica Warboys, and the publication of a book of the same name. As a writer, he contributes regularly to Art Monthly, and has in the past written for Tate, thisistomorrow and others. He has devised and delivered a course around artists’ moving image, ‘Forking Paths, Mirrored Chambers’, at LUX; and has delivered talks and served on international juries for various festivals and events worldwide, including Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen and Courtisane, Ghent. He also runs a print design studio, The Way Things Goadampugh.co.uk

  • Amanda McDowell is a practice-based PhD candidate and Visiting Tutor at Goldsmiths, University of London. In her PhD she is using film and archive to create a collective story of women’s psychiatric care in the UK. She gained an MA Screen Documentary in 2009 and her final film was nominated for a Royal Television Society factual film award. With an academic background in Social Anthropology she has worked for over ten years in the NGO sector, mainly with refugees, migrant workers and prisoners, which she continues part-time.

  • Annexinema organise social cinema events around the UK and have created screenings for art organisations and festivals including Nottingham Contemporary, Eastside Projects and The Falmouth Convention. Recently moving into film production alongside curating, they won the inaugural Broadway Film and Video Prize 2012. annexinema.org

  • Charlotte A. Morgan is a Sheffield-based artist who works with writing, print, sculpture, photography and performance. Charlotte was Creative Director at BLOC Projects, and Festival Producer for Art Sheffield 2016. She co-founded COPY, a network and platform for writing in the field of visual art and performance, and collaborates as part of Homeland, an interdisciplinary research and production space. She also produces critical texts and reviews for online and print publications. charlotteamorgan.co.uk

  • Christopher Allen is the Founder / Executive Artistic Director of UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. After graduating from Columbia University and studying at Trinity College Dublin, Christopher Allen worked as a social entrepreneur, documentary director, and new media artist. His individual works and collaborative projects have been exhibited at the MoMA, Harvard’s Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, the Volksbühne Theatre, DirektorenHaus in Berlin, Independent Film Week, Sonár, DIVA, and Conflux Festivals, among many other venues. He directed the interactive documentary Capitol of Punk, which was part of “Design and the Elastic Mind” at the Museum of Modern Art. Christopher was founding-partner of Counts Media, and played a leading role in the invention and execution of many art & entertainment concepts there, such as The Ride NY, a live theatrical and cinematic experience on the streets of the city, and Yellow Arrow, a place-based storytelling project exhibited online and in galleries and museums internationally. UnionDocs

  • COBRA: A Critical Response is a five year project to internationally counter-map and creatively respond to the British Government’s emergency committee COBRA, instigated by artists Theo Price and Samuel Stevens.
    Theo Price is an artist, writer, and curator of COBRA RES. His recent books include: The Right to be Forgotten, (Longhouse 2012,), COBRA 1.1 (ed, 2014), and COBRA 1.3 (ed, 2014). He is currently working on a new film and book documenting a series of conversations on aesthetics and emergency politics (funded by A:N.). Theo is Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London and American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Samuel Stevens is an artist and writer based in London. He is Visiting Lecturer and PhD researcher in Media and Fine Art at the University of Westminster. Stevens has exhibited work, commissions include Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network and the AHRC. Stevens was awarded the Jury Prize for Best False Fiction by Ann Arbor Film Festival in 2010. cobra-res.info

  • Esther Johnson (MA Royal College of Art) is an artist and filmmaker. Her work has been exhibited internationally in over 30 countries in galleries, art fairs, cinemas, festivals and on television and radio. Curatorial projects include Teenage Wildlife for Turner Contemporary, Margate; and screenings for ArtProjx and Curzon Soho, London; Site Gallery, Sheffield and Sheffield Institute of Arts. She is also former director and curator of Hull Film. In addition to her practice, Johnson is Senior Lecturer in Filmmaking at Sheffield Hallam University and in 2011 was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Performing and Visual Arts for young scholars. blanchepictures.com

  • Sheffield Fringe is an artist-led curatorial project dedicated to the collapsing notions of what constitutes the documentary form. It was initiated to explore the intersection of art & documentary practices, through screenings, talks, exhibitions and research. The project is headed by a collective of artists and filmmakers passionate about moving image works, which are personal, gutsy, occasionally seeking to make us uncomfortable, and often remaining unresolved. Our curatorial interest centers around works which are firmly rooted within fine art practice yet tentatively linked to the documentary tradition. We hope to invite conversations on the role of art and conceptual approaches in documentary practice.

  • Ghislaine Leung (b. 1980, Stockholm, Sweden) is an artist, writer and curator based in London, UK. She previously worked as Distribution Manager at LUX, London and Assistant Curator for Tate Film producing projects such as Expanded Cinema, the Baldesssari Frieze Oil Tank Commisssions and the Tate Live programme. Recent artistic projects include: October 12 – November 25, 2018, FRI ART, Fribourg; LABOUR, Schleuse, Vienna; VIOLETS, Netwerk, Aalst; Local Studies, Reading International, Reading; Acoustic Holographic Language, Bureau des Réalités, Brussels; Five Sculptures, ESSEX STREET, New York City (all 2018); The Moves, Cell Project Space, London (2017); 078746844, WIELS, Brussels (2016). Leung is a member of PUBLIKATIONEN + EDITIONEN. Her first collection of writings Partners was published by Cell Project Space in 2018 and her second publication with Divided is forthcoming in 2019. Forthcoming solo exhibitions include: ESSEX STREET, New York; and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (both 2019).

  • Jen Fearnley is a filmmaker based in London.

  • Jess Wilcox is Programs Manager at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, where she organizes public programs and has worked on the public artworks Between the Door and the Street, a performance initiated by Suzanne Lacy, and A Butterfly for Brooklyn, a pyrotechnic performance by Judy Chicago. She has worked on curatorial projects at Abrons Art Center, the International Studio and Curatorial Program, Performa, SculptureCenter, and Storm King Art Center, among others. Recurring interests of hers are translation, performativity, the choreographic, and personal and political identity. Brooklyn Museum

  • Mark Riddington is a Sheffield-based artist whose work approaches traditional processes and materials such as watercolour painting, plaster casting and pastel drawing and brings them into a contemporary context. Mark is Gallery Coordinator at BLOC Projects and a founding co-director of PRISM, a regular series of one-night-only contemporary art events. markriddington.co.uk

  • Martin Waldmeier is an art historian and curator.

  • November Paynter is the director of programs for Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Paynter previous roles include Associate Director of Research & Programs at SALT, Istanbul, Curator for Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, and Assistant Curator of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial. In 2003 Paynter was the first curator under the age of 30 to be recognized with the Premio Lorenza Bonaldi per l’Arte – EnterPrize award. In 2007 she took the temporary position of Consultant Curator at Tate Modern for the exhibition Global Cities. Notable curatorial projects include 0 – Now: Traversing West Asia for the Asia Pacific Triennial 7, Brisbane (2011).

  • Pınar Öğrenci (1973, Van) lives in Istanbul and Berlin. She is an artists and writer with a background in architecture. Her works have been exhibited widely at museums and art institutions including at 12th Gwangju Biennial (2018), 6th Athens Biennail (2018), Tensta Konsthall Stockholm (2018), Jewish Museum Hohenems (2018), Kunst Haus Wien- Hundertwasser Museum, 2017; Württembergischer Kunstverein (WKV) Stuttgart, 2017; the Istanbul off-site project for Sharjah Biennial13, 2017; Angewandte, Vienna, 2016; MAXXI Museum, Rome, 2015-6; SALT Galata, Istanbul, 2015-6;  De Las Fronteras Biennial, Tamaulipas, 2015 and Depo, Istanbul, 2014-8. Her first solo exhibition abroad was realized at Kunst Haus-Hundertwasser Museum in Vienna, A Gentle Breeze Passed Over Us” in 2017. She is the founder and organizer of MARSistanbul, an art initiative launched in 2010 and currently one of the fellows of District Berlin.

  • Richard Bartle is a Sheffield-based artist. Recent exhibitions include Bloc Assembly, Bloc Projects (2016); Deities at the bottom of the garden, 20/21 Gallery (2012); Blasphemy, Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin (2010), Jihlava Film Festival, Czech Republic (2010); Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival, Shorlisted ‘New Visions Award’, (2009); Pan-demonium, AC Institute, New York (2009); V22 presents: The Sculpture Show, London (2009). Richard is the Manager of BLOC Studios, of which he is a founding member. He was previously Director and Curator of BLOC Projects and a former Director of Sheffield Contemporary Arts Forum. richardbartle.co.uk

  • Tina Borkowski is an independent designer and art director specialising in print publication for arts and culture projects, and design communications for socially responsible organisations. Clients include: Fact Liverpool, Architectural Press Oxford, and The Lowry Manchester. tinaborkowski.com

  • Vali Mahlouji is a London-based curator, art advisor, writer, translator, and independent curatorial adviser to the British Museum on its modern/ contemporary Iranian collections. He is currently guest curator at Foam Museum of Photography in Amsterdam for the exhibition Kaveh Golestan – The Citadel and curator of the archival section Archaeology of the Final Decade at the upcoming exhibition Unedited History at Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. He has been published by the Asia Society Museum, New York; Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai; Darat al Funun, Amman; Sharjah Biennial, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; Delfina Foundation, London; the London Middle East Institute; City University of New York; and The Guardian. His theatrical playscript translations have been staged by the Royal Court Theatre, the Barbican Centre, Théâtre de la Bastille, La Colline, Paris, and Dublin Theatre Festival, and broadcast by the BBC. As an opera designer, he was recently resident designer with Bregenzer Festspiele and Grange Park Opera.

  • Esther Harris is a time-based media conservator based in London. She has occasionally made films, which have been shown at venues such as the Centre Pompidou, Walker Art Center, and festivals such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Esther has been involved with Sheffield Fringe since 2012; she selects programmes from the open call submissions and maintains the online archive.

  • Declan Long is Co-Director (with Francis Halsall) of the MA ‘Art in the Contemporary World’ and a lecturer in modern and contemporary art in the Faculty of Visual Culture. During 2013, he served as a member of the judging panel for the Turner Prize. He has published widely on contemporary art as a contributor to magazines and journals such as Artforum, Art Review, Source Photographic Review, Circa, Contemporary, a-n, and The Irish Review. Over recent years, he has been commissioned to write texts for numerous publications produced by galleries and museums. – See more

  • Gareth Evans is a writer, curator, presenter and the Film Curator of London’s Whitechapel Gallery. He programmes PLACE, the annual cross-platform festival at Aldeburgh Music in Suffolk and produced the essay film Patience (After Sebald) by Grant Gee as part of his nationwide arts project The Re-Enchantment (2008 – 2011) with Di Robson for Artevents. He has curated numerous film and event seasons (eg Armenia, JG Ballard, Portugal, Romany etc) in London and nationally. He conceived and curated the six week season John Berger: Here Is Where We Meet across London in 2005 and co-curated and co-ordinated All Power to the Imagination! 1968 and Its Legacies, a two month cross-media and multi-institutional season in London marking the 40th anniversary of the events of 1968. He was editor of the international moving image magazine Vertigo from 2002 – 2009. He is on the curatorial team of the Whitstable Biennale.

  • Mihaela Brebenel is a visual studies researcher and curator, interested in the politics and aesthetics of the audiovisual in artistic practices. She is currently Teaching Fellow at Winchester School of Art, where she is part of Archaeologies of Media and Technology research group. She has previously taught at Goldsmiths, University of London and University of Brighton. She is one of the co-organisers of Screen and Audiovisual Research Unit at Goldsmiths.

  • Nikolaus Perneczky is a writer, researcher and co-founder of curatorial collective The Canine Condition. He is currently undertaking doctoral studies at Goldsmiths, University of London; his PhD is concerned with the making, sharing and showing of technical moving images in countries newly emergent from colonial rule.

  • Shela Sheikh is a lecturer at the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, where she convenes the MA Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy. Prior to this, Sheikh was research fellow and publications coordinator on the ERC-funded “Forensic Architecture” project based in the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths. She is currently working on a book about the phenomenon of the “martyr video-testimony,” read through the lens of deconstruction; and a multi-platform research project around colonialism, botany, and the politics of the soil. As part of the latter, Sheikh is co-editing, with Ros Gray, a special issue of Third Text titled “The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions.”