Ernst van Alphen is professor emeritus at Leiden University. His many publications include the following books: Francis Bacon and the Loss of Self (1992), Caught by History: Holocaust Effects in Contemporary Art, Literature and Theory (1997), Staging the Archive: Art and Photography in Times of New Media (2014, also translated into Spanish), Failed Images. Photography and Its Counter-Practices (2019; also translated into Spanish), Seven Logics of Sculpture (2022), Productive Archiving: Artistic Strategies, Future Memories, and Fluid Identities (in press).

Beatrice von Bismarck is professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the Academy of Fine Arts (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst) Leipzig, where she also teaches visual culture and cultures of the curatorial. Previously, she worked as a curator in the department of 20th-century art at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt and taught at the Leuphana University in Lüneburg, where she was co-founder and co-director of the Kunstraum. In Leipzig, she was initiator of the MA program Cultures of the Curatorial, which began in autumn 2009. She also co-conceived and co-directed the 5th Moscow Curatorial Summer School (2016) and the itinerant TRANScuratorial Academy, which toured from Berlin to Mumbai and Phnom Penh in 2017-2018. In 2018 she was Philippe Jabre Visiting Professor of Art History and Curating at the American University of Beirut. For her research project on the “Curatorial” she was awarded the Opus Magnum Fellowship of the Volkswagen Stiftung, Hannover (2015-2017).

Publications include Cultures of the Curatorial (ed. with Jörn Schafaff and Thomas Weski), 2012; Timing - On the Temporal Dimension of Exhibiting (ed. with Rike Frank, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer, Jörn Schafaff, and Thomas Weski), 2014; Hospitality - Hosting Relations in Exhibitions, (ed. with Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer), 2016 (all Sternberg Press, Berlin); Now–Tomorrow–Flux: An Anthology on the Museum of Contemporary Art (ed. with Heike Munder and Peter J. Schneemann), JRP|Ringier, Zurich 2017; Curatorial Things (ed. with Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer), Berlin 2019, and O(f)f Our Times: Curatorial Anachronics, (ed. with Rike Frank), Sternberg Press, Berlin 2019. She has just edited the volume "Archives on Show. Revoicing, Shapeshifting, Displacing - A Curatorial Glossary, 2022 (Archive Books, Berlin) and her monograph, "The Curatorial Condition", came out in 2022 (Sternberg Press, London).

Pilar Cuerva She has a degree in Geography and History (UNED, 1999), a Master’s in Strategic Knowledge and Information Management in Organizations (GEICO), a Higher Diploma in Archival and Records management (ESAGED), a Post-graduate degree in Electronic Records Management (ESAGED-UAB), a Post-graduate degree in New Trends in Information management (UJI) and a diploma of Specialist Higher Studies in Comparative, Social, political and Cultural History and in Research Aptitude (UAB).

On a professional level, she was the promoter and director of the Information Management Project (GIM) and the Information Resources coordinator (RIM) of the Museu Marítim in Barcelona (2010-2018), and the manager of that institution’s archive (2007-2018).

She has coordinated the biennial Jornada de museus, gestió documental i arxiu (2008-2018) and the symposium El repertorio iconográfico [de Arte] de España (2022): La aventura de documentar el patrimonio. She has been a teacher on courses related to archivistics and records management and has taken part in discussion panels and as a speaker in various archive, library and museum forums, such as the Congrés d’Arxivística de Catalunya (2013), the Jornades Catalanes d’Informació i Documentació (2018), and Encuentros de Centros de Documentación de Arte Contemporáneo (2016 and 2022), among others.

Michael Karabinos is a lecturer of Archival and Information Studies at the University of Amsterdam with a research focus on colonial, seized and displaced archives. He received his PhD from the Leiden University Institute for History. From 2016-2019 he was a Deviant Practice research fellow at the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, the Netherlands), where he has developed and curated exhibitions on the museum’s colonial roots using archival material. He is currently a member of the Collecting Otherwise working group at Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and is involved with various archival projects with the museum’s National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. His work has been published in the book Displaced Archives as well as the journals Information & Culture, and Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde and Archival Science, among others. He is co-editor of the book Colonial Legacy in Southeast Asia: The Dutch Archives.

Laura Millar has worked as a consultant for nearly 40 years, in the fields of records, archives, and information management; education and training; and editing, writing, and publishing. She received her Master of Archival Studies degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada, in 1984, and her PhD in Archive Studies from University College London in 1996.

Laura has consulted with governments in such diverse countries as Canada, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Hong Kong and Ghana, and she has worked with universities, colleges and other educational institutions in Canada and internationally. She has also provided consulting services to churches, non-profit organizations, First Nations governments, international associations and other agencies. She was the Managing Editor for the International Records Management Trust, writing and developing a series of training resources on records and archives management, completed in 1999, and she oversaw development of a second series on electronic records management, completed in 2009.

Laura taught for many years in the fields of records and archives management and editing and is the author of dozens of publications and presentations on various topics related to records, archives, editing and education. Her books include The Story Behind the Book: Preserving Authors’ and Publishers’ Archives, (CCSP Press, 2009) and Archives: Principles and Practices (Facet, 2010, rev. ed. 2017). She received the Society of American Archivists’ Waldo Gifford Leland Award in 2011 for Archives: Principles and Practices, for ‘writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice.’ .

Debora Rossi Graduated in Law from the University of Padua and PhD in Roman and Classical Law. Following her legal traineeship at the Avvocatura Distrettuale dello Stato in Venice, she became a member of the Venice Bar Association - Albo degli Avvocati di Venezia – Elenco speciale degli Avvocati degli Enti.

She is currently Managing Director of Human Resources, Legal and Institutional Affairs at La Biennale di Venezia, as well as Deputy Director General of the institution. She is also Head of the Historical Archives of La Biennale di Venezia– ASAC.

She has worked at La Biennale since 1996, first as the Legal Office Manager, supervising the planning and management of the legal affairs, contracts and in-house procedures within La Biennale di Venezia Foundation, and in particular within its specific departments: Arts, Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Music, Theatre and the Historical Archives (ASAC).

Since 2009 she has been the Executive Manager for the reorganization and enhancement of the collections of the Historical Archives. As the Head of the Historical Archives, she is also responsible for the project to create the International Centre for Research on the Contemporary Arts at the same archive. She has worked as an assistant professor for the chairs of Roman Law Institutions and History of Roman Law. She is the author of many articles on specialized topics and on public contracts. From 2016 to 2019, she was a member of the Board of Ales SpA

Catarina Simão (b. 1972 in Lisbon) ) is a Portuguese artist living and working between Portugal and Mozambique.

Simão’s practice is built upon long-term research projects that entail collaborative partnerships and different forms of presentation to the public. Heavily influenced by the narratives of history, Simão started in 2009 a strong connection with Mozambique and its institutional memory. Her research on the Mozambique's Liberation Struggle resulted in videos and installations that resort to a re-appropriation of photography, documentation and film footage, creating pieces such as These Are the Weapons (2012), Mueda 79 (2013), Effects of Wording (2014) and Ntimbe Caetano (2016). Simão's work is shown internationally since 2009, namely at Serralves Museum, Manifesta 8, Reina Sofia Museum, Ashkal Alwan, New Museum, Kiev School, EVA International, transit Gallery, Garage Museum, 17 Istanbul Biennial, Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, among others.

In her solo exhibition R-Humor (Galeria Av. Da Índia, 2020, Lisbon), Simão approached the silencing and suspension of information, such as censorship and humour, appearing as a form of relation in the face of the incompleteness of the archive. She is currently developing in Lamego, Portugal, the Sala Colonial project (2021-2023) upon invitation of Lamego Museum and Escola Secundária de Latino Coelho; within this project, Simão pedagogically examines the resistance of the colonial archive in conceiving the very idea of representation in its link to violence, in view of its dominant tradition and routines. In Mozambique, the artist develops her intervention in a social context through collaboration with civil associations and institutions such as the National Film Institute (INICC) and Centro de Estudos Africanos of Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. She codirected a film for Mozambican TV called Djambo in 2016, and in 2019, she co-organized with Oficina de História (Mozambique) the 1st Seminar on Restitution of Cultural Heritage to Mozambique (CCFM, May 2019)