From Places to Traces

Carmen Herold studied Cultural Studies, East Asian Studies, and Postcolonial Studies in Berlin, Beijing, and New York. From 2015 to 2018, she worked at the Goethe-Institut Beijing, curating and coordinating cultural projects. She co-founded the music club Zhao Dai and later the festival Zhao Dai on Leave. She has worked as a writer and speaker, held roles at the Goethe-Instituts in Munich and Brussels, and has led the Goethe-Institut in Exile since September 2024.

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Anna Karpenko was born in Minsk (Belarus) and currently lives in Berlin and Leipzig (Germany). She is a curator and author. Karpenko studied Philosophy at Belarusian State University (Minsk), Visual Studies at European Humanities University (Vilnius), and Curatorial Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts (Leipzig). Additionally, she is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). As a curator, she has organized exhibitions and research projects with Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe), Museum of Contemporary Art, GfZK (Leipzig), Halle 14 (Leipzig), Muzeum Sztuki (Lodz), Gallery Arsenal (Bialystok), Labirynth Gallery (Lublin), Future Laboratory (Luxembourg) and others. As an author, her texts have been published in Springerin magazine, BLOCK magazine, Dwutygodnik, RTV magazine, Magazyn SZUM, Kulturaustausch magazine, and Berlin Art Link.

As an interdisciplinary artist, author and stage designer, Reihaneh Mehrad's practice operates at the interface of spatial strategies and artistic research, with a particular focus on the significance of trans-communal processes. She understands scenography as a methodological tool for critically negotiating socio-political events and making them tangible. Through spatial-visual design elements, she examines the complex effects of systematic, post-colonial and imperial relations of violence, theological implantations and proxies of contact. She is currently working on a collectively developed film/text project on the subject of “Queer Communities of Strategy / Queer Communities of Survival”, which involves research into the body and archives.

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Maik Müller is head of the Martin Roth-Initiative. Before this role he worked for ten years in the human rights sector, especially on the issue of protection and support for human rights defenders at risk. He holds a Master's degree in Latin American Regional Studies as well as a post-graduate diploma in psycho-social intervention in situations of political violence and catastrophes. As certificated professional mediator and coach with over ten years leadership experience working with people from repressive contexts he contributes to counter impacts of repression.

Nicole Vögele is a filmmaker and investigative journalist. She lives and works between Zurich, Berlin, and Dresden. As a journalist, she has been focusing on the EU’s external borders for years. She has been part of several major international investigations that exposed the systematic pushback practices of the Croatian police. As a filmmaker, Nicole Vögele explores the world through essayistic documentary films. Her films have been screened and awarded at various international festivals. The Landscape and the Fury (2024) was nominated for both the European and the Swiss Film Awards and won, among others, the Doc Alliance Award. Since 2021, Nicole Vögele has been a professor of moving image at the HfBK Dresden, where she also works closely with MRI fellows.