ZEITGEIST19 Curated Podcast

Episode Summary:

The current episode is co-hosted with our former guest speaker Simon Butler, a curator, artist and founder of MigrateArt, a platform that helps those impacted by the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time. Together we meet Ken Nwadiogby, a Nigerian artist whose artistic research is focused on gender equality, African culture, and Black power. Ken was named by Guardian Life as one of the most “Outstanding Personalities of 2019” in recognition of his contributions to the Nigerian arts community.

In this candid conversation we discuss how Ken is utilising his practice as a tool for social change, raising awareness of such themes as racism, police brutality, sexism, xenophobia and more. Ken shares his thoughts on cultural revolution, how to respond back to society when it speaks to us, what it means to be a Nigerian artist in today’s climate and how Contemporealism, a new method of visual communication coined by the artist himself, was born.

The Speaker:

Ken Nwadiogbu (b. 1994, Lagos, Nigeria) is a visual artist who creates innovative conceptual drawings on various surfaces as he engages in multidisciplinary modes of storytelling. Nwadiogbu earned a B.Sc. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. His interest in art, as well as his career began while he earned his degree despite no formal training. Inspired by issues relating to him and those around, he began creating works that reflect the everyday struggles of people, with the hopes of making a change in his community. Popularly known as KenArt, Nwadiogbu is credited for introducing the “Contemporealism” movement and is constantly revitalising his practice by challenging modes of Black representation. A core focus for Nwadiogbu is to inspire and encourage young creatives. He does this through public speaking and mentorship, as well as through his creative companies; Artland Contemporary Limited and KINGS Management. He nurtures an art collective called ‘Title Deed’ and co-found Artists Connect NG, the largest artist gathering in Nigeria, created to foster creativity, collaboration and community.

Follow Ken's journey on Instagram

The Co-Host:

Simon Butler is a curator, social entrepreneur and artist based in London. He founded Migrate Art in 2016 after visiting the Calais Jungle refugee camp in France for the first time. This poignant experience inspired him to use his years of experience in the art world to help those impacted by the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time. To date, Migrate Art has raised over £550,000, helped thousands of people across Europe and the Middle East and worked with some of the world's leading artists including Anish Kapoor, Mona Hatoum, Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread and Raqib Shaw.

Host: Farah Piriye, ZEITGEIST19 Foundation

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Episode Summary:

In this episode, co-hosted with Kiana Talebpour (creative director of Md'A Design Agency), we get a chance to chat with the most incredible Newsha Tavakolian, an Iranian photographer who has dedicated her life and career to empowering those who need to be heard by documenting the underrepresented stories. Her powerful work reflects on realism and morality, on social injustice and exploitation, on gender inequality and violence. As she advocates for human rights, female voices in oppressed environments and covering wars, challenging conflicts and crises around the world, we ask how she sees her camera as a tool for social change. As well as how being an Iranian has affected her path as a female photographer and what does it mean to her to bring into the world’s attention the turbulent realities of her region and beyond.

The Speaker:

Newsha Tavakolian is known for her powerful work covering wars in Iraq and social issues in her native Iran. With clarity and sensitivity, Tavakolian has photographed female guerilla fighters in Iraqi Kurdistan, Syria and Colombia, prohibited Iranian female singers and the lives of people living under sanctions. Over the years, her practice has shifted from photojournalism to photography as art. Her work has been published in international magazines and newspapers such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Stern, Le Figaro, Colors, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, NRC Handelsblad, The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. Tavakolian became a Magnum nominee in 2015 and an associate in 2017.

Follow Newsha's journey on Instagram

Hosts: Farah Piriye (ZG19) & Kiana Talebpour (Md'A Design Agency)

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Episode Summary:

Following our crucial episode “On the Art of Scars & Erased History” with the British artist and sculptor Piers Secunda, structured around the idea of art as a social vehicle that shifts conversations on diplomatic arena and Secunda’s body of work that is focusing on the iconoclastic acts of the extremist groups, we dive deeper into the topic to further discuss the questions of greatest concern related to the destruction of culture, restitution of museum objects and the market for looted artefacts. Secunda shares with us his invaluable knowledge and experience in the field, an artist whose practice examines the deliberate targeting of culture in war time, by moulding damage from war zones and the sites of historic conflicts to make artworks and raise awareness.

The speaker:

Piers Secunda was born in London in 1976 and studied painting at Chelsea College of Art in London. Secunda has developed a studio practice using paint in a sculptural manner, rejecting the limitations imposed by the canvas. His intensive research based practice examines the deliberate targeting of culture in war time, by moulding damage from war zones and the sites of historic conflicts to make works. And using crude oil as a printing medium, to examine energy history through post industrial revolution developments, both cultural and technological, which define our world today.

Host:

Farah Piriye

Follow Piers Secunda's journey on Instagram

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Episode Summary:

In this episode our host Elizabeth Zhivkova and co-host Kiana Talebpour (Md'A) meet the Italian visual artist Patrick Tuttofuoco. Patrick details the origin of his approach and shares about the quiet moment where visitors can experience the simple yet profound emotions that can be stirred when encountering beauty in ways by transforming the environment. He offers thoughts on how we can navigate the coronavirus pandemic and our creativity with courage, hope and empathy. Patrick talks about his inner energy flow and source of inspiration and shows how we can take advantage of being creative at this unique moment of social distancing.

This virtual conversation is part of the ZEITGEIST19 series hosted in collaboration with Md'A Design Agency.

The Speaker:

Patrick Tuttofuoco is an Italian visual artist who ives and works in Milan. Tuttofuoco’s practice is conceived as a dialogue between individuals and their ability to transform the environment they inhabit, by exploring notions of community and social integration in order to combine immediate sensorial allure with the power to trigger profound theoretical responses. Tuttofuoco melds Modernism and Pop; he presses figuration into abstraction, using man as the paradigm of existence, as the matrix and measuring unit of reality. From this interpretative and cognitive process, infinite versions of man and the context of his existence are produced, from which shapes able to animate the sculptures are generated.

Patrick Tuttofuoco participated in the 50th Venice Biennale (2003), Manifesta 5 (2004), the 6th Shanghai Biennale (2006) and the 10th Havana Biennal (2009). His works has been exhibited in several institutions such as Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2006), the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2008) and Casa Italia, Pyeongchang (2018). In 2017 it was selected by the Italian Council announcement with the ZERO project presented in Rimini, Berlin and Bologna (2018).

Follow Patrick's journey on Instagram

Hosts: Elizabeth Zhivkova (ZG19) & Kiana Talebpour (Md'A Design Agency)

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Episode Summary:

Today we meet the founder of The Other Art Fair, Ryan Stanier. We talk to him about the inception of his unique platform and his vision on the future of virtual and in-person art fairs in post-pandemic times. Ryan’s deliberate, still deeply intuitiveapproach of looking for 'the next big thing' is present in everythinghe does. He advocates for breaking the walls of the art market and for community engagement, meanwhile giving visibility to independent and emerging artists - a central part of the concept of his new age art fair. Held globally in various cities including LA, London, Syndney, New York, Melbourne and others, The Other Art Fair is an inspiring venture showcasing new talent in disruptive ways, allowing the culture lover to enjoy art differently.

The Speaker:

Ryan Stanier is a British entrepreneur that started The Other Art Fair in 2011, after launching London's Artbeat in 2010, a commercial gallery space for emerging artists. Since then the fair has worked with over 3,000 artists from across 20 countries. In response to COVID-19, Stanier launched a new platform The Other Art Fair Online Studios with their partner Saatchi Art, showcasing all the exhibitors who were originally going to be featured in the spring fairs.

Follow Ryan Stanier's Journey.

Follow The Other Art Fair on Instagram and Twitter.

Hosts: Farah Piriye & Elizabeth Zhivkova

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Episode Summary:

In today's episode we meet Giovanni de Niederhäusern, a Senior Vice President of Pininfarina's Architecture unit. Giovanni shares with us his journey from managing various projects in the fields of design and architecture to becoming one of the driving forces behind Italy's legendary design and engineering company. Giovanni decodes Pininfarina's visionary architecture equation that is beauty + technology = impact, speaks about architecture at the forefront of environmental sustainability, and reveals the firm's fundamental protocol for social impact consisting of three pillars - 'additional', 'intentional' and 'measurable'. Listen to our episode co-hosted with the designer, engineer and a creative director of Milan's Md'A Design Agency - Kiana Talebpour.

The Speaker:

Starting from his days in academia, with an engineering and architecture degree in 2008, and in prominent professional experiences before and after (MIT Senseable City Lab as Research Affilate, 2009; and Carlo Ratti Associati, initially as designer and PM and then as CEO in 2017), Giovanni’s views on melding innovation with design and architecture have been the leitmotiv which also has brought into Pininfarina, after being appointed Senior Vice President of Architecture in 2019.His research work and proximity to Academic Institutions, as lecturer and speaker, allows him to drive his team to be at the forefront of architectural innovation.With a business approach honed by his international project management experience and an MBA in 2014, Giovanni is at the helm of the Architecture division to expand the company’s range of activities in design and architecture, reinterpreting the company’s philosophy and proposing a new perspective that equates impact with the combination of beauty and technology.

Hosts: Farah Piriye (ZG19) & Kiana Talebpour (Md'A Design Agency)

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Episode Summary:

On this International Women's Day, in the current global contexts of open conflicts, instability and violence, our co-founder Elizabeth has a candid conversation with security and humanitarian expert Prof. Benedetta Berti - the Head of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO. After spending over a decade researching non-state armed groups, Prof. Berti speaks about the issues of addressing the many layers of security and offers new approaches to better understand and tackle modern conflict. Focusing her work on the world's most complex disputes - from Syria, to Iraq, to Gaza and many others - Prof. Berti reveals the hidden sides of crime and terrorism, their financing and execution and analyses the possibilities for building resilient and peaceful communities.

The Speaker:

Prof. Benedetta Berti is the Head of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO. An Eisenhower Global Fellow and a TED Senior Fellow, Benedetta is also Associate Researcher at the Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussels and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. In the past, she has held teaching and research positions at West Point, the Institute for National Security Studies and Tel Aviv University, among others. Her research focuses on armed groups, internal wars, and protection of civilians. Prof. Berti is the author of four books, including "Armed Political Organizations. From Conflict to Integration" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013) and her work and research have appeared, among others, in Al-Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, the National Interest, the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times; as well as in academic journals including Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Parameters, the Middle East Journal, ORBIS, Democratization, Civil Wars, Government & Opposition and Mediterranean Politics. Her work and research have been awarded numerous awards, grants and fellowships, including the World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship, the Horowitz Foundation Grant, the Lady Davis Fellowship, the Bradley Foundation Fellowship, the Morris Abrams Award in International Relations, the Rosenthal Fellowship and the International Center for Non-Violent Conflict Curriculum Fellowship. In 2015, the Italian government awarded her the Order of the Star of Italy (order of Knighthood).

Follow Benedetta Berti's Journey on Twitter.

Host: Elizabeth Zhivkova

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Episode Summary:

This candid conversation with Saeed Taji Farouky, an award-winning filmmaker specialising in long-term human rights projects and social justice, made me think of Andrei Tarkovsky’s vision on cinema - an instrument of art equal to prose. Today, we discussed everything from the authenticity of the crafted narrative to the ethical decisions that Saeed had to make while filming I See the Stars at Noon, the misrepresentation of the Arab world by the Western Media to how his practice dynamically communicates underrepresented stories such as that of Tell Spring Not to Come This Year, the dilemmas of information ownership and neo-colonialism to understanding the role of a documentary filmmaker in and outside the film.

The Speaker:

Saeed Taji Farouky is a Palestinian-British award-winning filmmaker and artist who has been producing work around themes of conflict, human rights and colonialism since 1998. His 2015 documentary Tell Spring Not to Come This Year won the Amnesty International Award and the Audience Choice Panorama Award at Berlinale ’15. In 2011, he was named a Senior TED Fellow, and he was previously named Artist-In-Residence at the British Museum and Tate Britain. He has been a regular human rights speaker and educator with Amnesty International for 10 years and has been teaching filmmaking and cinematography since 2009.

Follow Saeed's Journey on Twitter.

Host: Farah Piriye

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Episode Summary:

In this episode our co-founder Elizabeth Zhivkova meets innovation policy expert Padmashree Gehl Sampath, who describes technology as a 'tool of change' during their conversation on the importance of technological innovation. Living in a digitalized world, Padmashree shares her thoughts on the new reality, the strategic means for national digital development and her leading concerns about it. Throughout discussing interventions for positive change, Padmashree stresses on the adaptation of renewables in the long race of achieving net-zero footprint, and why the future of our world depends on it.

The Speaker:

Padmashree Gehl Sampath is a leading expert on trade policy, innovation policy and economic development. She has worked at the United Nations and is an Adjunct Professor at Harvard. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Aalborg, Denmark and a Professorial Fellow at the United Nations University-MERIT. Most recently, she served as Head-Policy of the International Renewable Energy Agency. Padmashree is the author of several books and journal publications.

Follow Padmashree's Journey on Twitter.

Host: Elizabeth Zhivkova

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Episode Summary:

In this episode we meet management science researcher Wanyi Li, with who we discuss the destruction of the natural world and dealing with the enormity of the problem. Living in times, in which our planet is facing a ghastly future of mass extinction and climate-disruption upheavals, Wanyi shares with us her vision on far-reaching changes for acknowledging and preventing the continuity of biodiversity loss and soil degradation and handling our ecosystem with care, mainly through small everyday environmental conservation oriented actions and meaningful human interventions such as the practice of afforestation.

The Speaker:

Wanyi Li is a Ph.D. candidate in operations management at Stanford University Department of Management Science and Engineering. She studies market design for environmental sustainability. In particular, she builds theoretical frameworks for contracts and incentive schemes for Payment for Ecosystem Services programs. She is a recipient of the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship. Prior to Stanford, she received her B.A. in Physics from Wellesley College and grew up in Xuzhou, China. She also co-leads the Mechanism Design for Social Good initiative, as well as the MD4SG Environment/Climate working group.

Hosts: Farah Piriye & Elizabeth Zhivkova

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For sponsorship enquiries, comments, ideas and collaborations, email us at [email protected] Follow us on Instagram and Twitter