Episode Summary: In this captivating episode, we journey with Tega Brain from her roots as an environmental engineer to her evolution into an art-tech visionary. Exploring the digital art landscape reshaped by AI and Machine Learning, she draws parallels with influential figures like Ian Cheng, Refik Anadol, and Elon Musk. Her works mirror the transformative power these technologies wield in creating unique artistic experiences, akin to what Trevor Paglen and Agnes Denes are known for. Amidst...

Episode Summary:Have you ever dreamed of seeing our planet Earth from above, stepping on the surface of the moon or travelling in time? In this episode we have the honour to speak with Andrea Vena, a Chief of Climate and Sustainability Officer at the European Space Agency. Mr. Vena tells us more about the era of new space economy and exploring further the solar system, meanwhile focusing on reaching and optimising the sustainable goal objectives. He shares with us about his sustainable role...

Episode Summary: On this World Whale Day we devote our episode to the Ocean - one of the most important places on our planet and home to thousand of different plant and animal species. The aquatic ecosystems make up 70.8 percent of the earth's surface and act as a buffer against many critical global issues including pollution and over-harvesting, it is a source of half of the oxygen we breathe. We have the pleasure to meet Markus Reymann, a Director of TBA21–Academy and an advocate for ocean...

Episode Summary: At ZG19 we believe that the New Year should start with revisiting our relationship with nature and our planet, because we ARE the planet, an integral part of our ecosystem. This is why our first episode in 2023 is dedicated to an acclaimed SuperNatural exhibition at the Eden Project, a cross-disciplinary cultural leader, that runs till 26 February. The show brings together a range of international artists, including Ai Weiwei, Kedisha Coakley, Iman Datoo, Patricia Domínguez,...

Episode Summary: Meanwhile patiently observing and exploring every single bit of the fascinating Unknown Unknowns. An Introduction to Mysteries exhibition at the 23rd International Exposition at Triennale Milano, curated by Ersilia Vaudo, we were mesmerised by an underwater robotic installation. In this episode we meet British bio artist Anna Dumitriu, who tells us more about the artwork ArcheaBot, reimagining what a post climate change life might be - a post singularity life-form. Based on a...

Episode Summary: 30 meters below earth there is a place where time stands still - the Ruinart chalk cellars, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Deep inside it, where once there used to be an ocean, we are confronted by the origin of our existence, returning back to the source. In this episode we are interviewing environmental artists Maya Mouawad and Cyril Laurier, known as Mouawad Laurier duo, on the occasion of their sustainable installation commissioned by Maison Ruinart, Retour Aux...

Episode Summary: The first episode of our novel season The New Leviathan, that is grounded in many conversations capturing this moment of history, with its focal point on the relationship between individuals and technologies, is an intimate chat with three curators of the E-WERK Luckenwalde — Helen Turner, Adriana Tranca and Katharina Worf. The all women curatorial team of the world’s first renewable energy art institution is taking our co-founder and curator Farah Piriye on a journey to a...

Episode Summary:In this episode our co-founder Elizabeth Zhivkova meets Cora Sheibani - a Swiss-born, London-based jewellery designer and a core member of GemX socio-club. A dialogue between two jewellery enthusiasts and creators, a gaze into the future of jewellery design through the lens of sustainability and ethical sourcing, one of the biggest challenges in the sector nowadays. Totally devoid of cliches, Cora's one-off unique jewels transcendent our expectations unfolding a story to be...

Episode Summary:In this episode we are interviewing Scottish artist Katie Paterson, on the occasion of the biggest iteration to date of Future Library project in Oslo, and one of her most political works to date, Requiem, which opened in Edinburgh in April. Katie explains: “I’ve always made artworks that deal with nature and time and climate, but this is the first that isn’t afraid to be political and confrontational... It is both celebratory and mythical, and yet it is also the saddest work...

Episode Summary:In today’s episode we are diving into the inspiring world of Dr. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. Named "One to Watch" by the Financial Times and voted a Future 50 by Icon Magazine, this Cambridge University and Royal College of Art graduate makes artworks that explore our fraught relationships with nature and technology. Through artworks, writing, and curatorial projects, Ginsberg’s work explores subjects as diverse as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, conservation, and...

Episode Summary:’Freedom is not a secret. It’s practice’, says our next guest speaker Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist… whose work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice.” In this intimate and candid conversation we dive into the poetical worlds of philosophy, Black feminism, and the concepts of mothering and daughtering with an invisible labor based behind the two. Today we ask Alexis her thoughts about the...

Episode Summary:Preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity is an ongoing process that requires sustained effort over time to build the resilience of societies to atrocity crimes. In today’s episode we meet Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, an Associate Professor of Clinical Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, to speak about her focus on human rights, public health, and atrocity prevention, slavery and the slave trade, indigenous rights, and human rights...

Episode Summary:This February we have the honour to meet one of India's best conservation and environmental journalists Swati Thiyagarajan. Swati delves into what makes a good documentary film, tells us more about her role in the Oscar-wining documentary My Octopus Teacher and shares the most urgent pressing issues related to biodiversity loss. We merge with her to the wild and the wilderness, to community based models of fighting the challenges of the environment and the human spirit. Swati...

Episode Summary:In this episode our co-founder Elizabeth speaks with Svein Tveitdal - a climate expert and activist, former UN Environmental Director and founder of Klima2020. The conversation raises a red alert on the environmental catastrophe and encourages a better more eco-responsible future. Mr. Tveitdal shares effective and quick ways of tackling climate change and his thoughts on the strong role and impact of young people on environmental policy. “If we had listened to scientists 30...

Episode Summary:The current episode is co-hosted with Simon Butler, an artist, curator and founder of MigrateArt, an art charity that helps those impacted by the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time. In the current episode we meet a Myanmar-born graffiti artist Bart Was Not Here, who creates a body of work full of escapism and dry humour by mixing text and imagery from Burmese and global pop culture. In this candid conversation we talk about Bart’s artistic journey from discovering...

Episode Summary:With the start of our new season we have the pleasure to meet the legendary American experimental theatre stage director, playwright and visual artist - Robert (Bob) Wilson just after turning 80, during his directing of Shakespeare's The Tempest at Sofia's National Theatre. Wilson tell us why 'speaking' Shakespeare is different, what makes a great actor and how he merges his senses with various shapes of expression, hearing the space and silence. He shares about his inspiring...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 hisvision on the future of virtual and in-person art fairs inpost-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 forcommunity engagement, meanwhile giving visibility to independent andemerging artists - a...

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...

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...

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...