Thank you for visiting Transcultural Collaboration.
We keep you constantly informed here about latest activities from this year’s program.
Are you interested in what happened last year? Please have a look in our Archive.

Andreas Mayer was born in 1987 and growth up in St. Gallen. From 2006 to 2009 he studied scenographcal design at the ZHdK headed by Prof. Manuel Fabritz. After his graduation he start to work at Stadttheater St. Gallen, Stadtheater Klagenfurt, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Staatstheater Stuttgart (Schauspiel) and Konzert Theater Bern as a freelance stage design assistant and as a stagedesigner in drama, contemporary dance, musical, opera and youth theatre. In 2015 he started his study in MA – Theatre/Stage Design at ZHdK headed by Prof. Michael Simon and also visited with his MA-class the NACTA (National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts) in Beijing.  

Gerhard Johann Lischka Artist/Philosopher Born in Muntlix, Austria. Studied in Berne (Switzerland) und Munich (Germany). Since 1969 actions, exhibitions, radio- and tv-programs, lot’s of lectureship. Books: Splitter. Ästhetik 1993. Alles jetzt! Die Mediatisierung 2003. SuperSurFace. 2008 Denkstoff. Dichte Gedanken 2013 DVD Reality Check, mental clips 2009 Exhibition GJL. Present Mind ZKM Karlsruhe 2014      

Dimitri de Perrot Musician/Composer/Director/Stage Designer, Zurich Dimitri de Perrot’s is a Swiss artist, his work links music, composition, directing and scenography. He staged different theater and music projects, composed for film and theater. He is co-founder and artistic director of the highly renowned Swiss theatre duo Zimmermann & de Perrot with a wide international reputation. His work was shown in prestigious venues like New York’s BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), the Festival d’Avignon, the Barbican in London, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris or the Sidney Opera House and was revarded by several internationl prices. For more information please visit: www.zimmermanndeperrot.com      

Nuria Krämer Multimedia artist/Scenographer/Curator, Head of Connecting Space Hong Kong Nuria Krämer studied Multimedia with a focus on visual interactive art at the Centre de la Imatge i Tecnologia Multimedia, Politechnic University of Catalunya. She has since then been working in the audio-visual sector as an art director in advertising and as art director assistant, set decorator, artistic consultant in different international TV and movie productions. In the year 2009 she moved to Zurich, where she graduated in the MA in Transdisciplinary in the Arts and pursued a Certificate in Advanced Studies in Research in Artisitic Universities as well at the Zurich University of the Arts. Since 2011 she has been collaborating with FOA-FLUX (www.foa-flux.net) in various artistic research projects as a research associate investigating the functions of art in a global context. Her interests focus on collaborative and transcultural artistic practices in the field of audio-visual arts. At present she is in charge of the development in Hong Kong of the transcultural platform for artistic collaboration Connecting Spaces Hong Kong – Zurich, an initiative …

Acty Tang Performer/Director, HK Academy for Performing Arts Acty Tang is an interdisciplinary arts practitioner. While mainly working in physical theatre, he is also involved in dance and choreography, site-specific performances, devised theatre and video dance, having creating over 20 pieces in various genres. He has a Master of Arts degree in Drama at Rhodes University, South Africa. Acty was the winner of the Young Artist Award for Dance at the South African National Arts Festival in 2007. For over a decade he worked with the First Physical Theatre Company, and had also worked on projects with director Brett Bailey (South Africa) and choreographer John Allen (USA). In recent years in Hong Kong, Acty performed in contemporary dance works with Y-Space, a butoh work with Katsura Kan, dramas “Western Xia Hotel” and “White Blaze of the Morning” with Yan Pat To, and short film “Nothing’s Gonna Change My World” by Trista Ma which was an award winner at Hong Kong’s Fresh Wave Short Film Festival in 2013. Acty is currently teaching theatre theory, contemporary performance …

Katja Gläss Photographer & Research Associate, ZHdK Katja Gläss (*1979, Germany) lives and works in Zurich. She studied Photography and Media (Dipl.Des.) at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany, before also completing her MA in Transdisciplinary Studies at the Zurich University of the Arts. For over ten years, she has worked as freelance photographer in advertising in both Frankfurt am Main and Zurich, having also worked as gallery assistant and as a freelance photo editor. In her freelance works, which have been shown in various group exhibitions, she investigates conceptual- and documentary-based strategies in contemporary photography. She was part of the exhibition team of the group show prepositions at the Villa Sondheimer in Frankfurt am Main in 2007, and the exhibition project Jewish in Today’s Germany at the University of Bielefeld between 2005-08. Since 2013, she is working as a research associate in both MA in Transdisciplinary Studies and Department of Cultural Analysis at Zurich University of the Arts, where she was also responsible for organizing the ZHdK Lecture Series on Global Culture until 2015. Katja Gläss is …

Bitten Stetter Fashion Designer/Professor and Head of MA Design (Programs Trends and Event), ZHdK Bitten Stetter is a qualified fashion designer and works as a freelance designer since 1999. Since 2000, she leads the international fashion label Bitten Stetter & concept. The label Bitten Stetter is more than a classical fashion label. The collections are the creation of little stories – each piece of the collection plays  its role, sometimes as a main character, sometimes as a supporting act, but certainly always with a special appearance. Numerous publications in relevant journals, awards of art and business, international sales and productions are one of the secrets for the success of her label. The focus of her work lies in the analysis of social changes in context of trends and design. The output of these surveillance is expressed on two different layers, an investigative and artistical output. The visual spell is transmitted with the tools storytelling, staging, styling and design. 
As a freelance designer, concept developer and trend expert, she works with clients in the fashion industry, creative industries and various cultural …

Simon Dietersdorfer Actor/Musician works as composer and actor for film and theatre. He was born 1984 in Vienna, Austria where he went to acting school, from which he graduated in 2008. After several years as a member of the „Theater in der Josefstadt“, Simon decided to continue to work as a freelancer. Focussing more and more on the combination of performance and composition on stage he entered the Master’s Programm „Composition for Film, Theatre and Media“(ZHdk), which he finished in 2016. Besides performing and producing on his own, transdisciplinary and cross-cultural cooperation with artists having different backgrounds, is one of Simons main interests. The core area of his music lies in the combination of electronic, sampled sound with acoustic intrument and human voice. As composer, producer and performer he appears under the pseudonym „cimonfinix“. Simon Dietersdorfer took part in „Common Stage 2014“ as well as the Semester Programm „Transcultural Collaboration“ in Hong Kong.      

Zhao Chuan Writer/Curator/Theater Director, Shanghai Zhao Chuan is a writer, curator and theatre director, who creates alternative, political theatre in Shanghai. He is the founding member and mastermind of the important Chinese theatre collective Grass Stage since 2005. Grass Stage events made use of a wide range of venues and situations for performances and discussions, are not only spaces for bringing together diverse elements of society, but also provide, in a country relatively lacking in opportunities for public participation, a fluid and varied range of public social spaces. His theatre works were performed in many Chinese cities as well as in outside of China. He has been awarded several international literature awards, including the Unita Prize for New Novelists (Taiwan 2001). His recent publications include: On Radical Art: the 80s Scene in Shanghai (author, Shanghai Sanlian Bookshop Publishing 2014, won Nomination Award in art publications from 9th Award of Art China 2015), The Body At Stake: Experiments in Chinese Contemporary Art and Theatre (co-editor, author, Transcript 2013)      

Kingsley Ng Artist, Head of MA Craft & Design, HK Baptist U/Academy of Visual Arts Ng has received postgraduate training at Le Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts in France under the tutelage of renowned artists including Alain Fleischer, Andrea Cera, Atau Tanaka and Gary Hill and graduated with the highest honours (les felicitation du jury à l’unanimité). He continued his studies with an MSc Sustainable Design degree from the University of Edinburgh in the UK and a BFA New Media Art degree from the Ryerson University in Canada. Ng’s works have been featured in notable exhibitions and international venues. Examples include the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Rome Italy, Guangzhou Triennial in China, Land Art Biennial in Mongolia, Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan, IRCAM – Centre Pompidou in France, Museum of Contemporary Art Rome in Italy, Lille Europe Pavilion in Shanghai Expo, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre in Canada, and the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Ng is also the recipient of numerous number of grants and awards, including the Arts Development …

Takuro Mizuta Lippit Musician/Curator, Visiting Assistant Professor SCM, Hong Kong/Japan dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) is a musician and curator in the field of experimental electronic arts and improvised music. His musical work builds upon a distinct practice that combines DJing, instrument design, and free improvisation. He has performed internationally at various venues and festivals around the world, and has released 12 DJ mixes and 4 albums, which includes collaborations with Evan Parker, Otomo Yoshihide, Martin Tetreault, and Paul Hubweber. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, All About Jazz, The WIRE, and MusicWorks. During his appointment as Artistic Director of STEIM (2007 – 2012) in Amsterdam, he curated and produced over 100 projects including large-scale international festivals and award winning art works. Since 2012, he is based in Hong Kong where he is Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media CityU HK, and is Co-Director of Ensembles Asia / Asian Music Network.      

Daniel Späti Designer/Curator/Head of Transcultural Collaboration and Lecturer/Research Associate ZHdK, Zurich/Switzerland Daniel Späti (1970*) studied Industrial Design at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and worked 6 years in product development and design at Bally, a global fashion brand. Since 2001 he is lecturer at Zurich University of the Arts in BA and MA Design as well as in cross-disciplinary fields including the development of a long-term collaboration between pop music and design students. In 2008 he initiated “Common Stage”, a transcultural and cross-disciplinary cooperation between Zurich University of the Arts and National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing, the major educational institution for Peking Opera in China. Since 2013 he is responsible in developing this format towards a new international graduate semester program called “Transcultural Collaboration”, which is based in Hong Kong in cooperation with different art universities from East Asia. Since 2012 he is a research associate and at present co-leading a major research program supported by the National Scientific Research Foundation of Switzerland in the field of “Event Culture and City …

Jörg Scheller Head of BA Photography ZHdK, Art Historian/Journalist/Musician, Bern/Switzerland Jörg Scheller (*1979), PhD, is an art historian, journalist, and musician. He has been tenured lecturer in art history and head of photography at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2012. In 2013, he was the curator of the Salon Suisse at the 55th Venice Art Biennale. From 2009–2012, he was the coordinator of an international research project on the Venice Biennale (focus Eastern/Central Europe) at the Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich. In parallel, he was assistant professor at the University of Siegen, Germany (until 2013). Besides, he had teaching assignments at the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe, at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, at the University of Strasbourg, and at the University of Arts in Poznan, Poland (ongoing). In 2011, he was awarded his PhD for a dissertation on the myth of Arnold Schwarzenegger (supported by a scholarship from the German Research Foundation, 2007–209). His research is focused on bodybuilding, exhibition history, and popular culture.      

Prof. Dr. Jörg Huber Critical Theory and Aesthetics, Zurich/Switzerland Jörg Huber, *1948, studied art history, literature, modern history and philosophy; professor for Critical Theory and Aesthetics; head of the Institute of Critical Theory and professor at Master of Arts in Fine Arts at Zürich University of the Arts (until october 2013). Publications in the fields of critical theory, theory of art, aesthetics, and theory of visual culture.      

Thank you for visiting Various section. We will be back soon with various projects and events belonging to the Transcultural Collaboration Program 2016. Are you interested in what happened last year? Please have a look in our Archive.