Princess Marilyn Douala Bell

Marilyn Douala-Bell was born in Cameroon in 1957. She attended college in Paris, France where she completed a master's degree in development economics and met her husband, art historian, Didier Schaub. After getting married in 1986, they moved back to her hometown of Douala. She co-founded the cultural organisation and contemporary art center doual'art in 1991. In 2007 she and her husband, created the Salon Urbain de Douala, a triennial festival on public art. She has contributed to numerous conferences, particularly on independent cultural institutions and on art and urban transformations, including the 2010 Kenya Workshop organised by the Mondriaan Foundation, and Curating in Africa Symposium at the Tate Modern in London.

Philip Aguirre

Philip Aguirre y Otegui studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and also makes paintings, collages and prints. His work is strongly engaged and humanistic. Aguirre’s sculptures are mostly made from traditional materials such as bronze, terracotta, wood, clay and plaster. They consistently reflect a profound sense of human tragedy, with Aguirre drawing frequent inspiration from political events, and above all from conflicts linked to migration and the human being as refugee

Princess Marilyn Douala Bell and Philip Aguirre will speak about the project “Théâtre Source” which is selected as one of the 7 finalists of the 2017 IAPA. 

Jack Becker

Jack Becker is the founder and Director of Creative Services at Forecast Public Art, a US-based nonprofit he started in 1978. In 1989, he established a grant program for emerging public artists and Public Art Review, an international magazine devoted exclusively to contemporary public art. Forecast’s Community Services offers consulting, technical assistance, partnering and programming support to design professionals, businesses, government agencies, colleges and neighborhood organizations, among others. As an artist with experience in theater and visual arts, he applies his creativity to projects that connect the ideas and energies of artists with the needs and opportunities of communities. Jack received the 2007 Award of Excellence from Americans for the Arts for his contribution to the public art field, and the 2014 Public Art Dialogue Lifetime Achievement Award, a program of the College Art Association. As a founding member of the Institute for Public Art, he supports the research and recognition of outstanding public art around the world via the International Award for Public Art. Today Jack is involved in a wide variety of projects, including the development of a public art learning tool for planners seeking to improve the health of their communities.

Jessica Fiala

Jessica Fiala (Minneapolis, MN, USA) is a company member of Ragamala Dance, a Program Coordinator at Forecast Public Art, and a Research Associate at Lutman & Associates. She served as Research Coordinator for the 2015 International Award for Public Art, and her writing on the Quai Branly Museum is included in The Ruined Archive (2014). She will speak about the project Waiting for Godot in New Orleans which is selected as one of the 7 finalists of the 2017 IAPA. 

Aric Chen

Aric Chen is Lead Curator for Design and Architecture at M+, the new museum of visual culture under construction in Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District. Previously, he served as Creative Director of Beijing Design Week, helping to oversee the successful launch of that event in 2011 and 2012. Prior to moving to Beijing, Chen was an independent curator, critic, and journalist based in New York, organizing exhibitions and projects at the Design Museum Holon, Design Miami/Basel, the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennale, Center for Architecture (New York), and ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam. He is the author of Brazil Modern (Monacelli, 2016), and has been a frequent contributor to publications including The New York Times, Metropolis, Architectural Record, and PIN-UP.

Khim Ong

Khim Ong is an independent curator based in Singapore. She was previously curatorial assistant at Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE, assistant curator at Osage Gallery, Hong Kong, and manager for Sector Development (Visual Arts) at the National Arts Council, Singapore. Some of her curatorial projects include Jane Lee: 100 Faces at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore (2014), Landscape Memories at Louis Vuitton Espace, Singapore (2013), Biographies (co-curated with Biljana Ciric) at Osage Gallery, Hong Kong (2010). She has also worked on solo exhibitions of Antony Gormley, Wolfgang Laib, On Kawara, Nipan Oranniewesna, and Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, among others.

Kingsley Ng

Ng is an inter-disciplinary artist and designer with a focus on conceptual, site-specific, and community-engaging projects. His creative practices are driven not by a self-indulgent romance of art, but a belief that art can be socially relevant. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in New Media from Ryerson University, Canada; a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Design from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland; and Post-Diplôme avec les félicitations du jury à l’unanimité (Master of Fine Arts degree equivalent) from Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains, France.

His work has been showcased at the Guangzhou Triennial, the Shanghai Expo, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial and various exhibitions in France, Italy and Canada. He is the recipient of the Hong Kong Arts Development Best Artist Award (Media Arts) in 2013, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship in 2013, Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award in 2008, and a Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Award in 2009. He is currently assistant professor at the Academy of Visual Arts of Hong Kong Baptist University.