Isabelle Backouche is a lecturer and Director of Studies of the Urban History Chair at EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences).

Isabelle Backouche's work explores social change and the physical transformation of the city, and is based on field analysis, as well as the study of urban transformation at different levels. She has been a member of the Comité d’Histoire de la Ville de Paris since 2007, and is also a member of the Commission nationale des monuments historiques. In 2016, she published Paris transformé. Le Marais 1900-1980: de l’îlot insalubre au secteur sauvegardé.

Boris Charmatz is a dancer, choreographer and artistic director.

Dancer, choreographer and artistic director of [terrain], Boris Charmatz subjects dance to formal constraints that redefine the field of its possibilities. From Aatt enen tionon (1996) to SOMNOLE (2021), he has created a series of landmark pieces in parallel with his activities as a performer and improviser (notably with Médéric Collignon, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Tino Sehgal).

From 2009 to 2018, Boris Charmatz directs the Musée de la danse, Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne.

In September 2022, he will take over the direction of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and will develop a new Franco-German project with [terrain].

Boris Charmatz is also an artist accompanied by Charleroi danse (Belgium) for three years (2018-2021).from 2018 to 2022.

Chris Dercon is an art historian, curator and specialist in the relationship between ancient and contemporary art. He is the Director of the Volksbühne in Berlin.

Following his studies in art history, theatre and film theory at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands, Chris Dercon began his career in a gallery before going on to organize various exhibitions in Belgium and The Netherlands. In 1988, he was made Artistic Director of MoMA PS1 New York. In 1990, he became Director of Programming at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam and Commissioner for the Dutch Pavilion at the 46th Venice Biennale. In 1995, he was appointed Director of the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. In 2003, he became Director of Munich’s Haus der Kunst, in 2011 of the Tate Modern in London, then of the Volksbühne theater of Berlin in 2017. He is also a member of the Wiels artistic advisory committee in Brussels. Since November 7, 2018 he has been the President of the Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais in Paris.

Over the past decade, Simon Fujiwara has become known for his staging of large, complex exhibitions that explore the deeply rooted mechanisms of identity construction for both individuals and societies.

Addressing the inherent contradictions of image and narrative making – from social media and self presentation to marketing and history formation – Fujiwara revels in the complexity and paradox of our simultaneous quest for fantasy and authenticity.

Crossing multiple media, from sculpture and installation to video and painting and mining worlds as diverse as advertising and archaeology, Fujiwara’s works are a constant reportage on the real world sources from which they draw inspiration. However, rather than simply presenting commentary, the artist creates a unique universe of his own – one that is populated with challenging and often absurd new narratives that are as intellectually rigorous as they are emotionally stimulating.

Fujiwara’s recent solo exhibitions include: Revolution, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2018), Joanne, Galerie Wedding, Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin (2018), Hope House, Kunsthaus Bregenz (2018); Figures in a Landscape, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2016), The Humanizer, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016), White Day, Tokyo Opera City Gallery (2016), Three Easy Pieces, The Carpenter Center, Harvard University, Cambridge (2014), Grand Tour, Kunstverein Braunschweig (2013), 1982, Tate St. Ives (2012), and Welcome to the Hotel Munber, Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2011).

Among recent biennials and group exhibitions are Berlin Biennale 9, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2016), Storylines, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2015), Un Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014), Sharjah Biennial (2013), Shanghai Biennial (2012), Gwangju Biennial (2012), São Paulo Biennial (2010), and the 53th Venice Biennale (2009).

Fujiwara was the recipient of the 2010 Baloise Prize at Art Basel and the 2010 Frieze Cartier Award.

Rem Koolhaas co-heads the work of both OMA and AMO, the research branch of OMA, operating in areas beyond the realm of architecture.

Rem Koolhaas founded OMA in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. He graduated from the Architectural Association in London and in 1978 published Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. In 1995, his book S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA in “a novel about architecture”. His built work includes the Qatar National Library and the Qatar Foundation Headquarters (2018), Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette in Paris (2018), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015/2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), the headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing (2012), Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), Seattle Central Library (2004), and the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003). Current projects include the Taipei Performing Arts Centre, a new building for Axel Springer in Berlin, and the Factory in Manchester. Rem Koolhaas directed the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, is a professor at Harvard University, and is preparing a major exhibition for the Guggenheim museum entitled Countryside: Future of the World. OMA OMA's completed projects include Rijnstraat 8 (2017); Il Fondaco dei Tedeschi (2016); the Faena District in Miami (2016); Pierre Lassonde Pavilion, a new building for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2016); Timmerhuis, new home for Rotterdam’s municipal offices (2015); the new headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing (2012); the Casa da Musica in Porto (2005); the Seattle Central Library (2004) and the urban infrastructure Euralille in Lille (1994). OMA has built numerous cultural institutions, including recently: the Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015) and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015). Rem Koolhaas explored the notion of spatial modularity in the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater in Dallas (2009) and in the Maison à Bordeaux (1998). In France, OMA recently constructed the Bibliothèque Alexis de Tocqueville (2017) and the new CentraleSupelec campus in Saclay (2017). OMA will soon deliver the Simone Veil bridge in Bordeaux, the Parc des Expositions in Toulouse, the Taipei Performing Arts Centre in Taiwan, the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Qatar National library in Doha and a new building for the Axel Springer publishing house in Berlin. AMO Since 1998, the think tank AMO has applied architectural theory to other disciplines such as politics, publishing, media, fashion and sociology. Research projects conducted by AMO include The Image of Europe on the future of Europe and its representation in symbols and visual language, commissioned by the European Union in 2004; Roadmap 2050, a masterplan to set up a renewable energy network within Europe and Cronocaos, an investigation into the preservation of heritage which was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2010. Recently, AMO has completed the new display system for the Stedelijk Museum’s permanent collection in Amsterdam, making use of innovative steel walls that generate a non-linear path through the exhibition space and create unique connections between art and design works. AMO is also leading the research project Countryside: Future of the World, an exploration of radical changes in the countryside conducted in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum. Furthermore, AMO designs scenographies for the fashion shows of Prada and Miu Miu.