Wolfgang Müller-Funk studied German, Philosophy, History and Spanish in Munich. 1980/81 Doctorate, 1993 Habilitation at the University of Klagenfurt. International teaching and research activities, initially in Munich and Vienna. He taught as Univ. Prof. of Cultural Studies at the Universities of Birmingham and Vienna. Numerous visiting professorships and fellowships, including GWZ Leipzig, Nehru Univ. New Delhi, Univ. Giessen, Centre for the Study of Culture, Trinity College Dublin, New School for Social Research in New York, Univ. Sapienza in Rome, Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, study visits, lecture tours and invitations: New Delhi and Mumbai, Lisbon, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, USA, Iran). He was coordinator of the faculty research project Broken Narratives at the University of Vienna. Critic and essayist. 2013 Cross of Honour of the Republic of Austria for Science and Art. 2019 Visiting Professor/Lecturer at the, Roma Sapienza, Brno, Zagreb and Thessaloniki. Scientific curator of the theatre project "Bloody Crown" in Wiener Neustadt (since 2019), curator of two national exhibitions (2000 and 2005).
Research interests: Cultural analysis, theory of narratives, romanticism, avant-garde and classical modernism, forms of essayistic writing, Central European studies, theories of otherness and the strange.
Important monographic works (in selection): Crudelitas. 12 Kapitel einer Diskursgeschichte der Grausamkeit (2022); Die Kunst des Zweifelns (2021)¸ Theorien des Fremden (2016), Die Dichter der Philosophen (2013) The Architecture of Modern Culture (2012) Joseph Roth (1989/2012), Komplex Österreich (2009), Kulturtheorie (2006/2010), Die Kultur und ihre Narrative (2002/2008), Die Farbe Blau (2000), Erfahrung und Experiment. Studien zu Theorie und Geschichte des Essayismus (1995).
Numerous monographs and over 30 (co-)editorships of research volumes (German and English). Editor of various scientific series (Francke, Tübingen/Basel, Praesens, Vienna), member of the advisory board of various international journals and projects.
https.//wolfgangmuellerfunk.wordpress.com/

George Toulas was born and raised in Thessaloniki. He studied Political Science at the University of Athens, specializing in Media. He has been working as a journalist since 1988. On newspapers and magazines, radio and television. In 1989, he published parallaxi, Greece's first free press magazine. He has been running it ever since, along with parallaximag.gr. In 2010, he set up “Thessaloniki Differently”, the urban experiment which is still up and running. He is on the radio every morning, 9:30-11:00, on ERT3 958 FM.

Evelyn Wallner Papadopoulou was born in Salzburg, Austria. Certificate in Advertising and Marketing at the Economic University of Vienna. Art studies, visual media design, in the master class of Marek Freudenreich, University of Art and Design Linz. Since 1990 she lives and works in Thessaloniki, Greece. She performed exhibitions in Austria, Germany and Greece. Since 2013, she is Austrian Honorary Consul in Thessaloniki. Within her art work, paintings, photographs, actions and installations of hand washed sheep-wool have been created.

Rania Emmanouilidou studied painting at the Department of Applied and Visual Arts of The School of Fine Arts of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki where she currently teaches painting. Part of her artistic research is the development of sustainable materials for the creation of artworks, as well as a broader dialogue with the public and the activation of small local communities to coproduce cultural events through workshops, talks and interdisciplinary educational programs.
She has presented seven solo shows: Graceland-The Triumph of an Uncertain Path-Biennale8 (cur. Anna Mikoniati, MOMUS, Experimental Center of Arts, Thessaloniki, 2022, with Fani Boudouroglou and Lia Psoma/ Degeneration (cur. Marina Athanasiadou), Zina Athanasiadou Gallery, Thessaloniki 2019/ Dark Ligthouse (cur. M.Athanasiadou), Zina Athanasiadou Gallery, Thes-saloniki 2014/ Orlando (cur. L.Hatziiakovou), MOMUS Museum
of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki 2011/ Coitus Interruptus (cur. M.Athanasiadou) with Marianna Ignataki, Public Room , Scopje, 2009/ Untitled (cur.S.Bahtchetzis), Zina Athanasiadou Gallery, Thessaloniki, 2008/ Symphony (cur.Th.Stefanidou), Margaris Foundation, Amfilohia, 2003.
She has participated in group exhibitions and projects in Greece and abroad, such as: Museum of Modern Greek Suicide (cur. M.Kenanidou, S.Rakkas) , Athens-Thessaloniki, 2022/ The Riot of The Wisdom Tooth (cur.Dimitris Ameladiotis , Giorgos Geronti-dis), 2022 /The surreality of fear, BSB gallery, New Jersey, 2021/ Feminism in the years of Metapolitefsi (with L.Totsiou and S.Karakantza), Thessaloniki Concert Hall, 2018/ “you:the elements”, MOMUS, 2018/ Exulat (cur.V.Amanatidis) Alachas Imaret, Thessaloniki,2015/ Artist (cur.Th.Stefanidou,N.Mikoniatis) , Tuyap Centre, Instabul, 2014/ Supermarket (cur.L.Hatziiakovou), Kulturhuset, Stockholm , 2013/ Hulda Festival (cur.L.Hatziiakovou) , Greece, Malta, 2012/ Beautiful Is just the Beginning of the Terrible (cur.A.Kalfopoulos), MOMUS State Museum of Contemporary Art, 2010/ Women Only-Beltsios Collection (cur.S.Bahtchetzis), Margaris Foundation, Amfilohia, 2008/ Biennale1 (cur.A.Leopoulou), Archaelogical Museum, Thessaloniki, 2007/ XII Biennale of young artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Puglia, Italy, 2006 etc.
She and Apostolos Rizos are the founders of Les Yper Yper, a hybrid platform of research and connection of the dynamics be-tween arts, visual communication and design.
She has organized and curated exhibitions, projects and residencies in collaboration with private and public institutions (TISF, ICTVC, Goethe Institute, Municipality of Torino-Italy, Municipality of Alberta- Canada etc) and she has presented seminars and workshops.
Furthermore she has worked as stage and costume designer for performance and theater (Rehabilitation, Momus 2022, director Sofia Karakantza, Wuthering Heights 2018, Horos Theater Company, director Simos Kakalas etc ).

Elke Sturm-Trigonakis is a Professor of Comparative Literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Until 2001, she worked with German radio stations as a freelance foreign correspondent dealing with literary criticism, multiculturalism and minorities in Germany. She founded the Greek Association for German Studies (GGGS) in 2011 and served as its president until 2019. From 2018 to 2020, she was head of the Department of Literary and Cultural Studies within her Faculty. She is the author of The picaresque novel. Introduction to a sustainable literary genre (Kyriakidis 2019), Comparative Cultural Studies and the New Weltliteratur (Purdue University Press 2013), 3. Global playing in der Literatur: Ein Versuch über die Neue Weltliteratur (Königshausen & Neumann 2007), Barcelona. La novel.la novel.la urbana (1944-1988) (Edition Reichenberger 1996), Barcelona in der Literatur (1944-1988). A study of Barcelona's urban novel with special reference to urban spaces (Edition Reichenberger, Kassel 1994). She edited the collective volume World Literature and the Postcolonial. Narratives of (Neo)Colonization in a Globalized World (Metzler 2020). Along with Olga Laskaridou, Evi Petropoulou and Katerina Karakassi, she was co-editor of the volume Turns und kein Ende? Aktuelle Tendenzen in Germanistik und Komparatistik (Peter Lang (Hellenogermanica) 2018); with Simela Delianidou, she co-edited the volume Sprachen und Kulturen in (Inter)Aktion. Part I—Literary and Cultural Studies (Peter Lang (Hellenogermanica) 2013). http://users.auth.gr/esturm/

Yiannis Charalampopoulos studied Graphic Design and Typography at AKTO Design College in Athens, and then completed his postgraduate degree in Typo/Graphic Studies at London College of Communication UAL, in the UK. In 2000, he returned to Thessaloniki and, together with Alexandros Nikou and Vagelis Liakos, established Beetroot Design Group. His role includes, among other things, overseeing the implementation and art direction of a broad range of brand identity development projects.
Beetroot has been a leader in the visual communication and creative design sector for 20-plus years. The team at Beetroot combines colors, shapes, sounds, and ideas to build brands, have fun, and inspire others, creating compelling design solutions for a wide range of Greek and international clients, including: Public Power Corporation SA – DEI, Onassis Foundation, Onassis Stegi, Plaisio Computers, Coffee Island, Affidea, Design Museum London, Wacom, Oceanco, Athenian Brewery SA, Lidl Hellas, Ktima Biblia Chora winery, Greek Ministry of Culture & Tourism, Benakis Museum, City of Thessaloniki, Museum of Modern Art & Photography Museum of Thessaloniki, etc.
The numerous distinctions that Beetroot is awarded each year in international events include the ADC*E Awards (Art Directors Club of Europe) in 2016, the Grand EBGE (Greek Design and Illustration Awards) in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2020, the Grand Ermis and Agency of the Year at the Ermis Awards in 2016, the prestigious Red Dot Design Agency of the Year Award as the best visual communication agency internationally in 2011, the superior distinction “Design Agency of the Year” at the European Design Awards in 2008, and several distinctions each year at the D&AD, Dieline and Pentawards.
At the same time, starting in 2008, Yiannis Charalampopoulos has devoted part of his time and energy to education. He has taught at AKTO Design College and at ACT – American College of Thessaloniki. He has also delivered talks and lectures on subjects regarding visual communication, at events including ΤΕDx Academy and the Art Directors Club Stuttgart.

Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos was born in 1980, in Thessaloniki, to a Greek father and a German mother. He graduated from the German Gymnasium and embarked on a medical degree. He acquired his first hands-on experience as an assistant director at this time, at the Deutsches Theater (Berlin), the Sophiensaele (Berlin), the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the bat-Studiotheater of the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts (Berlin), as well as at the Kampnagel experimental theatre (Hamburg).
From 2006 to 2010, he studied at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, in the Department of Direction and Acting. During his time there, he directed several performances which were presented at international festivals in Germany, Austria and France. He has presented productions at inter alia the Schauspielhaus in Düsseldorf, the Schauspielhaus in Graz, the Theater Oberhausen, the Staatstheater in Mainz, the Schauspiel in Leipzig, the Residenztheater in Munich, the Volkstheater and the Burgtheater in Vienna. In Greece, he has collaborated with the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the National Theatre of Greece, and the Onassis Stegi. He is currently rehearsing the performance he will be presenting at this year's Athens & Epidaurus Festival, at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus in July 2023.
His first production in Athens, Revolutionary ways to clean your swimming pool by Alexandra K*, was presented at the National Theatre of Greece in 2018. In 2011, his production of Summer Night at the Burgtheater in Vienna was nominated for the Nestroy Theatre Prize for Best New Creator. In 2012, he was also voted best young artist in a poll of theatre critics for Theater heute magazine. In 2016, he founded ETERIA FILON in Vienna; the society is now based in Athens www.eteriafilon.com. He will be teaching Direction at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna from October 2023. Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos lives in Vienna and Athens.