About us

Born in Mannheim in 1975, Christian has lived in Switzerland since 2002. He studied Art History and History in Lausanne, Vienna, Lille and Heidelberg and has a PhD in Art History.

Curator for precious metal and ceramics of modern times at the Swiss National Museum as well as employee and program curator at Neues Kino Basel. President of Keramikfreunde der Schweiz and member of the Committee of Experts of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland. He previously worked at museums in Neuchâtel, Basel, Lausanne, Strasbourg, Vienna and Lille.

Publications on «L’argenterie Lausannoise» (2007), «Basler Goldschmiedekunst» (2013 und 2014) und «Prêt à porter. L'histoire du sac plastique et papier en Suisse» (2016).

Born 1950 in Basel, Dr. André Baltensberger holds a PhD in Musicology and Economics. He was principal at the Music Academy Basel as well as delegate for the music colleges in the directorate of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Northwestern Switzerland. Before this he had been working as business economist in the printing industry and later took up a post as a reserach assistant at the Paul Sacher-Foundation in Basel. For ten years he was the general secretary at the conference of the cantonal governments in Bern as well as director of the Swiss Foundation for Federal Collaboration in Solothurn. 

The focus of his work, next to questions relating to federal government, are music of the 20th century, choruses, tropes and sequences in the High Middle Ages as well as the music history of the renaissance era. He obtained his PhD in 1987, his thesis focussing on the French-Grecian composer Iannis Xenakis. He also is a trained pianist, harpsichord player and vocalist. He is married, has one son and lives in Riehen near Basel.

Born in Zurich in 1959.

Freelance reporter, author, presenter and initiator of the platform www.podcastlab.ch.

Until spring 2019 he was head of the editorial department art & society at Radio SRF2 Kultur and was the author of many programmes in the formats Kontext, Passage and Hörpunkt. Previously, he worked as a reporter at the MAGAZIN for Tages-Anzeiger, Berner Zeitung and Basler Zeitung for many years, as an editor and reporter for WochenZeitung WoZ and as a research assistant for the National Research Programme 51 on integration and exclusion. Today he also writes for REPORTAGEN, GEO, EDITO and other publications.

He is the author of «Der Schädelvermesser» (1995), «Alamor drei Tage» (2007), «Übers Meer» (2013) and «Hotel Galaxy» (2018). In addition, he is a lecturer at the Zurich University of Arts and at the Swiss School of Journalism MAZ in Lucerne and also works as a presenter at regional, national and international events.

He is married, has two grown-up daughters, lives in Basel and temporarily on a sailboat on Lake Neuchâtel.

Over 20 years of experience in the Swiss and international world of the arts and culture. She has worked in leading positions in arts funding, as a project and event manager, as co-director of the international art fair Art Basel and as managing director of the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Throughout her career, she has served on various boards and cultural juries, facilitating and developing concepts and organizations, locally, nationally and internationally. She founded .connect the dots in November 2014, an independent company providing consulting, coaching and concept services. 

She has been living in Basel since 2002, where she is also married. In her free time culture and nature are top of her list: art, music, literature, theater, travelling abroad, hiking and biking in the Swiss Alps are sources of inspiration. 

Born 1960 in Bern, Daniela Settelen-Trees has lived in Basel since 1989. After her studies of art history in Bern, Basel and Munich, worked as an art historian in museums, galeries and foundations.

Since 2008 she is the directior of the GGG Atelierhaus in Basel, among other mandates in cultural management, and has published several art books.

Born 1976 in Khmelnytsky, Ukraine (then USSR). Kateryna is a curator, cultural critic, and writer with master degree in cultural studies. She was director of the Foundation Center for Contemporary Art in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a founder and editor-in-chief of Korydor, an online journal on contemporary culture.

She worked as a trainer and consultant for various programs within EU Eastern Partnership Culture Programme, dealing with cultural policy analysis, cultural industries and cultural journalism in the region. She consulted the EU National Institutes for Culture EUNIC on issues of global cultural relations and collaboration. Kateryna is a regular contributor to various media.

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Why did you want to work with CULTURESCAPES?
I joined the team as a curator of exhibitions in 2014. But soon I realized that as a festival, CULTURESCAPES provides a unique platform for combining many things I always valued about my work in the cultural field: multidisciplinary approach, research into local cultural landscapes of global reach and importance, and connecting a variety of artistic voices with diverse audiences. Over the years, we developed CULTURESCAPES into a platform for empowerment and awareness regarding the rising topical issues of our times. I am happy to see CULTURESCAPES as a growing space of care and mutual learning between different and distant societies and cultures with a common goal – imagining a better and more sustainable future.

What do you particularly like about CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia?
As outsiders, we are easily overwhelmed by images of powerful rivers connecting the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, or the endless green masses of the rainforest. Shocking news of wildfires, or, more recently, COVID-casualties, also catch attention. With CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia we want to enable voices of artists, activists, writers and researchers from different parts of the region, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to tell stories of Amazonia as a realm of the fight for environmental protection, for human and cultural rights, as an interconnected space of different kinds of knowledge and visions of human and non-human cohabitation. These stories and knowledges are of utter importance to everyone today, regardless of who we are or where we live.

Born in 1987 in Salzburg. Works for CULTURESCAPES since May 2019.

Studied theatre, film and media studies in Vienna. She worked as directors and dramaturge assistant at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg, Burgtheater Vienna and at the Salzburg Festival. Since 2015 she has been working at KUNST HAUS WIEN as head of art education and marketing assistant. At the same time she realizes art projects. Among others she was responsible for the dramaturgy of the world premiere of "Monster trample skyscrapers" and "Back and forth" as part of the Viertelfestival in Lower Austria.

Born in Dresden in 1986. Works for CULTURESCAPES since February 2019.

Studied sports, culture and event management in Kufstein, Austria. 

Various positions in marketing and account management before joining neuestheater.ch in Dornach from 2015 to 2019, where she worked in production and PR. During her studies she was involved in various projects in the field of cultural exchange and management, and completed an internship in event marketing.

Born 1993 in Thurgau, Switzerland. Studies in Eastern European History and Slavonic Studies at the University of Basel. Several study visits and travels in Russia, Croatia and Austria. Internships and employments in the cultural field, among others at Philosophicum Basel.

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Why did you want to work with CULTURESCAPES?
I first noticed CULTURESCAPES right at the beginning of my studies in Basel, when the Slavonic Studies Department organised a series of lectures together with CULTURESCAPES THE BALKANS 2013. By focusing on different countries of Eastern Europe, it merged my personal interest in these regions with my affinity for cultural events. CULTURESCAPES as a festival is a remarkable format, exploring a cultural landscape through an interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach to a region using different guiding points. Through different perspectives in all disciplines, topics can be dealt with in various ways, and there certainly is something for everyone. Additional participatory formats allow for a dialogue, which seems particularly interesting to me. Being part of CULTURESCAPES makes me feel connected to the world.

What do you particularly like about CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia?
The 2021 festival edition on Amazonia is dedicated to a region I have not yet been very  familiar with. In the course of preparing and intensively examining the relevant topics, a door has already opened for me into a new world that is characterized by so many complex and current issues. This also sharpened my view for the global connections and interrelations. I am really looking forward to this edition and the ability of culture to unravel complexity, to sharpen views, to translate and make it more graspable.

Born in Schopfheim (Germany) in 1976. Alexa joined CULTURESCAPES in 2012.

She studied International Culture Management in Freiburg before travelling through South America and Asia.

Alexa was responsible for communication and events at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein from 2000 to 2009. She subsequently worked as a PR specialist at the Burghof Lörrach and for the STIMMEN-Festival. Since 2014 she is the co-director of KlangBasel music festival.

Born in Basel in 1991. Works for CULTURESCAPES since August 2015.

Master of Arts in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Glasgow, with international exchange year at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Various jobs and independent projects in the fields of culture, sustainability and politics, including: campaign for an unconditional basic income, the environmental plattform UP, or KlangBasel. She is also part of a collective that runs an analogue photography lab. 

Born 1994 in Zurich. Has worked for CULTURESCAPES since August 2019.

Studied German linguistics, literature and philosophy at the University of Zurich. Currently completing her Master's degree in German Literature.

Various internships and positions in the cultural industry. Among other things, she works at the University of Zurich on the literature mediation project «LiteraturWissen» and writes reviews for the «Schweizer Buchjahr» (digital almanac for contemporary Swiss literature and critique of discourse).

Born in Basel in 1965. Works for CULTURESCAPES since 2008.

Thomas worked at Kaserne Basel until 2001 before becoming a self-employed light and sound technician for various companies, such as Biennale Bern, Anna Huber Company, Christoph Marthaler, and was the technical director of the Music Festival Bern.