The Architecture Forum Aedes has become one of the most successful institutions internationally for communicating architectural culture, urban design and similar topics. Aedes is associated world-wide with the great names of the architectural avant-garde and offers an excellent platform for new generations of architects in a global context. With its continuous work, Aedes has evolved into a unique cultural brand which enjoys an outstanding reputation. Aedes strives to focus public attention on the cultures of building and architecture and to present and convey architectural visions, sustainable urban concepts, urban planning and landscape architecture. In more than 350 exhibitions and catalogs in the typical Aedes format, renowned architects and current Pritzker-Award winners such as Zaha Hadid, Thom Mayne, Daniel Libeskind, Frank Gehry or Rem Koolhaas presented their work long before acquiring world fame. In addition to 10 to 16 exhibitions per year, the dialog with outside experts and an interested public is supported by simultaneous symposia, series of lectures and discussions. Aedes was founded in 1980 by Kristin Feireiss and Helga Retzer († 1984) in Berlin-Charlottenburg as the first private architecture gallery in Europe. In memoriam Kongresshalle Berlin was the title of the opening exhibition, which became a groundbreaking success.

Alnoor studied Mathematics & Philosophy at Bristol University, gaining a first class degree. Since then he has worked in television, written and directed films. He has a track record of innovative award winning films: Pushing a unique film collaboration for BBC Radio 4 and Film London. 77 Beds (made for Carlton TV) premiered at the London Film Festival and features Ben Whishaw. Jomeo&Ruliet won prizes for Best Short Film at Edinburgh International Film Festival and Bristol’s Brief Encounters among many others.

Amy Lee Sanford is a Cambodian-American visual artist working in two or three dimensional media, and performance. Her work frequently addresses the evolution of emotional stagnation, and the lasting psychological effects of war, including aspects of guilt, loss, alienation, and displacement. She was born in Cambodia during the Lon Nol government, and was sent to live in the United States just before the Khmer Rouge took over the country. She grew up in the northeastern United States. At Brown University, Amy studied art, science, and engineering. She furthered her ceramic studies at The Rhode Island School of Design, University of Massachusetts/ Dartmouth and Harvard University. She started up an artisan company, where she designed and fabricated handmade, porcelain tiles and mosaics for residential and commercial interiors. Currently, Amy is working full time on her conceptual art.

Performance artist, writer and global agitator, Anida Yoeu Ali’s installation and performance works investigate the artistic, spiritual and political collisions of a hybrid transnational identity. She is a collaborative partner with Studio Revolt, an independent artist run collaborative media lab in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where she currently resides.

Anna Katharina Scheidegger was born in Switzerland (1976). Her films and photographs depict urban phenomena, architectural signs, the link between architecture, power and society and images of past and future. Around this theme, Anna Katharina works in film photography, video and film, affirming the primacy of documentary that she is always redefining and clarifying. Modalities of expression, organization and development of her work, the relationship between still image and moving images is each time redefined by the topic.

Chea Phal is a photographer and one of the founding members and practitioners of Urbex (urban exploration) in Cambodia, which examines normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities. Phal’s website is: www.cheaphal.com

Chov Theanly is a photorealistic painter and installation artist who takes inspiration from Cambodian art in the 1950?s and 60?s. Theanly started to study painting in Battambang in 1999. In 2007 he settled in Phnom Penh but moved back to Battambang in 2012 to be part of Sammaki Gallery.

Collective Studio is an architectural design studio based in Phnom Penh whose work consists in envisioning solutions for the built environment for private or public clients, for commercial or social projects. www.collectivestudio.cc

Crystal Patterson is a 26 year-old photographer from Western Australia. With a background in portraiture, Crystal was captivated by Phnom Penh after a brief visit in 2010. Eventually relocating here, Crystal’s passion is storytelling through images of a city abound in contradiction. Through her work Crystal seeks to capture images of people, love, hurt, oppression, joy, connection, destruction, hope and hopelessness. Crystal’s work has featured in several exhibitions, festivals, and magazines.

David “Jam” Ramjattan was born at an early age in Canada and spent several years roaming the planet between the West Indies, India and Canada before accidentally settling in Cambodia 4 years ago. During that time he taught Kindergarten at one of the best international schools in the country while founding pop up art venues and projects like Artdeli, Sammaki and Angkor Art Explo. He currently hordes his time in Battambang and founded a local bike tour company focusing on art, ARTchitechtural and history tours of downtown Battambang.

Eric Ellul is a Cambodia-based performer and educator whose work encompasses performance, physical theatre and music (body percussion). Since 2005, he has been taking part in interdisciplinary performances with many collaborators for site-specific, theatre and dance venues in Bordeaux, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, San Francisco, South Korea and Cambodia (his motherland).

Heritage Mission statement: Famous for the outstanding world heritage site of Angkor, Cambodia has also been endowed with major urban and religious heritages - sadly still mainly overlooked and virtually unknown. In order to remedy this situation, a bilateral project between Kingdom of Cambodia and the French Embassy in Phnom Penh led to the creation of the Heritage Mission in 2005. The Heritage Mission team focuses on the most threatened heritage, the non-Angkorian heritage including urban, vernacular and religious heritages.

Irina is interested in water quality and human health, with a focus on low-tech, sustainable treatment systems. She started out as a microbiologist, studying tree-friendly fungi and swamp-dwelling bacteria in Finland. In California, her dissertation in environmental engineering was on what happens when gasoline gets into groundwater. She worked with slow-growing, oxygen-hating microbes and even slower computer models. Irina joined Wetlands Work! in 2012 and, in the name of research, has braved the murky waters of Phnom Penh’s Lake Tom Pum on a paddle boat.

Born in Battambang, a Cambodia based photographer, Kim Hak obtained a diploma in Tourism at the National Institute of Management. Hak’s works have been included in Photo Phnom Penh 2010, PHOTO QUAI Paris 2011, World Event Young Artists Nottingham 2012, Singapore International Photography Festival 2012, and International Multimedia Art Festival Yangon 2012. His portfolios have been published internationally in ‘Chine Plus Magazine’ (France), ‘Images Magazine’ (France), ‘Libération’ (France), ‘Ojo De Pez’ (Spain), ‘Internazionale’ (Italy), And online websites ‘La Lettre’ (France), ‘Invisible Photography Asia’ (Singapore). In 2011, Hak Won 2 International prizes as “Artistic Creation Project From Musée Du quai Branly In Paris.”

Kong Vollak graduated from the Royal University of Fine Arts in 2006, from the department of sculpture, and studied photography with Stephan Janin (Le Popil) for a year. In the last few years Vollak has participated in workshops and exchanges with artists from France, Poland and Japan as well exhibiting in Cambodia, Andorra, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In 2007, together with other artists of his generation, he formed the group “Stiev Selapak” (“Art Rebels”). In the same year, Vollak was nominated the Cambodian Curator for the Mekong Art and Culture Project. Two years later he became a teacher to share the knowledge of art-making and to support his own practice.

Lorenzo Martini, Interior Designer, graduated in Italy in Interior Design, working in France, China and Cambodia. Currently a lecturer at Limkokwing University and an Interior Designer. http://cargocollective.com/lorenzomartini

Mao Soviet graduated from Phare Ponleu Selpak’s Visual Arts Department in 2004 and began to work as a freelance graphic designer for individual businesses in Battambang. After seeing a need for the artist community to communicate on a professional level, he set out to start his own gallery, Make Maek, where local artists would be able to showcase their art alongside international artists with the hope of creating a more dynamic collaborative effort. Soviet has exhibited extensively in Cambodia, as well as abroad. www.makemaek.org

Sopheap Pich, born in 1971 in Battambang Province, Cambodia, lives and works in Phnom Penh. He studied at the University of Massachusetts and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is represented by the Tyler Rollins Fine Art Gallery in New York City and H Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand. Recently he has had a solo exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle (2011), and at Tyler Rollins. He participated in the Asian Art Biennale in Taiwan and the Singapore Biennale (2011), the Fukuoka Triennale in Japan (2009) and the Asia-Pacific Triennial in Queensland (2009). This year his work is featured in dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany.

Taber is a lifetime student of water, encompassing watersheds and wetlands, estuaries, coastal and marine regions. His background includes defining ecological and economic regional interdependencies, and promoting science-based adaptive management of unique landscapes. In 2008, Taber started Wetlands Work! with the intent to design low-tech household wastewater treatment systems that would improve ambient water quality, whether in a floating village on a lake, or a school or small business on land. The ultimate goal of this social enterprise is to reduce incidence of water-borne childhood diseases acquired as a result of recreational or other contact with ambient water.

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) is a Cambodian Urban NGO founded in 2005. STT’s vision is a society in which urban inhabitants enjoy adequate housing within a sustainably developing city. To achieve its vision, STT provides technical assistance for housing and infrastructure to the urban poor, and aims to inform dialogue and raise awareness about urban issues. For more information, please visit www.teangtnaut.org

Shelby Elizabeth Doyle is a Fulbright Research Fellow based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Her current research is entitled 'City of Water: Architecture, Infrastructure, and the Floods of Phnom Penh'. The objective of this project is to record the architecture and urban conditions sustained by and subject to the cyclical floods of the city's rivers. Shelby holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia.

Som Vannita, Architect, graduated in Architecture Studies at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. Vannita has been working at International design companies and as a freelance architect. She is currently a full time lecturer at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.

Khmer Arts Ensemble Co-Founder and Artistic Director Sophiline Cheam Shapiro is a choreographer, dancer, vocalist and educator whose innovative works have infused the venerable Cambodian classical form with new ideas and energy. She has set her choreography on Cambodia’s finest performing artists and toured it to four continents. Notable venues include Amsterdam’s Muziektheater, Berkeley’s Cal Performances, Cambodia’s Les Nuits d’Angkor Festival, Goethe Institute-Jakarta, Hanover’s Hopkins Center, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Joyce Theater, Reunion Island’s Foire Internationale des Mascareignes, the Venice Biennale and Vienna’s Schonbrunn Palace Theater.

Born in 1973 in Battambang, Cambodia, Srey Bandaul and his family were re-located to the refugee camps during the Khmer Rouge regime where they lived for 13 years. In the camps he acquired multiple language skills and a passion for art. In 1992, after the Paris Peace Agreement, he returned to his homeland and with his fellow artists decided to continue to make art and give others the chance to develop their own creativity, which lead to the establishment of Phare Ponleu Selpak in Battambang (www.phareps.org), where Bandaul is currently a teacher.

Studio Revolt engages the world through media-based art, specifically through film, video, performance and public art projects. Based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the media lab serves as a collaborative space for performance artist Anida Yoeu Ali and filmmaker Masahiro Sugano. Since our launch in June 2011, we have become a prominent presence in the Phnom Penh arts scene. The studio has hosted a series of film screenings titled “Night of Revolt,” launched a participatory public art project called “Gallery X” and introduced Cambodians to a Neo-Realism style of filmmaking. Our short film, about deportations, “My Asian Americana” won the popular vote in the White House “What’s Your Story Video Challenge.” The studio is currently working on several projects including a documentary film on exiled Khmer American poet Kosal Khiev titled “Cambodian Son.” www.studio-revolt.com

Tim Robertson is a photographer who grew up near Washington D.C. He began making photographs when he was 15 and a box arrived from his great uncle containing an Olympus OM-2 camera (still his favorite). Tim spent several years photographing and recording the stories of American communities as a photographer and journalist for several daily newspapers. Most of his current work focuses on capturing the life of Phnom Penh’s streets through the plastic lenses of toy film cameras and experimenting with alternative photographic processes and methods of presenting his images. www.packinglightphotography.com

Topp & Dubio is a multidisciplinary artist duo who live and work in The Hague, Netherlands and Kaliningrad, Russia. In their video works they often deal with the personal and the public, observation and participation, the romance of imagination and the absurdity of reality.

Wetlands Work! Ltd. is a socio-entrepreneurial organization that develops terrestrial and aquatic wastewater treatment systems which harness the beneficial microbial activity on roots of floating wetland plants. We also promote awareness of the value of natural wetlands as public infrastructure and valuable, biodiverse ecosystems. To be successful in Cambodia and elsewhere, our designs are efficient and sustainable, economical and easy to produce with locally available materials, readily adopted by users, and require minimal or no maintenance or energy and chemical inputs. WW! is currently supported by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop and test wastewater treatment systems for floating communities in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap and Burma’s Lake Inle.