Secil Yaylali is a visual artist from Turkey, based in Berlin. Her background in urban planning, art and design results in a wide-ranging artistic practice, including ceramics, installation and community projects. She explores ideas relating to the feeling of belonging between individuals and their society. This exploration has resulted in artist projects with forced migrants in Istanbul and Diyarbakir. She is currently working on her PhD thesis –Temporary Public Art Projects – in Universitat der Kunsten, Berlin.

Yasuhiro Yotsumoto was born in Osaka, Japan in 1959 and grew up mostly in Hiroshima. His first book of poetry A Laughing Bug was published in 1991, followed by 8 more collections in Japan including Hijacking Logos (2010), Starboard of My Wife (2006), and Afternoon of Forbidden Words (2003), which won the prestigious Hagiwara Sakutaro Award. His poems have been translated into more than 15 languages, including 3 books published in Australia, Serbia, and Romania. Yasuhiro also writes essays, literary criticism, and translates poetry from English to Japanese. He is the editor of Poetry International Web – Japan http://japan.poetryinternational.org, and of a Japanese poetry magazine Beagle.

Lesley Young studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art and History of Art at The University of Edinburgh. After graduating she joined artists’ group protoacademy, and in 2003 completed the postgraduate Critical Studies Program between Malmö Art Academy and Rooseum, Malmö, Sweden. In 2007 with James Hutchinson, she set up The Salford Restoration Office, a curatorial practice that develops projects with cultural institutions in Manchester, addressing questions of artistic context and policy, and generating discussion surrounding the conditions art institutions and artists in the city find themselves operating within. The Salford Restoration Office worked with Dan Shipsides to make Radical Architecture for Castlefield Gallery, and developed The Whitworth Cabinet with The Whitworth Art Gallery. In addition to the activities made in partnership with institutions, they also work with artists active in the region on: Centrifuge (with Imogen Stidworthy, Dirk Fleischmann, Manchester Metropolitan University); and Reading Capital, a reading group dedicated to reading Karl Marx’s Capital. They are currently developing projects with Katya Sander and Artur Zmijewski.