Rana Yazaji (Syria/Germany), Researcher, Trainer and Cultural Manager
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Rana Yazaji’s work has been based on the combination of practice and research. In 2011, she collaborated with other independent cultural activists to establish Ettijahat- Independent Culture, a Syrian organization formed to support independent arts and culture, and play a role in fostering positive political and social change in Syria. In 2014, Yazaji became the Executive Director of Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafy), a regional cultural organization focused on developing and supporting both an independent art scene and cultural players in the Arab region.
Yazaji’s interest in Cultural Policy led her to focus on research. Since 2009, she has conducted, published and been involved in many research projects, most significantly, research on cultural policies in Syria for the book, “Introduction to Cultural Policies in the Arab Region”; contributing to Istanbul Bilgi University’s yearbook of cultural policies with the chapter entitled, “National Planning & Emerging Role of Civil Society Institutions in Syria”; and most recently “Arts and Funding – Models of Resources Management and parallel approaches to cultural and Creative sustainability”.
Yazaji completed a B.A. in Theatre Studies from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts (Damascus, 2001), an M.A. in Design and Management of Cultural Projects from the New Sorbonne University (Paris, 2005), and an M.A. in Theatre Directing and Dramaturgy from the University of Paris X (Paris, 2006).
Hannah Pfurtscheller (Germany/Switzerland), Curator, Dramaturge, Cultural Researcher
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As an independent curator, dramaturge, and advisor, Hannah Pfurtscheller conceives and accompanies organizations, funding bodies, programs, productions, and artistic processes. A focus of her work lies on cooperation and connections between different social and geopolitical contexts. Values such as diversity, sustainability, and care are formative for her artistic self-understanding. Continuous engagement with social inclusion, anti-racism, processes of institutional opening and structural transformation towards social justice, feminism, as well as intercultural and intercontinental exchange form the basis of her work approach. In spring 2025, she works as a dramaturge with choreographer Jolie Ngemi on her new creation at Arsenic Lausanne and as a guest dramaturge with director Gernot Grünewald at Bühnen Bern. Together with Kadiatou Diallo, since 2024 she has been designing and moderating the Residency Networking Sessions, an exchange platform for artists and curators in residencies and on research trips, commissioned by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. In the 2023/24 season, she was a guest dramaturge at Theater Freiburg and worked with director Jessica Glause (The Young Man/Happening) and with author Mohammad Al Attar and director Omar Abusaada (Yesterday's Encounter). As a program dramaturge, she held permanent positions at Kaserne Basel (2018-2023 – with Sandro Lunin), in the program group of Zürcher Theater Spektakel (2014-2017 – with Dagmar Walser and Sandro Lunin), at Wildwuchs Festival in Basel (2014-2017 – with Gunda Zeeb), and at Gessnerallee Zürich (2013-2014 – with Roger Merguin and Kathrin Veser). She is also active in cultural funding. Here, from August 2016 to December 2017, she headed the Department of Performing Arts at the Office for Culture Basel-Landschaft and the office of the Performing Arts Committee Basel-Stadt/Basel-Landschaft. She undertook curatorial research trips to Alexandria, Cairo, Antananarivo, Maputo, Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria, and Cape Town (2015, 2016, 2017). Hannah Pfurtscheller holds a diploma in Cultural Studies and Aesthetic Practice from the University of Hildesheim (Germany, 2013), where she was the Artistic Director of Transeuropa Festival in 2012.