Eduardo Barba

Gardener, landscape gardener and art lover, Eduardo Barba is a born disseminator: he spreads his passion for plants in everything he does, and this has earned him a reputation that makes him one of the country’s leading specialists in botanical culture. He has collaborated with institutions such as the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo Lázaro Galdiano and the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. His numerous articles published in specialised media and his lectures have opened the minds and aroused the curiosity of thousands of people.

As a gardener, he has been responsible for the establishment and maintenance of plants and gardens in various countries, in addition to Spain, such as Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the United States and Australia.

His books include El jardín del Prado. Un paseo botánico por las obras de los grandes maestros (2020) and Una flor en el asfalto. The life of urban grasses as told by the grasses themselves (2021).

Melisa Calero

Flamenco dancer, multidisciplinary dancer, creator and performer born in Cordoba. Melisa Calero is a versatile, eclectic and electronic artist who works with flamenco, from it and without it. Risky, restless and performative, her work is born from many “things”, but above all from impulses. Remixing, impurity, the fusion of disciplines, new dramaturgies and rebelliousness are her modus operandi.

Marta Chojnacka

Artist, illustrator and creative director at the artisan jewellery brand Materia Rica. After studying fine art in Poland she moved to London, where she lived for a decade and developed her own artistic style inspired by exotic plants, the seaside, people, streets and relaxation, and everyday objects.

María Eugenia Diego (Kokon)

Kokon is the personal project of the artist María Eugenia Diego (Zamora, 1989), who revisits the link between human beings and beauty and nature, especially in the needy urban environment. The artist plays with this triad by using natural elements, whose history and vegetal origin mark the leitmotiv of the installations, to design large-scale pieces and spaces that create a powerful connection with the spectator. It is no coincidence that María Eugenia Diego is an architect: space and flora maintain a palpable dialogue in all her works, establishing a “new look” at environments or materials that are often familiar to us, rethought in a new context by the artist.

In 2018, after working in several architecture studios, she decided to take a turn in her career, entering the world of floral design. A year and a half as a florist at LOEWE Flores and a pandemic, were the perfect breeding ground to create her personal proposal, fleeing from the mere decorative field of conventional floristry.

Winner of FLORA in 2022 with her installation Ovidio, the Kokon universe grows little by little between large-scale installations, set-design, workshops and botanical experiences to bring especially to the cities, a conscious message about the disconnection that we maintain with the fascinating world of plants.

Patricia Domínguez Claro

Her work recodes elements of the capitalist system to turn them into myths of multi-species resistance. Through multidisciplinary projects that bring together experimental ethnobotanical research and healing practices, the artist proposes a poetic vision of contemporary life, deeply linked to the earth and spiritual knowledge. In her work, materialised in drawings, sculptures, installations and videos, she proposes the artistic imagination as a form of psychic emancipation and as a way of healing colonial trauma. This operation arises from research into the implications of the colonial imprint in South America and in his personal life. Her work has been exhibited at New Museum (solo), Wellcome Collection, Gwangju Biennale, Gasworks London (solo), Transmediale Berlin, Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Seoul Museum of Art, Museo del Barrio, Bronx Museum and FLORA ars+natura, among others. In 2022 he received the Botin Fellowship and in 2021 the Symmetry residency award to go to CERN. She contributed to the book Documents for Contemporary Art Issue HEALTH DoCA. She is currently director of the ethnobotanical platform Studio Vegetalista.

Kisko García

He represents one of the greatest exponents of Andalusian haute cuisine, an avant-garde group of chefs who never cease to imbue the millenary recipe book of their land with imagination. Their style, with a strong personality and reflective intention, is based on local products and the culinary traditions of Cordoba and the region in general, to reach, through extensive training, the technical and sensorial transgression of workmanship, textures and finishes.

Kisko was born in 1978, and surrounded by the comfort of a close and humble Cordovan neighbourhood, he began to establish his first links with the kitchen in his parents’ family bar. He currently holds a Michelin badge, awarded in 2012 and renewed year after year until today. Since Kisko García began to walk the creative path of Choco, he has received numerous awards, including two Repsol Suns; he was awarded as Revelation Restaurant of Andalusia in 2006 at Madrid Fusion, the following year he was awarded the Restaurant, Agriculture and Fisheries award, the Andalucía Sabor award and the Futura Association award in recognition of his professional work.

Emilio José Gualda Manzano

A graduate in Humanities (UOC), Telecommunications Engineer and PhD in Telecommunications (UPC Barcelona), he is currently Associate Professor in the field of Biology at the School of Agri-Food and Biosystems Engineering of Barcelona (EEABB-UPC) and visiting professor at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Castelldefels. For the last twenty years he has been researching the development of new laser microscopy photography techniques applied to the field of Natural and Health Sciences. He has also participated in different scientific (ICFOseum, CienciaViva) and cultural outreach activities, being an active part of the PiscisFactory movement.

Juan López López

Artist, filmmaker and cultural manager with two decades of experience in the Andalusian and Spanish art scene. As an audiovisual artist, he is behind some of the most interesting projects in the field in the province in recent years. In addition, he has linked his creative work in the audiovisual field with national artists such as Angel Molina, Niño de Elche, Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Ylia, Raúl Cantizano, Skygaze, Okkre, Baldman, Daar, Juanjo Palacios, Edu Comelles, Chinowski Garachana, Hombre Bosque or Juan Cantizzani.

Fernando Luke

Multidisciplinary artist from Fernán Nuñez who has also been artistic assistant of the FLORA Festival in three editions (including the current one in 2023). His work has been shown in places such as the Diputación de Córdoba, Escuela de Arte Mateo Inurria, Ayuntamiento de Fernán Núñez or Cutto gallery, Madrid.

Michael Marder

Born in Moscow in 1980, he has lived outside Russia since his youth. After training at various universities in Canada and the United States, he received his PhD in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research in New York. Marder did postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto and taught at Georgetown University, George Washington University and Saskatchewan University. He is currently an Ikerbasque Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country.

His main fields of study are the phenomenological tradition of continental philosophy, environmental thought and political philosophy.

In addition to his academic work, Marder is a prolific author with numerous books and articles that have contributed significantly to contemporary thinking on the relationship between humanity and nature. These include Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (2013), The Philosopher’s Plant: An Intellectual Herbarium (2014) and Dump Philosophy: A Phenomenology of Devastation (2020).

Jorge Rodríguez Manzano

Telecommunications Engineer (UPC Barcelona) specialised in the field of Information Technology and in the design and development of online systems and platforms for data visualisation. He has more than ten years of experience in interdisciplinary team projects, with the aim of approaching and applying technologies from a more humanistic and human point of view. He has carried out intervention projects in public space based on spatial data and developed interactive platforms that relate text, image, sound and spatio-temporal data.

Urbanism and spatial data projects: https://carercities.com/

Ongoing art and multimedia project: https://disloopia.com/

Laura Martínez Lombardía

Graduate in audiovisual communication, freelance photographer and graphic editor. She studied the International Master’s Degree in Documentary Photography at Efti, years later she studied the PHotoEspaña Master’s Degree in Photography and Artistic Projects. For 10 years she directed Control P, a studio for the production and coordination of artistic projects. She is a collaborating teacher at Lens School of Visual Arts. Her work appears in 03 Sobre el último cine X (Editorial Phree). Her work has been part of numerous group exhibitions in Spain. The latest group exhibitions through the platform Cómo ser fotógrafa have taken place in Galería Nueva (ARCO ’22), Museo Lázaro Galdiano and RED ITINER of the Community of Madrid. In addition, Martínez Lombardía is the artistic photographer for the FLORA festival in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

In her work she explores the environment, common spaces, nature and the horizon as a metaphor for the passage of time, doubt and uncertainty.

El Mati

He is one of the most avant-garde cantaores with the greatest projection of contemporary flamenco. His morentian spirit and his shrimp voice are the foundations of his immense talent as a cantaor, musician and creator. Because, although El Mati has grown up in the peñas, tablaos and flamenco festivals (where he has triumphed in the biggest one: the Festival de Cante de Las Minas, 2019), he has also made a place for himself in clubs and festivals that are committed to his mischievous and playful approach to flamenco, the same one that threads his first album, Doce de cuatro, his show Jugando or his experiments with the InteresteLab collective.

Juanfe Pérez

Bassist, guitarist, composer and music producer. He studied classical guitar at the Conservatorio Profesional Javier Perianes in Huelva, flamenco guitar at the Conservatorio Superior Rafael Orozco in Córdoba and World Music at Codarts DMWC, Rotterdam. However, as a result of an infinite curiosity and a broad musical culture, Juanfe travelled from the guitar to the bass to delve into a long investigation of this instrument in flamenco. In this way, he has found his own language and technique that he has been developing while collaborating in different projects and composing his own imaginary sound.

Finally, he has captured his entire journey with the bass in his first album, Prohibido el toque, a project in which he composed, arranged and produced all the songs. In addition, in his role as producer and musical arranger, the albums Mar de cobre, by the flamenco singer Cristina Soler, and Ser de luz, by the flautist Sergio de Lope, stand out. He has also composed music for dance companies such as Olga Pericet, Rafaela Carrasco and Sara Calero.

Javier Rabadán

Percussionist from Cartagena. Since 2010, the artist Javier Rabadán has toured festivals and stages all over the world accompanying a wide variety of artists of the current flamenco scene, working with names such as Rosario ‘La Tremendita’, Sergio de Lope, Juanfe Pérez, Ana Morales, Farruquito, Antonio Canales, or El Pele, among many others.

Alfredo Ramos

With a PhD in Political Science from the Complutense University of Madrid, with a thesis on the leap in scale of participatory democracy in Brazil, Alfredo Ramos has been a researcher on projects on citizenship, cultural policies and social innovation in universities in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and France. He is currently one of the promoters of the Laboratory of Thought, Culture and Gender “Un Estudio Propio”.

He has also collaborated in the “Participatory Democracy” project at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). His publications include Democracia, escala y participación (2014) and Las conferencias de políticas públicas en Brasil: hacia un sistema integrado de participación y deliberación (2013).

Antonio Ruz

An independent choreographer and dancer, he is one of the most outstanding creators of dance in Spain. His discourse, developed at the head of his own company, or in collaborations with renowned groups, such as the German Sasha Waltz & Guests, is based on an accentuated interest in the most open character of dance.

After his training in flamenco, Spanish dance, ballet and his career as a dancer with the Ballet Victor Ullate, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon and the National Dance Company, in 2009 he created his own company in search of a creative identity through research in the field of movement and multidisciplinary collaboration.

His latest creations include Electra with the BNE; Presente; Gugurumbé, with Fahmi Alqhai; Signos, with the violist Isabel Villanueva; In Paradisum, with the CND; La Noche de San Juan, in Fundación Juan March and Gran Teatro del Liceu: AÚN, his first dance film, with ELAMOR; and Pharsalia, in Teatros del Canal and the Museo Universidad de Navarra. Among the awards that outline his career, the National Dance Award 2018 in the Creation category and the RTVE Dance Critical Eye Award 2013 stand out.

Juan Velasco

Journalist, cultural promoter and record collector. As a journalist, he coordinates the Culture section of the digital newspaper Cordópolis. As a disc jockey, under the alias Juani Cash, he has run the Jukebox Jam! promoter since 2015 and has been resident DJ and programmer at Sonora Beach (Estepona) and Gran Baba (Cádiz). He has also promoted the InstanTeatro theatre festival in Cordoba, worked on the programming and production of the RioMundi Festival and is the resident DJ at the ElectroLunch parties in Cordoba. He is also the creative director of the label Esquejes, whose first release, sponsored by Ciudad de las Ideas, is entitled Electronic Flamenco Esquejes, and will be released in autumn 2023. He has been collecting records since the beginning of the 21st century and almost always opts for vinyl to play, a format he uses to string together sessions ranging from jazz to house, without neglecting Balearic, leftfield or disco sounds.