Arts & Culture changemakers

The selection

• Aaron SorkinLos Angeles, USA“Because he understood that the gap between democratic ideals and institutional reality is where drama lives, and because works like “The West Wing” and “The Newsroom” showed millions of people what genuine public-spirited argument could look like before they’d ever witnessed it in their actual institutions.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Adama DiopDakar, Senegal“Who migrates, and how do we encounter otherness? Adama Diop opens up unexpected pathways.”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• Africa Center Hong KongHong Kong, ChinaRecommended by Cesar Jung-Harada
• Amélie NothombParis, France“Amélie Nothomb, writer and extraordinary woman. Because her presence in the world of writing is a constant source of inspiration, as is the idea that one can write every single day, each day at dawn, and deliver readers a new book every year, for the sole reason that inspiration never runs dry. Her very existence is a constant reminder of my own laziness.”Recommended by Ilaria Gaspari
• Atelier Berger MilàParis, France“A young Franco-Spanish duo whose work treats architecture as a connective tissue between people and territory, a quiet, exacting practice that scales from a single room to the urban fabric.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Aude OlivaCambridge, USARecommended by Katy Foraz
• BiltokiAnglet, France“They revive a covered market by trusting the small producers who already feed the town.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• BiofabricateNew York, USA“Suzanne Lee built the community that lets grown materials move from the lab into real making.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Birdgirl (Mya-Rose Craig)Bristol, UK“Mya-Rose opens birdwatching and nature to communities too often left outside it.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Centre Culturel des Afro-descendants de Montréal - CCAMMontreal, CanadaRecommended by JJ Hazoumé
• CopenhillCopenhagen, Denmark“A power plant you can ski down is a bold idea, and I respect that they show its tensions honestly too.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• DiazomaAthens, Greece“Bringing ancient theatres back to life for the towns around them is heritage that keeps breathing.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Donna HarawaySanta Cruz, USARecommended by Søren Hermansen
• Elle BarbaraMontreal, CanadaRecommended by JJ Hazoumé
• Enzo TortoraMilan, Italy“Because his wrongful imprisonment became a catalyst for Italian judicial reform, and because he transformed personal injustice into a campaign for systemic change.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Fonds ExploreConcarneau, France“They back the expeditions that help us understand a world we are still learning to protect.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Françoise VergèsSaint-Denis, La Réunion“Who cleans the world, and who keeps it running? Françoise Vergès reflects on the politics of maintenance and the invisible labor performed by women.”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• Germaine AcognyToubab Dialaw, Senegal“Because gesture and movement are, above all, a constant rethinking of openness.”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• Hannah ArendtNew York City, USA“Because she insisted on understanding politics as the realm of human plurality and action rather than administration, and because she never stopped asking what makes democratic life possible beyond bureaucratic processes.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Heatherwick StudioLondon, UK“Thomas argues that buildings should move us, and his work makes that case hard to ignore.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Heman BekeleAnnandale, USA“Coming up with the beginnings of a simple, accessible solution to prevent a global problem. What a gem!”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• Instituto TerraAimorés, Brazil“The Salgados replanted a dead farm into forest, and the springs and animals came back, which gives me hope.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Judith ShklarCambridge, MA, USA“Because she built an entire political theory around “putting cruelty first” as the foundation of liberalism, and because she showed that defending ordinary citizens from arbitrary power - whether public or private - is the core democratic project, not some secondary concern after we’ve sorted out grand constitutional principles.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Kéré ArchitectureBerlin, Germany“Francis Kere builds with local hands and materials, and the community owns the result.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• La ChartreuseAiguenoire, France“Choosing to make less in order to stay true to themselves is a kind of courage I admire.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• La MaestraParis, FranceRecommended by Constance Albanel
• Lucas Davaze, Médiation ClimatGRENOBLE, France“Taking people to stand on a dying glacier turns climate from an idea into a memory they keep.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Malcom FerdinandFort-de-France, Martinique“Making visible the scandal of the pesticide chlordécone: what its past use tells us, what its present-day effects reveal, and what it means for future generations.”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• Mellon FoundationNew York, USA“Putting the arts and humanities first in their giving is a stance I find quietly brave.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Michel MayorGenève, Switzerland“He turned the question of whether we are alone into something we can actually measure.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Milo RauVienna, Austria“This is the first time, thanks to him, that I’ve thought about the immediate possibility of art. Not in 20 years, not in 10 years, but right now, in order to repair the living world.”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• MIT Media LabBoston, MA, USA“I keep coming back to their belief that the best ideas live between disciplines.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• New RoomMontreal, CanadaRecommended by JJ Hazoumé
• Nicolas NovaGenève, Switzerland“Nicolas taught designers to think like anthropologists, and it makes their work matter more.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Olivier RoellingerCancale, FranceRecommended by Katy Foraz
• Paul Emilieu StudioParis, France“Starting every project from what already exists is craft and conscience working together.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Pierre RosanvallonParis, France“Because he built an entire intellectual project around making democracy work better rather than just critiquing it, and because he showed that rigorous scholarship and public engagement are not just compatible but necessary complements.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Potato headSeminyak, IndonesiaRecommended by Simon Bernard
• RobriesSurabaya, IndonesiaRecommended by Simon Bernard
• Rotor DeconstructionBruxelles, Belgium“They prove that salvaging a building's materials can pay for itself, which is what convinces builders.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Schumacher CollegeDartington, UK“A school that lives what it teaches, growing its own food and deciding together, is education I believe in.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Senseable City Lab (MIT)Cambridge, USA“Carlo Ratti reads the city as a living organism, and his work helps us see ourselves inside it.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Shinichiro OgataTokyo, Japan“Ogata carries Japanese tradition into the present with a care that touches everything he makes.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Shorefast Foundation / Fogo Island InnFogo island, Canada“Zita Cobb came home and turned hospitality into a way to keep her island alive.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Simone Schwarz-BartGoyave, Guadeloupe“To bring such a small part of the world to the fore, knowing that it holds so many of the answers to the challenges of our time.”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• Studio Other SpacesBerlin, Germany“Eliasson and Behmann make spaces that ask you to feel your place in nature.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Studio RoosegaardeRotterdam, Netherlands“Daan makes technology into a conversation about the world we actually want.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Susan NeimanPotsdam, Germany“How can we grow older without betraying ourselves or our ideals? Susan Neiman embarks on a reflection on what it truly means to become an adult.”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• Sweet OmLamentin (Guadeloupe), France“Therese grows wellbeing out of a Creole garden, and the care in it is real.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• The Emergence NetworkChennai, India“Bayo gives me permission to slow down and sit with questions instead of rushing to fix them.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Transition NetworkTotnes, UK“Rob taught me that imagining the future is itself a tool for the climate transition.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Under The PoleConcarneau, France“They dive where science cannot easily reach and share everything they find.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Ursula HirschmannBrussels, Belgium“Because she co-authored the Ventotene Manifesto’s vision of European federalism while herself stateless, and because she demonstrated that building transnational democracy requires both intellectual courage and practical organizing across borders.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Wael ShawkyAlexandria, Egypt“Shawky makes history feel unstable in the best way. His puppets and staged operas remind us that every official account is a construction, and that reclaiming the telling is itself a form of resistance.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Wanjira MathaiNairobi, Kenya“Carrying forward the Green Belt Movement while shaping continental climate policy. She makes the link between restored landscapes and restored dignity feel obvious.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Wildlife Conservation Fund / Hélène GrimaudNew York, USA“A great pianist giving her fame to wolves is a union of art and wildness I find moving.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Yellow Dot StudiosLos Angeles, USA“Using sharp humor to name greenwashing is a way to keep people awake that I enjoy.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• ÉcomarisMontréal, Canada“Making plankton visible is a quiet way to help us care about the half of our oxygen we never see.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Édouard LouisParis, France“Constantly proving that telling intimate stories, bringing the ordinary to the fore, is an immensely political act.”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville