UK New Artists Announces Selected Artists for BJCEM Mediterranea 20 Biennale
UK New Artists (UKNA) is pleased to announce the artists selected to represent the UK at BJCEM Mediterranea 20 – Young Artists Biennale, taking place across two cities of Nova Gorica, Slovenia and Gorizia, Italy, from 31 May to 4 June 2025. This event is in collaboration with GO! 2025 European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica – Gorizia and ŠKUC Association. This year’s edition, themed BORDERLESS, explores the concept of borders in all their forms - physical, cultural, political and imagined. Artists were invited to respond to ideas of movement, identity, and the spaces in between. Over 75 artists from across Europe were selected by Curators Tia Čiček (Slovenia) and Misal Adnan Yıldız (International) alongside members of BJCEM.
Selected through an international open call, the UKNA artists are:
Robyn Bradford
Robyn Bradford is a visual artist based in Suffolk, England. Her work is rooted in the reclamation and transformation of discarded furniture, giving new stories to objects that are ordinarily used without thought. The objects that were once functional are deconstructed and rearranged in unconventional ways. She does this in hopes to create a conversation between viewers that reconsiders the relationship between materiality, memory, and functionality. Inspired by the beauty found in imperfections and the potential of overlooked objects. Bradford creates work that reflects themes of renewal, transformation, and resilience. The furniture's original purpose is often subtly referenced or juxtaposed with new meanings, questioning the ways objects hold both personal and collective significance.
Instagram: @robynbradford.art
Ronnie Danaher
Ronnie Danaher is an artist and filmmaker working with moving image, digital technology and sculptural installation, to explore the sacred within virtuality. The gilded camp of Catholic imagery and humour are used as tools to confront complex feelings around her religious upbringing, playing with the conflict of being raised Catholic whilst also being raised on the internet. Stained-glass frames her films as an extension of the screen. Found footage and digital renderings are collaged onto filmed scenarios. Recurring themes in her practice include the sacred, screens, internet echo chambers, memeification, Irish heritage, family dynamics, guilt, and shame.
Recent residencies and awards include Dos Mares (Marseille), Beyond Boundaries (BJCEM, UK New Artists, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan), New Artist Collective (UK New Artists, Lincoln), Hotel Generation (arebyte, London). Recent exhibitions include God Willing (Shipton Gallery, London), Touch Me, I’m Trying (serf, Leeds), and Leeds Artists Show (Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds).
Instagram: @ronniedanaher
Malak Elghuel
Malak Elghuel is a Libyan artist based between Dubai and London, whose multidisciplinary practice centers around the examination of social changes in the Mena region, particularly her home country. Using time as a measure of change, an invisible vessel for documentation, and a medium, Malak's research-intensive process explores culture and human behavior during periods of radical transformation. Her work reflects her personal experience growing up in Libya and living through societal shifts and changes.
Malak holds a Bachelor's degree in Multimedia Design from the American University of Sharjah and is an alumna of the Salama Emerging Artist Fellowship (SEAF). She has participated in numerous exhibitions including Art Dubai (UAE); Shubbak Festival ( London, UK); Le Cube Independent Art Room (Rabat, Morocco); Retracing a Disappearing Landscape in P21 Gallery (London, UK); Art Jameel Youth Takeover (Dubai, UAE); Pop Art from North Africa at the Casa Arabe (Madrid, Spain); Passing Time, an artist-driven experiment (Online); Community and Critique at Warehouse421 (Abu Dhabi,UAE).
Through her work, Malak continues her ongoing exploration and curiosity to understand the cultural and societal shifts occurring in the MENA region. Her unique perspective, shaped by her personal experiences, allows her to capture the essence of these transformations in a deeply thoughtful and reflective manner.
Instagram: @therapy.rugs
Irini Kalaitzidi
Irini is a dance artist, researcher, and educator. Her practice revolves around choreography and machine learning, exploring critical and caring ways of engaging with the human body. Through qualities of speculation, liminality, and playfulness, she investigates how different technologies shape our understanding of the body—its capacities, vulnerabilities, and limitations. While deeply engaged with computational processes, Irini takes pleasure in discovering analogue equivalents to contemporary digital phenomena.
Her works vary from performances to screen-based projects, articles and choreographic scores and have been presented in venues such as Onassis Stegi, Somerset House, The V&A, Stanley Picker Gallery, Bangalore International Center, and Cairo Citadel. For 2023-24, Irini is an Onassis AiR Fellow.
Parallel to her artistic practice, Irini works as a lecturer for the MA/MFA Computational Arts and BA Digital Arts Computing courses at Goldsmiths University of London, teaching machine learning for artistic practice, and introducing choreography as hacking, among other modules.
Instagram: @irini.klz
BJCEM, Biennale des jeunes créateurs de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée was founded in Sarajevo in 2001. BJCEM believes that art and culture play a fundamental role in our societies by fostering respect and understanding for diversity through the discovery of the values of different cultures that enrich our own. Art is a universal language and, as such, it contributes to bridge borders and resolve conflicts. Initially created to oversee the Biennale, today BJCEM is a solid network with 47 members, ranging from cultural institutions to independent organisations, with partnerships throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, also with organisations and projects focused on the Mediterranean Diaspora. UKNA has been a proud member of BJCEM since 2015 and sits on the BJCEM Board of Directors.