Executive Board – Founders
Hervé Digne
Co-founder and president
An alumnus of Sciences Po Paris and the French National School of Administration (ENA), Hervé Digne has always worked in culture.
He began as a senior manager for Hachette magazines and then for Lagardère’s media activities. A former adviser to the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, he played an active role in the roll-out of digital TV services and the launch of the France 24 network.
He then led various media projects for consulting groups (Arthur D Little, Kurt Salmon, Post’Advisors) and oversaw joint ventures in the cultural and creative industries as the chairman of Postmedia Finance, which he founded in 2003.
He has been involved in the film industry as a board member of EuropaCorp and chairman of Cofiloisirs, a film financing institution (2012-19), and has been a member of UGC’s Board of Directors since 2014. He is also the chairman of the Avignon Forum and the Lambert Collection.
He is the honorary chairman of the Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe Patron Association, which he founded and chaired for ten years, a board member of FRAC Île-de-France and a member of several artistic juries. Hervé is also a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and was awarded the National Order of Merit.
He co-founded Manifesto with Laure Confavreux-Colliex in 2015. In 2021, they co-founded ADLCA (Association for the Development of Artists’ Creative Spaces), which he chairs.
Laure Confavreux Colliex
Co-founder and co-president
After graduating with an MBA from France’s prestigious business school ESSEC and a Master’s degree in arts and media from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Laure organized a film and music festival and an exhibition for the St Petersburg Tercentenary in Paris in 2003 and worked for France’s national museum association (known as RMN) and the Metropolitan Museum in New York (2001).
She managed the European entity of the Lord Cultural Resources Group, an international leader in museum consulting and planning, for 10 years and became the Group’s Executive Vice President in 2011. She has contributed to a wide range of complex and multicultural projects, including the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, the Musée du Quai Branly, the Louvre-Lens Museum, Hermès’ Conservatory of Creations, the Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) and the Musée des Civilisations in Réunion, and worked on the development of major international projects, including the Heydar Aliyev Center (Baku, Azerbaijan), the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Dharan, Saudi Arabia), the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum (Geneva, Switzerland), the Jeongok Prehistory Museum (South Korea), M Avenue (Marrakesh, Morocco) and the Olympic Museum (Lausanne, Switzerland). She developed Forward +50, the first “serious game” to raise awareness of climate issues for UNEP, presented at the Rio+20 Earth Summit.
Laure contributed to the development of the Magnum Photos endowment fund; she became a board member of this fund and Lab’Bel, the Bel Group’s endowment fund for contemporary art.
She is a board member of EDMUS (a foundation which works to fight multiple sclerosis) and takes an active role in SINGA, an international citizens’ movement that offers innovative solutions to societal integration.
She regularly lectures at Sciences Po, Paris-Dauphine and the Sorbonne and has taught cultural entrepreneurship at ESSEC.
In 2015, she co-founded Manifesto with Hervé Digne and is the company’s Executive Director. She works on all strategic projects in France and around the world. In 2021, they co-founded ADLCA (Association for the Development of Artists’ Creative Spaces), which she co-chairs.
Executive Board – Founders
Paula Aisemberg
Director of artistic projects for the Emerige Group
Paula Aisemberg is the director of artistic projects for the Emerige Group. Previously, she was the director of La maison rouge, which she created with Antoine de Galbert and headed for fourteen years. She curated notable exhibitions, including Henry Darger and My Joburg in Paris and Dresden, My Buenos Aires at La maison rouge, Etranger résident, la collection Marin Karmitz at Muntref (Buenos Aires), and Ceija Stojka at the Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid). She is also the president of the Trampoline association, which supports the French art scene, a board member of the Crédac, the Jeu de Paume and the Cité Internationale des Arts, and a lecturer in the Master's degree in Exhibition Sciences and Techniques at Paris I.
Guillaume Désanges
President of the Palais de Tokyo
Guillaume Désanges (born in 1971) was appointed President of the Palais de Tokyo in February 2022. Based in Paris, he has been an art critic and independent curator for fifteen years. He is the director of Work Method, an independent production structure that develops international exhibition and conference projects. He was appointed artistic director of the Salon de Montrouge in 2021.
Between 2001 and 2007, he coordinated the artistic project of the Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers; from 2009 to 2011, he was a guest curator of the Centre d’art Le Plateau-Frac Île-de-France (Paris) for the Érudition Concrète cycle. He was part of the editorial board of Trouble Magazine, collaborated with publishers Exit Express and Exit Book magazines (Madrid), and taught at the Ecole nationale supérieure d’art de Paris-Cergy, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. He is also behind the project La Méthode Room, a residency program in Chicago.
He developed several projects for conferences (The Dark Side of the Form, A History of Performance in 20 Minutes, Signs and Wonders, Vox Artisti, Art: A History of Violence) and readings. From 2013 to 2023, he was the curator of La Verrière - Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, in Brussels; in 2021, he was appointed artistic director of the Salon de Montrouge, with Coline Davenne. Guillaume Désanges organized several exhibitions in France and abroad, including recently: Myriam Mihindou, ÉPIDERME, La Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Brussels, 2022; Tactics of Augmented Dreams, La
Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Brussels, 2022; Lucy McKenzie, Buildings in Belgium, Buildings in Oil, La Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Brussels, 2022; Majd Abdel Hamid, A Stitch in Times, La Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Bruxelles, 2021; Dance and Ritual, Centre National de la Danse, Pantin, 2021; and mountaincutters, Signs of Primal Breath.
Stéphane Distinguin
Founder and CEO of Fabernovel
Stéphane Distinguin is a French entrepreneur in the field of digital, creative and cultural industries, a campaigner for European tech and the founder of Fabernovel. As an art and design collector, he is also the author of an essay on the economics and funding of culture and creation, published by Editions JC Lattès: Et si on vendait la Joconde ? (What if we sold the Joconde?).
Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel
Director of Lafayette Anticipations
Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel is the director of Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation Galerie Lafayettes, where she curated exhibitions by Marguerite Humeau & Jean-Marie Appriou and by Martin Margiela in 2021, and by Cyprien Gaillard in 2022. She is a member of the committee of experts of the Monde Nouveaux program. In 2022, she was the curator of the Riga International Biennial and the director of the feature-length documentary based on the
exhibition (2021). From 2011 to 2019, she was a curator for the Palais de Tokyo: her exhibitions included the carte blanche to Tomás Saraceno, ON AIR (2018-2019), the institution’s greatest public success, and to Tino Sehgal, the largest live art exhibition ever made (2016). She also presented exhibitions by Marguerite Humeau, FOXP2 (2016), Ed Atkins, Bastards (2014), Evian Disease by Helen Marten (2013), or Mo’swallow (2014) by David Douard, as well as the group show At the Edge of the Worlds (2015). She regularly collaborates with French and international institutions, publications and catalogues, and participates in numerous seminars and juries in France and abroad.
Dimitri Roussel
Architect and founder of DREAM
After training as an architect at ENSA Saint-Etienne and Paris La Villette, he co-founded the firm laisné roussel in 2013 and created the firm DREAM in 2018. He sees architecture as a social and ecological commitment. Attached to the working-class neighborhoods where he grew up, he is committed to developing a generous and meticulous form of architecture, even when budgets are tight. Wood is his favorite material, the one that most inspires him: for him, it is one of the solutions for a more responsible, sustainable and healthy city.
Marie-Cécile Zinsou
French-Beninese entrepreneur and President of the Board of Directors of the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici
In 2005, Marie-Cécile Zinsou created the Zinsou Foundation in Cotonou, dedicated to contemporary art and its influence; she is the president and artistic director of the Foundation. In 2013, she opened the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ouidah and joined the Global Museum Leader Colloquium of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since 2015, Marie-Cécile Zinsou has been a member of the board of the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles, and, since 2019, of the board of the Institut des Cultures d'Islam (Institute of Islamic Cultures). She chairs the board of La Maison Maria Casarès, a cultural center dedicated to theater, located in Charente. At the suggestion of the French Minister of Culture in October 2021, the President of the French Republic appointed Marie-Cécile Zinsou President of the Board of Directors of the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici for a three-year term. After being named Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, she received the Praemium Imperiale – Grant for young artists – in 2014 in Japan, thanks to the action of the Zinsou Foundation.
Team
Yvannoé Kruger
Director
Having studied at the University of the Arts London, the London College of Communication and Central Saint Martins, Yvannoé Kruger started out directing fiction and documentaries. He then joined Jean de Loisy’s artistic programming team at the Palais de Tokyo from 2011 to 2015, where he organized multiple performances, festivals, concerts and installations. As an exhibition curator, he likes to find connections between the different artistic disciplines. He is often invited to participate in conferences and juries.
Currently artistic director at Manifesto, he has shaped the thinking behind artistic programs and commissions for various projects, including the artwork created by Ivan Argote for the Sciences Po Paris campus, Cecilia Granara for the façade of the POUSH building in Clichy and Paul Créange for the Génération building in Saint-Denis. He also worked with the artists during the first artists’ residency in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. Since the launch of the artists’ workshop at L’Orfèvrerie, he has overseen the artistic direction of POUSH, creating in situ and off site exhibitions, most notably at the Monnaie de Paris and as part of the VIP Parcours Privé at the International Contemporary Art Fair in Paris (2021). Since 2022, he is director of POUSH.
Christine Camio
Deputy Director and Development, POUSH
After graduating with a degree in audiovisual production from ESRA and initially working in TV, Christine Camio joined the agency La Lune Rousse as Director of Production. She managed a wide range of unusual and creative projects, focusing on visual identity and event planning in the luxury sector.
Christine then joined Allô La Lune, where she was responsible for management and production at Ground Control, a cultural venue in a former SNCF building in Paris. Her responsibilities included everything from the development and design of the venue to the reworking of the visual style charter and the venue’s launch.
She worked as Director of Production at the agency Shortcut on major events (Chaumet, L’Oréal, Louis Vuitton, Longchamp and the Prix de Diane) and worked with the architect Nicolas Delefosse on the renovation and development of a Parisian hotel. She joined Manifesto in spring 2021 as POUSH’s Director of Operations. She is responsible for the site’s management, project development and coordination between all involved parties.
Anastasia de Bentzmann
Administrative and Financial Director
Anastasia de Bentzmann graduated with a degree in administrative and financial management from Paul Cézanne University in Aix-Marseille.
She started her career with the Voyage Privé Group, working as the Finance Officer for their subsidiary in London. In addition to her financial role, she was involved in organizing events for the group, including the first international convention.
She is Administrative and Financial Director at Manifesto and POUSH, where she leads the administrative and financial department. She oversees HR, accounting and financial matters and works with the project teams to ensure that they understand the legal, financial and administrative implications of public procurement and the company’s various activities.
Lolita Convert
Communications Manager
After completing a law degree at Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University, Lolita Convert graduated with a Master’s degree in communications, culture and institutions from Sciences Po Lyon. She began her career as an event coordinator for the London Spanish Film Festival before joining the UGC Group. For four years, she was involved with internal and external communications, publishing and events, including the Cannes Film Festival. She also worked on photographic exhibitions and artistic commissions in cinemas.
She is responsible for communications, press relations and events for Manifesto and POUSH.
Inès Massonie
Project Manager
Inès Massonie graduated from Paris Nanterre University with a Master’s degree in art history, specializing in contemporary art. She also has a Master’s degree in exhibition science and techniques from the University of Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Inès completed an internship in mediation at La Terrasse Espace d’Art in Nanterre and a curatorial internship with Mélanie Bouteloup, working on the exhibition Felicità Goodbye Horses, presenting the artists who graduated with honors from the École de Beaux-Arts in Paris and Bourges.
Working for the curatorial collective Rencard Collective, she developed the Sans feu ni lieu exhibition at POUSH and the Michel Journiac gallery, presenting artists from the Fonds d’Art Contemporain - Paris Collection, the University of Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne and POUSH who explored the subject of domesticity. At POUSH, she is responsible for day-to-day relationships with the artists, operations at the venue and coordinating partnerships.
Simon Jung
Project Manager
Simon Jung has a Bachelor’s degree in economics, a Master’s degree in organizational management from the University of Paris Dauphine and a Master’s degree in cultural management from HEC Paris. His love of creation and innovation led him to work at CNRS Innovation, the Palais de Tokyo, where he was responsible for studies, prospection and audience development, and Arenametrix, where he worked with more than fifty cultural institutions, including MUCEM and the Museum of Natural History. In addition, Simon is a keen photographer and co-founder of the AUY (Art Urbanism Youth) association; it aims to highlight urban issues, as seen by young artists from all over the world. The first edition, which he curated, Art Urbanism Youth India, was held in 2020. With his creative and managerial skills, Simon joined POUSH in 2022 as an assistant artistic director and has helped organize exhibitions including Les échos d'un temps lointain arrivent en sifflant sur le sable, Le paysan, le chercheur et le croyant and À revers at Le 19M.
Binta Faty
Administrative and Financial Coordinator
After graduating with a Master’s degree in public administration from the Law Faculty at Cheikh Anta Diop University, Binta Faty studied for a Master’s degree in public accounting law, economics, management, research and public sector careers at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University. At the Pierre Raynaud Institute of Judicial Studies at the University of Paris 2 - Panthéon-Assas, she consolidated her legal analytical skills and explored issues related to companies’ organization and operations. After working initially as an assistant at the Tribunal de Grande Instance (Court of First Instance) in Dakar, she joined the private sector. At Manifesto, she has an active role in the administrative, legal and financial management of the contract with the Société du Grand Paris and is responsible for POUSH’s administrative management, including invoicing and monitoring payments.