To celebrate the incredible talent within the Dazed Club community, we’re spotlighting a selection of Berlin-based curators and members in the Spring 2026 issue of Dazed. From DJs to designers, and artists to photographers, our global community of creatives spans a wide range of disciplines.

Discover more below, and download the Dazed Club app for your chance to be featured. 

ALI KIBLAWI, CREATIVE & ART DIRECTOR

Ali Kiblawi is a Lebanese art director and creative strategist specialising in concept-led visual storytelling within fashion and contemporary culture. His work is defined by strong narrative architecture and a unique approach to world-building.

His perspective is informed by his Lebanese background and his education in architecture and urban landscaping. These influences shape his storytelling and the way he thinks about space, context, and atmosphere when developing a story.

This year, a long-held ambition of his is taking shape through the launch of a multidisciplinary creative and art studio. The studio is conceived as a collaborative platform “bringing together talents and voices that deserve greater visibility within the industry”.

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Ali Kiblawi: My favorite thing in my bag is my Lush Jasmine perfume. It smells so good and is often a great ice breaker in social gatherings.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Ali Kiblawi: Hanging and partying with the dolls!

ALTAY ERLIK, FILMMAKER

Altay Erlik is a filmmaker focused on creative documentaries, whose practice extends into music videos, video art, and street photography, weaving a unified artistic stance exploring the uncomfortable depths of human behaviour and the human psyche through visual harmonies felt in the gut.

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Altay Erlik: A toothbrush, spare underwear, and socks kit.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Altay Erlik: There is this thing called the ‘German stare.’ If you look slightly different, eyes may linger a little longer, as if decoding you. Some say it’s an instinctive cultural reflex, a way of measuring potential threat. Intimidating them by staring back and refusing to look away, and playing this game in a safe playground, feels uniquely Berlin.

ÁNGELES DONNER VILLANUEVA, DESIGNER

Ángeles Donner Villanueva is a designer based in Neukölln, Berlin. With her label DONNER, she focuses on sustainability and craftsmanship, where pre-owned ties are reworked into unique purses, accessories and garments. 

Born to a German father and Spanish mother, her taste is informed by both northern ‘properness’ and the freedom of Andalusia. Living in vibrant Berlin, surrounded by unapologetic queerness and endless second hand stores, markets and community spaces, really sparked the joy of creating fashion.

 “I love a good strong colour and pattern, especially if it’s silk. You should see my studio, I’ve taken hoarding ties to the next level,“ she says.

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Ángeles Donner Villanueva: Definitely my Ernie (from ‘Bert and Ernie’) pouch. Found years ago at a second hand shop I used to manage. I’m diabetic, so it’s filled with injection needles for my Insulin pen… but also lipgloss.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Ángeles Donner Villanueva: Riding on the U8 train line. Just kidding! My usual go-to is sitting somewhere by the canal in Kreuzberg, with a coffee in my hand. But I can also recommend strolling through flea markets such as the ones at Maybachufer, Rathaus Schöneberg or Kranoldplatz. With friends! And lastly, quite underrated and maybe a bit spooky to some, Berlin has some gorgeous cemeteries worth visiting.

ANTO N’SOW, PHOTOGRAPHER & VISUAL ARTIST

Antoinette N’Sow is a visual artist, photographer and aspiring creative director from Madrid with Senegalese roots, currently based in Berlin. Their work uses photography as a tool for self-exploration, documentation, and resistance, often focusing on the Black diaspora and queer communities, especially within the ballroom scene.

Through intimate and intentional imagery, Antoinette creates narratives that honour tenderness, heritage, and belonging. Their perspective as a queer Black person raised in Europe informs a practice that prioritises complexity, care, and the right to exist beyond imposed definitions. They challenge systems of exclusion by focusing on those often left at the margins.

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Antoinette N’Sow: I can’t leave the house without my inhaler and my noise cancelling headphones. 

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Antoinette N’Sow: Going to the balls! I love seeing my friends and community. There’s something really heartwarming in witnessing everyone’s self expression and capturing that through my lens. And I love any excuse to dress up and look fab, and if I get to snatch a grand prize that’s the cherry on top.

BEYZA AĞIM, PHOTOGRAPHER

Beyza Ağım photographs intimacy – often within queer communities and the spaces the night allows to unfold. Moving between cultures and cities, she’s learned that identity shifts depending on where you stand, and that closeness must be built rather than assumed. Studying psychology alongside her practice, she’s drawn to what sits beneath an exterior.

Coming from Turkey shaped her understanding that artistic freedom is never simply about expression – it’s about the conditions that allow expression to breathe. “I grew up watching art exist without permission,” she says. “It made me understand that freedom isn’t evenly distributed. In some contexts it’s supported by infrastructure. In others, it’s sustained by risk — and that difference changes how you create.”

She is currently working on her first photobook, building an archive of chosen belonging and after-hours tenderness. Alongside developing music video projects, she is writing the screenplay for her debut film. She is also developing a film centred on Turkish womanhood and queer belonging – a story shaped by generational memory, migration, and inherited silence – expanding her photographic language into cinema.

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Beyza Ağım: My journal. I carry it almost everywhere. Feels like carrying a tiny safe space around. And my film camera, non-negotiable.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Beyza Ağım: To disappear for a night – between a club, a cigarette break, and a conversation with a stranger and then watch the city turn soft at sunrise. Test who you are here. Let Berlin shape you. It will anyway.

bblove, GRAPHIC DESIGNER & DJ 

Bianca Mocan, aka bblove, is a Berlin-based visual artist and DJ with Romanian roots. She is part of Refuge Worldwide as a resident and graphic designer at the station, while also holding an online residency at Stegi Radio, Athens. As co-founder of Ouch Collective, her sets move through rap, UK bass, dubstep, grime, ghetto funk, and leftfield sounds, reflecting a deep connection to contemporary culture. Beyond music, her work champions emerging artists from minority communities, aiming to widen space within the scene and challenge its boundaries. Rooted in generational culture and the ironies of modern life, her visual language blends raw sensitivity with a sharp edge.

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

bblove: Definitely my personal stickers, helping me leave a trace wherever I go.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

bblove: For me, biking and taking analog shots of whatever comes my way is one of the best things. Also connecting with people around here is so heartwarming.

DJ AYA, DJ 

Lilian Aya Bencze (DJ AYA) is a Zurich-born, Berlin-based artist with a keen eye for finessing the vitality, sexiness and punch of any given dancefloor. Their first love, UK bass, captured their imagination over a seven-year stint in London and brought her into electronic music’s binding fold. She is also the co-founder of (lip) service, a music-centric lesbian bar night, which is celebrating its two year anniversary during Berlin’s CSD 2026. After her debut release track ‘Good Boy’ end of last year, she has promised to be putting out “new, very exciting” collaborations and productions this summer. 

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

DJ AYA: I freak out when I can’t find my bloody lip stick and lip liner!  And I keep losing them constantly. The struggle is real. And expensive.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

DJ AYA: This might be a basic answer, but the club experience you get here is unlike anywhere else in the world. Especially the queer parties. The long running hours of the events are what makes the difference I think. You really get to not only dance but sit down and yap forever and get to know one another without having to stress about the club closing at 4am. That’s when it really gets started. 

KAMAL EMANGA, ART DIRECTOR & WRITER

Kamal Emanga has had an atypical entry into the Berlin creative industry, but has been able to carve out his space within it quickly. Whether it is through his work as a stylist or art director, his practice has always been fuelled by research and his interest in the big questions of human existence, life, and art-making. 

Drawing inspiration from diverse sources spanning literature to sports culture, his output is similarly spread into various media. What stays consistent within all his projects is his fascination with the workings of our world.

In recent times, Emanga has shifted towards a predominantly theoretical approach to interacting with culture. He aims to further distill the essence of his work by deepening his roots in that same research-based practice. 

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Kamal Emanga: My laptop case that serves as a wallet, bookcase, and helps me keep anything I shouldn’t lose safe.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Kamal Emanga: Long summer nights at Ankerklause.

LARA, FASHION DESIGNER 

Lara is a Berlin-based designer and founder of Laramz, an independent label launched at the end of 2024. Built on the rejection of traditional fashion structures, Laramz questions the idea that clothing belongs to a gender.

For Lara, garments are not assigned — they are inhabited. Working made-to-order, she creates genderless pieces that challenge silhouette and refuse binary categorisation. Distinctive fabrics and sculptural construction define her work, balancing futuristic minimalism with dark, vampiric undertones — sharp yet restrained, intimate yet provocative.

Rooted in Berlin’s experimental energy, Lara treats fashion as a language of identity rather than trend. Producing only on demand, she embraces a slower, more conscious model that prioritises intention, exclusivity and emotional connection. Lara creates garments that feel personal and powerful — pieces designed not to define the wearer, but to amplify who they already are.

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Lara: My phone and my headphones. Music is non-negotiable — I need a soundtrack to move through the city. No headphones, no exit.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Lara: Hot summer days that turn into nights. Galleries, flea markets, open airs — no fixed plan. Berlin works best when it’s unscripted. But still, nothing makes me feel more alive than my studio.

RAGE, PERFORMER, DJ & PHOTOGRAPHER

RAGE runs “Conversion Therapy” – making change possible since 2023, with a 100 per cent customer satisfaction rate. Rage is creating a scene, a culture, a new era of partying. Being a club kid themselves, they’re giving their peers a floor and a stage, one that hasn’t existed before.

RAGE is a DJ, performer and a host, a creative director, designer and the mother of the iconic international Haus of Audacity for exclusively trans and non-binary artists. Their vision is sharp, dark and revolutionary. Their execution is provocative and audacious. This is how they made their name back in Iran, and now they are slowly but surely taking over the queer nightlife of Germany.

Fav thing in my bag? 

RAGE: My Conversion Therapy business card.

Best thing to do in Berlin? 

RAGE: Going to Conversion Therapy by Haus of Audacity.

SOJI SOLARIN, FASHION DESIGNER

Soji Solarin is a fashion designer and founder of a namesake label. Having a clothing brand naturally means assuming many roles. Among them are art direction, styling, co-producing a classical composition, costume design, as well as freelancing/consulting for other brands. “My search for meaning brought me to Berlin, and what started off as a creative exploration at the time quickly turned into a business,” he says.

“My earlier works were inspired by my Nigerian background and growing up in the US, but I feel like I have successfully processed that part of my life and moved on to being inspired by other topics,” he continues. “My recent works have been inspired by mythology, which is another area of interest for me.”

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Soji Solarin: My prescription glasses. I’ve been navigating the world blindly for the past few years to avoid overstimulation, so to speak. Lately, I have been interested in observing again, so I’ve been wearing my glasses regularly and even got myself a spare so I’m never lacking.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Soji Solarin: Berlin has an abundance of techno clubs and events, which were fun for a while. But lately, it’s the simpler things. Taking a stroll by the Spree with a friend or going to this Ghanaian restaurant called African Kingdom. Watching the uncles and aunties with their beer in hand, vibing out and dancing carefree is an instant mood boost.

SZYMON STĘPNIAK, PHOTOGRAPHER 

Szymon is a Berlin-based fashion and event photographer working internationally. Originally from Warsaw, he graduated in Visual Culture from the Academy of Fine Arts and in Photography and Media from the University of Warsaw.

Besides fashion and editorial work, confidence in studio lighting, broadly interested in contemporary culture. His practice goes beyond portraiture and event documentation—he has extensively documented the queer underground, youth, and music culture, capturing artists including Duckworth, Myss Keta, and Mariah the Scientist, and shooting a Gay Times cover featuring horsegiirL.

In 2024, his work was recognized by Dazed as part of our selection of eight queer photographers shaping the global scene.

What’s your favourite thing in your bag?

Szymon Stępniak: Fisherman’s Friend Spearmint – I joke that it’s my best friend. I always have it with me.

I also never leave without hand cream and lip balm — however lame that sounds. I love those small acts of self-care in the harshness of Berlin. And noise-cancelling earbuds are essential; the city’s signals have no mercy, and the U-Bahn can be overstimulating.

What’s the best thing to do in Berlin?

Szymon Stępniak: Sunbathing naked. I love FKK naturist spots in the city – they give me a sense of safety and peace, inspiration, and courage to age.

When it comes to photography, being part of a small collective is precious to me. The studio and darkroom are my asylum, especially when the days get darker – a place to slow down, experiment with light, and disappear for a while.

And then there’s city life. I love drifting from late-afternoon pop-ups to bars and clubs, only to start the next day with delicious specialty coffee – planning, dreaming, and eventually diving back into nightlife.