Arne Cornelius Wasmuth is a historical restoration and preservation expert whose career has spanned work in television, radio, and film production. He is also a published author and lecturer on cultural heritage and related topics. Born in Hamburg and raised in Seoul and Lagos , he earned a B.A. from Columbia University, an M.Sc in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and an M.A. in Strategies for European Cultural Heritage and Preservation from the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder. In 2017, together with collector and patron Egidio Marzona, Wasmuth conceived dieDAS.
A consummate connector with an incredible eye, Berlin-based Tatjana Sprick has been navigating the boundaries between the creative disciplines for years, facilitating exciting collaborations and new ventures along the way. She began her career as a dressmaker for the Haute Couture before she went on to become a set designer in the film industry, and has since expanded her focus to include fashion, design, craft, and more. Sprick has helped brands and institutions across the creative spectrum—and the globe—develop meaningful products, relationships, and experiences. She was responsible for initiating the design website L’ArcoBaleno and has advised and collaborated with clients such as the Fashion Council Germany, Yohji Yamamoto, Bikini Berlin, Dr Hauschka, Elitis, The DO School, as well as the new multipurpose co-retail space ALHAMBRA BERLIN.
Born and based in Halle (Saale), Saxony-Anhalt, Andreas Silbersack is cofounder of dieDAS - Design Akademie Saaleck and the Marzona Stiftung Neue Saalecker Werkstätten and sits on its board of directors.
Since early 2022 Caroline Rebel serves as the office manager of the Marzona Stiftung. Rebel, who grew up in Düsseldorf, but long since lives in Berlin, was initially trained as a tailor and moved on to study business administration. She finished her studies with a paper on ecological marketing in the clothing industry. Since then, she has worked in capacities as sales manager, sales director, buyer and office manager for various employers and clients, amongst them Andreas Murkudis, Berlin.
Maurizio Montalti is an Italian-born, Amsterdam-based designer, researcher, educator and entrepreneur. Working at the intersection of design and biotech, he is a recognized pioneer in material culture discourse and development, with a specialty in natural biomaterials. He holds an M.A. in Conceptual Design in Context from Design Academy Eindhoven and an M.A. in Engineering and Industrial Management from The University of Bologna.
In addition to serving as dieDAS’s inaugural artistic director 2020-2022, Montalti heads up the multidisciplinary practice Officina Corpuscoli and is also Cofounder, Designer, and R&D Director of Mogu, a design-innovation company dedicated to high-performance biomaterials and finished products deriving from fungi. His work has been exhibited at renowned institutions such as the MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Design Museum (London), and MAXXI (Rome), among others.
Born in Moscow and raised in Vienna, Olga Durandina studied Linguistics and Literature at the Lomonosov Moscow State University before moving to Berlin to study Business Communications Management at the University of Applied Sciences (HTW). Prior to arriving at dieDAS, Olga worked for many years as a freelance translator, interpreter, and film production assistant for Russian and German public service television channels with a focus on cultural programming. She speaks four languages fluently.
Dividing his time between Germany and Italy, Egidio Marzona is an art and design collector and patron, as well as cofounder of dieDAS - Design Akademie Saaleck and the Marzona Stiftung Neue Saalecker Werkstätten. He enabled the acquisition of the former Saalecker Werkstätten for dieDAS.