Gwen Stok is an independent illustrator, comic artist, and visual artist (image maker). Among other works, she created the graphic novel The Healing of the Cricket, based on a story by Toon Tellegen. In 2021, she served as the city illustrator of Rotterdam, a role that concluded with an exhibition at the Kunsthal.

alea aims to create comics that blend the roughness of a disposable free newspaper, with the sturdiness and emotional weight that only a proffesional boxer could work into your lower abdomen.

Niels Vrijdag’s work is best described as colorful collages of motifs rooted in the interplay between memory, imagination, experience, and belief. His paintings are characterized by a bold color palette, a distorted perspective, and a deliberately exaggerated flatness. By creating a universe that follows its own rules, he invites the viewer not only to enter his world, but above all to imagine their own reality. In this way, Niels Vrijdag uses expressionism as an act of both resistance and connection.

Ibrahim R. Ineke is a painter, comic book author, short story writer & educator based in the Hague. His graphic novella ‘De Vrouw Die Zich Niet Om De Tuin Liet Leiden,’ is slated to be published by Sherpa in autumn 2024.

Bruno Ferro Xavier da Silva (1977) was born in Lissabon, from a Capeverdian mother and an Angolese father, and grew up in Rotterdam. He is a bass player, composer and visual artist.

The vision for GRIPI, a project by Anaida Melivia and Pinelopi Tseliou, is to externalize the internal struggle of modern isolation through a hybrid of live music and sculptural performance. They aim to move beyond traditional concert formats by introducing a “Creature”—a physical manifestation of the unresolved emotions that people typically suppress in their daily routines.

The objective is to use the contrast between a live music set and a non-human physical presence to explore the cycle of social routine, the desire for escapism, and the eventual necessity of self-acceptance. By bringing this “Creature” into public and formal spaces like De Doelen or a train station, they challenge the audience to confront their own feelings of loneliness and performative identity in a direct, tangible way.

Anaida Melivia

Anaida Melivia (Cyprus, 2003) is a visual artist and World Builder. Her work focuses on the construction of creatures and environments that give presence to suppressed emotions and the subconscious.…

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Anaida Melivia

Anaida Melivia (Cyprus, 2003) is a visual artist and World Builder. Her work focuses on the construction of creatures and environments that give presence to suppressed emotions and the subconscious. She specializes in creating sculptural forms that exist independently, allowing audiences to connect with difficult themes like shame and loneliness through a multidisciplinary lens.

Cross Comix Festival 2026

GRIPI Performance

Pinelopi Tseliou

Pinelopi Tseliou (aka Plastique) – (Greece, 1997) is a musician and performer exploring Greek folk music in combination with contemporary electronic sounds. Her work focuses on breaking the boundaries of…

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Maker

Pinelopi Tseliou

Pinelopi Tseliou (aka Plastique) – (Greece, 1997) is a musician and performer exploring Greek folk music in combination with contemporary electronic sounds. Her work focuses on breaking the boundaries of traditional performance, using live looping to create soundscapes blended with melodies and spoken word. Each of her performances is built upon improvisation, capturing the spontaneity of the moment and transforming it into a shared experience with the audience.

Cross Comix Festival 2026

GRIPI Performance

Rosie Reith

Rosie Reith is an interdisciplinary performer from the UK, based in the Netherlands. She works frequently with Club Guy & Roni and Cocoon Dance and enjoys making and being a…

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Rosie Reith

Rosie Reith is an interdisciplinary performer from the UK, based in the Netherlands. She works frequently with Club Guy & Roni and Cocoon Dance and enjoys making and being a part of performances with dance, text, comedy, live music and design.

Cross Comix Festival 2026

GRIPI Performance