Speakers 2026

María Luque was born in Rosario and lives in Buenos Aires. Since 2005, she has exhibited her work in museums and galleries in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Spain. She works as a book illustrator and runs workshops. She is the author of *La mano del pintor*, a graphic novel about Cándido López (Sigilo, 2016), “Casa transparente” (Sexto Piso, Ibero-American Cities Graphic Novel Award), “Espuma” (Galería editorial, 2018), “Noticias de pintores” (Sigilo, 2019), “Corazón geométrico” (Sigilo, 2022) and ‘Budín del cielo’ (Sigilo, 2025). In 2022, she received a Konex Award, Diploma of Merit in Humour and Comics.

She is an illustrator and designer. She is currently focused on children’s and young adult literature and fiction. In the former field, she has published several works: “Hanka, moko eta buztan” (Ikaselkar, 2021) and “Lorerik Gorriena” (Pamiela, 2020). Her latest work is the comic book project “Hodeien gainean” (Txalaparta eta Bang Ediciones, 2022–2023). She has received numerous awards and honorable mentions in recent years. She has been selected for the Iberoamérica Ilustra catalog organized by the Guadalajara International Book Fair (2022 and 2021). She has received the Egile Award (2022), the Etxepare Award (2020), and the Irudika Special Honorable Mention (2020), among other honors.

Silitia is an unclassifiable duo from Bizkaia, comprising Ibai Silicato (Lekeitio, 1997) and Xabier Barrutia (Bilbao, 1999), in which the music – which they themselves describe as ‘brioche pop’ – their stage presence and their artistic vision are all equally important. If you ask them about their style, they’ll tell you they make punky-funky-electro-Basque-rock songs, but above all, Silitia is a multifaceted and constantly evolving project that surprises with every move. 

Stéphane Tsapis is a passionate traveler, composer, and pianist who has forever been building bridges between his Mediterranean roots and multicultural Paris, the international gateway and melting pot where he grew up. 

In 2015, he formed a trio with Marc Buronfosse and Arnaud Biscay. They have since toured such varied places as Romania, Greece, Columbia, Japan, Mexico and Tadjikistan with their album “Border Lines”, not forgetting an occasional visit to France. 

As leader of the group Kaïmaki, Stéphane Tsapis produced the album “Mataroa” as a showcase for the spoken word, specifically his own father’s voice recounting the forced exile of Greek people caused by the civil war. With his album “Le Tsapis Volant”, ("The Flying Tsapis”, a pun on the French “tapis volant” for "magic carpet”), the aim was to blend the particular voice of the oriental piano, a singular musical instrument producing a unique sound, with female voices from wide-ranging backgrounds. It was meant as a musical retrospective featuring his artistic collaborations from the recent past.

He has published more than 20 illustrated books and has received numerous awards. In 2011, he was nominated for the Best New Author Award at the Barcelona Comic Fair. In 2012, he was a finalist for the FNAC-Sin Sentido International Award. He has won two White Ravens Awards. In 2018, he won the Premi Llibreter from the booksellers of Barcelona and the Best Illustrated Album Award at Comic Con in Madrid. In 2023, he won the International Graphic Novel Award at the Angoulême Festival. He has won two Junceda Awards. In 2024, he was a guest illustrator at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, where he received a special mention in the Non-Fiction category for ‘Vertical: An Illustrated History of Climbing’.

Yolanda holds a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country, having  specialised in graphic design back in 2007. She currently works as an illustrator in both the publishing and advertising sectors. She enjoys exploring concepts, communication and storytelling, and to this end she employs concise forms and compositions alongside images with a simple aesthetic. She won the Euskadi Prize for Literature in the illustration category  n 2018, and his illustrations have been selected and exhibited internationally.

The illustrator and comic artist Zeina Abirached was born in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, in 1981. She studied Fine Art, specialising in Graphic Design in Lebanon, and Animation at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, where she moved in 2004.

In 2006 she published her first illustrated book, a children’s story adapted from the short film Mouton, which she had directed herself. Shortly afterwards, her first two comics, Beyrouth-Catharsis and 38, rue Youssef Semaani, were published to great acclaim in France.

In Spain, and internationally, she made a name for herself with El juego de las golondrinas, a work that was highlighted at the Angoulême Festival as one of the best works of 2007. In 2015, she once again stood out at the Angoulême Festival with El piano oriental, for which she received the 2016 Phénix Award.

She combines her work as a writer and comic artist with that of an illustrator, and has undertaken major commissions for festival posters and book covers, amongst other projects.