Alena Belova

Biography

Alena Belova is a researcher and writer who makes complex subjects accessible to a wide audience. Her work spans art history, cultural heritage, cognitive science and economics. She is a member of the Historians of Islamic Art Association and the British Art Network.

In history and art she is drawn to symbols and the stories attached to them, ancient cities, historic architecture and the gap between real places and the way film and literature imagine them. In cognitive science she studies perception, memory and how people search for and trust information. In economics she looks at the hidden costs behind everyday decisions, from travel to culture.

She is co-founder of Exhibo, a global art gallery and culture platform, and a partner at BARS Agency, where she works on how information about people and organisations is found and understood, including through AI search. She lived in Istanbul for several years and now lives between Doha, Dubai and Egypt.