Jan Boelen (1967, Belgium) is a curator of design, architecture, and contemporary art. He is the artistic director of Atelier LUMA, an experimental laboratory for design in Arles, France. Boelen studied Product Design at in Genk and is the founder and former artistic director of Z33 – House for contemporary art in Hasselt, Belgium. He was founder of the Master Social design at the Design Academy of Eindhoven till 2020 and Rektor of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design from 2019 till 2023. In 2014 he curated BIO50, the design biennal of Ljubljana in Slovenia. He was curator of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial in Istanbul (2018) and initiated Manifesta 9 in Belgium (2012). Lastly, Boelen curated the Lithuanian Pavilion Planet of People in the Venice Architecture Biennial (2021).
Boelen recently edited Social Matter, Social Design: For Good or Bad, all Design is Social (Valiz, 2020), and Muller Van Severen: Dialogue (Walther Koenig, 2021) and Atelier Luma, Bioregional design practices (Luma, 2023) His writing addresses the implications of design in everyday life and how artistic practices can shape the discipline.
For a selected overview of additional activities and experiences please check Jan Boelen’s CV.