The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts have announced that Jan Boelen has been appointed as Curator of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennale. This follows the 3rd—Are We Human?—which opened in September 2016 and was curated by Mark Wigley and Beatriz Colomina with a powerful, wide-reaching exploration of design and architecture in relation "the design of the species."
Boelen is currently the Artistic Director of Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium, and Artistic Director of atelier LUMA, an experimental laboratory for design in Arles, France. He is also Head of the Master Department of Social Design at Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
The Biennale aims to use the city as "a dynamic space for projects, actions and interventions" by tackling "global design problems." Iterations seek to discuss the notion of design, "stimulating critical debate, foregrounding underexplored or overlooked aspects of society, and prompting further investigation into and exchange about emerging conditions of our world."
The conceptual framework for the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial will be announced in the Autumn of this year. The event will take place between the September 22 and November 4, 2018.
