Deniz Ova - Director, Istanbul Design Biennial

Deniz Ova is Director of Istanbul Design Biennial at Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), since 2013. Ova started to lead the International Projects department of İKSV in 2007 and since then she has developed and organised the festivals and events of the foundation in different European cities, acting as the director of the department from 2010 to 2013. Besides the festivals, she has been coordinating the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, the artist residency studio “Turquie” at Cité Internationale des Arts, and recently managed the participation of Turkey in the London Design Biennial. Since 2014, she is advisor to the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, and has currently been appointed as jury member for the artist residency studio “Turquie”. In 2009, Deniz Ova was assigned to write with General Director of İKSV, Görgün Taner, and academician Deniz Ünsal a critical report on the arts and culture scene in Amsterdam following the nomination of Taner as Art Advisor for the Amsterdam City Council. Before her posts at İKSV, Ova worked as assistant director in several theatre productions at the Stuttgart State and City Theatre, and managed festival events in Stuttgart. Deniz Ova graduated from the University of Stuttgart in Political Science and Linguistics. She is fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar and Stiftung Mercator “Turkey Europe Future Forum”.

Jan Boelen - Curator, Istanbul Design Biennial

Jan Boelen (b. 1967, Genk, Belgium) is 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 also holds the position of the head of the Master department Social Design at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Since the opening, Z33 House for Contemporary Art has been fashioning projects and exhibitions that encourage the visitor to look at everyday objects in a novel manner. It is a unique laboratory for experiment and innovation and a meeting place with cutting-edge exhibitions of contemporary art and design. With Z33 Research, design and art research studios established in 2013, Boelen is transforming Z33 from exhibition-based to a research-based institution. At the initiative of Z33 and the Province of Limburg, Manifesta 9 took place in Belgium in 2012. As part of his role at Z33, Boelen curated the 24th Biennial of Design in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2014.

Boelen also serves on various boards and committees including the advisory board of the V&A Museum of Design Dundee in the UK and Creative Industries Fund in the Netherlands. Boelen holds a degree in product design from the Media and Design Academy (now the LUCA School of Arts) in Genk, Belgium.