Art Brussels

Ann Demeester

Ann Demeester was born in Bruges, Belgium in 1975 and has been Director of the Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland’s largest art museum, since October 2022. From 2014 to February 2022 she was Director of the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem, a museum of Old Masters, modern and contemporary art. Prior to that, she spent eight years as head of de Appel arts centre, a contemporary arts and performance centre in Amsterdam renowned for training curators under its Curatorial Programme.

Ann Demeester studied literature and linguistics (English/Dutch/Norwegian) and worked as an art critic for national newspapers in her home country. She was assistant to Jan Hoet and a curator at the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (SMAK) in Ghent, Belgium and MARTa in Herford, Germany. Ann Demester was co-curator of the Tirana Biennale in 2003 and produced exhibitions with artists including Salla Tykka, Zarina Bhimji, Mika Rottenberg. Nina Yuen, Barne Melgaard, Luc Tumans and Michael Borremans. In 2009, she curated the Baltic Triennial in Vilnius together with Kestutis Kuizinas.

Until 2022, Ann Demeester was Professor of Art and Culture at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Her teaching focused on the concept of the ‘transhistorical museum, in which artworks, objects and ideas from various eras and periods enter into dialogue. In the Netherlands, Ann Demeester has been a respected ambassador for the fine arts and museums who maintains an active dialogue with politicians, the media and the general public.

In 2022, she was honoured with the title of Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Royal House of the Netherlands in recognition of her services. Ann Demeester is married and lives with her husband and two children in the city of Zurich.

Jérôme Sans

Jérôme Sans is a curator, cultural agitator, and director of institutions, known internationally for his pioneering and transversal approach to new models of cultural institutions and exhibitions. His combined expertise in fields as diverse as design, fashion and architecture has pushed him towards experiencing art in multiple fields beyond exhibitions such as brands and urban development. Jérôme Sans’ visionary perspectives on public outdoor installations led him to organize several city-wide projects. He is the co-founder of the acclaimed Palais de Tokyo in Paris and was the director of the ground-breaking Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (UCCA).

From 2022 to 2024, he was artistic director of LagoAlgo, located in the heart of the Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City, and currently of the new private institution Cookie Factory in Denver, Colorado, set to open in May 2025. In addition to his many publications he was creative director and editor-in-chief of the French cultural magazine L’Officiel Art. In 2022, he has initiated and curated public interventions on Place Vendôme in Paris with Alicja Kwade and Bernar Venet (2023). He has curated numerous major exhibitions around the world, including the Taipei Biennale (2000), the Lyon Biennale (2005), Erwin Wurm at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade (2022), and the Festival Noor Riyadh, Saudi (2023), Frieder Burda Museum (2024), Doug Aitken at Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul (2024-2025).

Bruno Verbergt

Bruno Verbergt is general director of Mu.ZEE (Ostend, Belgium). Mu.ZEE focuses on Art in Belgium from 1880 onwards in three museums: Mu.ZEE in Ostend (closed for renovation till 2028), Permekemuseum in Jabbeke and Peiremuzee in Knokke-Heist. Previously, Bruno Verbergt worked as general director of the Royal Museums of Art & History (Brussels) and as operational director for the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren).

In the 1990s and 2000s he was director Culture, Sports, Youth and Education Policy for the City of Antwerp and director of Antwerpen Open, where he produced VANDYCK1999, MODE2001, Zomer van Antwerpen festival, and contemporary art exhibitions such as Trouble Spot. Painting (Tuymans and Tordoir, 1999), Laboratorium (Obrist and Vanderlinden, 1999) and Orbis Terrarum (Kung, 2000). Bruno Verbergt is associate professor in general and strategic cultural management at the University of Antwerp.