Els Silvrants-Barclay is artistic director of Netwerk Aalst, with Pieternel Vermoortel. Previously she was head of Contemporary Art Heritage Flanders (CAHF), a collaborative platform uniting the four contemporary art museums in Flanders S.M.A.K., Mu.ZEE, Middelheimmuseum & M HKA on how to think and practice contemporary collecting. From 2010 to 2012 she coordinated the advanced master’s in theater studies at the University of Antwerp, where she also taught a course in dance theory.

 

From 2004 to 2009 she lived and worked in China, where she was program coordinator and performance curator of the Dashanzi International Art Festival and worked as curator and artistic director for several exhibitions, projects, and organizations, such as the Dashanzi International Art Festival (curator, 2004-2006), Platform China Contemporary Art Institute (artistic director, 2005-2006), Convergence Satellite Exhibition Beijing Biennale (with Feng Boyi, 2006). In 2005, she founded the Institute for Provocation, a Beijing-based workspace for artists and architects. Over the years, IFP has facilitated research projects with Mette Ingvartsen, Juan Dominguez, Edwin Zwakman, Ben & Sebastian, Tudor Bratu, Mette Edvardsen, Michiel Hilbrinck, Maja Bekan & Angela Serino, Heine Avdal & Yukiko Shinozaki, Sasha Pohle, Danai Anesiadou, Vermeir & Heiremans, Edit Kaldor, Pieterjan Ginckels, and many others. She has edited Everything Beautiful is Far Away (2008, Timezone 8, with Jean Bernard Koeman and Carol Lu), The Making of Meeting (2013, MER.Paper Kunsthalle, with Defne Ayas and Davide Quadrio) and Cave#1: Territories (2016, Sternberg Press, with Pieternel Vermoortel).