Jury

Jan Boelen, born 1967 in Belgium, is a curator of design, architecture, and contemporary art. As artistic director, he co-founded Atelier LUMA in 2016, an experimental laboratory for bioregional design in Arles, France, where he acts as senior advisor for LUMA Arles. Jan Boelen studied Product Design in Genk and is the founder and former artistic director of Z33 – House for contemporary art in Hasselt, Belgium. He founded the Master program Social Design at the Design Academy of Eindhoven in 2010 and was Rector of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design from 2019 to 2023. In 2014 he curated BIO50, the design biennial of Ljubljana in Slovenia. He was curator of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial (2018) and initiated Manifesta 9 in Belgium (2012). Lastly, Jan Boelen curated the Lithuanian Pavilion Planet of People in the Venice Architecture Biennial (2021). Over the years he has been fashioning projects, publications and exhibitions that encourage the visitor to look at everyday objects in a novel manner.

Prof. Dr. Frédéric Bußmann, born in France in 1974, studied art history and modern and contemporary history at the Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Università degli studi Roma Trè. In 2006, he completed his doctorate with a dissertation on the history of French collections in the 18th century. From 2006 to 2008 he worked as a research assistant at the German Forum for Art History in Paris and from 2008 to 2010 as a research trainee at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. From 2010 to 2011, Frédéric Bußmann was involved as a research assistant in the international exhibition “The Art of the Enlightenment” at the Chinese National Museum in Beijing. From 2011 to 2018, he worked as a curator for painting and sculpture from the 19th century to the present at the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig. In 2018, he became General Director of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Frédéric Bußmann has been Director of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe since August 2023.

Pınar Karabulut, born in Mönchengladbach in 1987, studied theater studies, art history and modern German literature at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. In the 2016/2017 season, she managed the outdoor venue at Schauspiel Köln’s Offenbachplatz together with the Britney curatorial team. From 2020 to 2023, she was part of the artistic direction of the Münchner Kammerspiele. Pınar Karabulut works as a director in theater and opera in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland. In her works, she emphasizes strong female figures and powerfully highlights the female perspective. Her precise and playful productions shape the aesthetics of the most exciting developments in 21st century theater, have received numerous awards and have been invited to various festivals. From the 2025/2026 season, Pınar Karabulut is taking over the co-directorship of Schauspielhaus Zürich together with Rafael Sanchez.

As Library Director of Aarhus Public Libraries, Marie Østergård oversees the main library  Dokk1 and 17 branches. For 10 years she was the project leader of the building of Dokk1, introducing new formats of user- and citizen involvement in the planning and building process. Throughout the years she has worked intensely with co-creation and partnerships – nationally and internationally – to push development, network and innovation in the library sector. Marie Østergård is the co-inventor of Next Library – a biannual international conference discussing the development of libraries for the benefit of communities. She serves as chair of the board of PL2030 – a non-profit European organisation aimed to put public libraries on the EU agenda and strengthen international network. She is a board member of METRO – Metropolitan New York Library Council, a partner in the Third Places Network and is an elected member of the IFLA MetLib Standing Committee.

Jasmin Vogel, born in 1981, is an experienced cultural manager and leader with extensive expertise in the strategic transformation and realignment of cultural institutions. Since 2019, she has been a board member of Kulturforum Witten AöR, where she initiates sustainable reforms, strengthens interdisciplinary networks and develops innovative models for sustainable cultural administration. Her focus is on the further development of cultural institutions as resilient actors that actively face the challenges of social change, crisis management and cultural policy transformation. Jasmin Vogel is committed to strengthening cultural venues as a common good and supports institutions in thinking beyond established structures. In her work, she combines strategic management with a deep understanding of artistic and social processes. She has received several awards for her pioneering approaches, including European Cultural Manager of the Year 2021.