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Next edition: June 2023 - Apply to exhibit

Artistic Director 2023

Het Nieuwe Instituut

London Design Biennale 2023 Artistic Director will be Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture. Led by its General and Artistic Director, Aric Chen, Het Nieuwe Instituut aims to explore the biennale’s format of national and territorial pavilions by ‘Remapping Collaborations,’ a theme which will be further developed on the journey to June 2023.

Participants from across the globe will be invited to imagine and enact new forms of international cooperation and participation—including with each other—through the medium of design.

Het Nieuwe Instituut

Based in Rotterdam, Het Nieuwe Instituut is the Dutch national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture. Through its exhibitions, public programs, research and wide-reaching national and international initiatives, the institute engages thinkers, designers, makers and diverse audiences to critically reflect on the urgent issues confronting the past, present and future. In addition to housing the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, the institute also operates the 1933 Sonneveld House as part of its campus in Rotterdam’s Museumpark.

Het Nieuwe Institute
Aric Chen

Aric Chen is General and Artistic Director of Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture in Rotterdam. American-born, Chen previously served as Professor and founding Director of the Curatorial Lab at the College of Design & Innovation at Tongji University in Shanghai; Curatorial Director of the Design Miami fairs in Miami Beach and Basel; Creative Director of Beijing Design Week; and Lead Curator for Design and Architecture at M+, Hong Kong, where he oversaw the formation of that new museum’s design and architecture collection and program.
 
In addition, Chen has curated dozens of museum exhibitions and other projects internationally, served on numerous boards and juries, and acted as advisor to the UABB Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture\Urbanism, London Design Biennale, Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial (New York), and Gwangju Design Biennale. He is the author of Brazil Modern (Monacelli, 2016), and has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times, Wallpaper*, Architectural Record, and other publications. Chen received his BA in architecture and BA in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MA in the history of design from Parsons/Cooper-Hewitt in New York.

“The era of globalisation as we’ve known it is transforming into a new condition that we can’t yet define. What we know for sure, however, is that in confronting our ever-growing planetary challenges, working together is more critical than ever—and we hope this biennale can act as a testing ground for examining new possibilities for doing so.” - Aric Chen

At a time of growing global complexity, countries, territories and cities are invited to interpret and examine the topic in their own way. However, Het Nieuwe Instituut will be launching a process that participants can also use to help define, form and create these collaborations. This process will be revealed during the London Design Biennale Summit on 25 May 2022 in London at Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs.

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