Koi Persyn becomes artistic director at Jester

Photo by Jente Waerzeggers
Koi Persyn wears ‘For a Lioness Heart’ (2016)
a work by future Jester-resident Apparatus 22 (in collaboration with Irina Bujor)

We are delighted to announce that Koi Persyn has been appointed artistic director of Jester. Persyn is a curator and writer, having previously worked as project coordinator at Cas-co in Leuven and co-director and curator of Komplot in Brussels. His artistic style is characterized by a harmonious mix of different media, with a deep understanding of the social and political context in which works are created, so that his constellations often convey a powerful message to the audience. As a result, Persyn's work is not only aesthetically stunning but also intellectually challenging.

"Through his groundbreaking approach to art and ability to challenge conventions, Koi Persyn has already established himself as an influential figure in the art world. Koi has a keen eye for emerging artists and a talent for bringing together artistic voices to create engaging dialogue. We are delighted to welcome him as artistic director and look forward to the breath of fresh air he will bring to Jester." (Yesim Bektas, general and managing director)

Read Koi Persyn's statement below:

"As artistic director of Jester, I will fully engage myself to create a symbiotic connection between all pillars of this organisation - living, working and sharing. I want to encourage this cross-pollination so that this place for artistic development and presentation becomes a fertile soil for experimentation, research, innovation and exchange. Therefore interaction between the residency programme and the Kunsthal should not offer unequivocal answers, but rather initiate a polyphonic narrative that culminates in a multilayered dialogue in which every voice is heard. As a conversation partner, I aim to listen to and collaborate with emerging artists (who often slip through the institutional or commercial net), the (inter)national arts scene and the local, multicultural community.

Due to the unique history of the mine site, social, economic and environmental questions are deep-rooted in Jester's operation. These are all issues I want to address further, in order to maximise the organisation’s social impact and artistic potential. The landscape of Winterslag embodies the ability to generate and process energy, through its industrial past of coal mining as well as the current concentration of cultural actors and its central location in the Euroregion. As an artistic director, it is an incredible honour to forge new connections with this resilient ecosystem in order to generate new energy in this thriving place where artists live, develop and share their work. I look forward to becoming engaged as artistic director for Jester, and further the organisation’s mission to act as an open house for contemporary art, a leading incubator and a dynamic institution for presentation on a local, national and international level."

BIOGRAPHY

‍Koi Persyn (°1996, BE) is a curator and writer based in Brussels. His curated projects focus on process-based, experimental, collective and hybrid practices within site-sensitive exhibitions that investigate the social fabric of public and/or urban space.

Persyn served as co-director (2023-2024) and curator (2021-2023) of Komplot in Brussels, and as project coordinator of Cas-co, a residency and studio organisation in Leuven (2022-2024). Simultaneously, he was active as a guest lecturer at La Cambre in Brussels and KASK in Ghent.

Persyn is co-curator and initiator of Publiek Park, a biennial exhibition project with a public program and publication in/for public parks in Ghent (2021), Antwerp (2023) and Brussels (2025). Together with Anna Laganovska, he curates Border Buda, an exhibition with temporary and permanent art commissions in the border area of Brussels, Vilvoorde and Machelen (2023-2024).

In 2021, Koi Persyn, together with Laila Melchior, won the Lichen Curatorial Prize (as a laureate selected by CIAP and Curatorial Studies) and executed their exhibition proposal 'Three Tropes for Entropy' at CIAP in Genk (2022).

Persyn worked as a mediator for the Belgian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale as part of the Young Curators Programme (2019). He writes for Glean and resides in the sounding board of S.M.A.K., MSK, both in Ghent, and for the Platform Kunst In Opdracht, Flemish Government. He obtained a master's degree in Fine Arts (2019), followed by a postgraduate degree in Curatorial Studies (2020), both at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. During his studies, Persyn initiated and co-curated a three-year residency programme at Het Paviljoen in Ghent.