Awards 20

Bart Lens is the founder of Lens°Ass studio and works on projects ranging from architecture and interior design to product and concept development. He designs for companies such as Moome, Jongform, Eden Design, and was asked to lead Bokrijk into a new era. He became curator with the task of developing an innovative and contemporary view of museum operations for the various crafts. As Bokrijk Master Builder, Bart helps watch over the DNA values from an overarching vision of craftsmanship. 

Johan Valcke was appointed director of Design Flanders in 1992. In that function he founded the Henry van de Velde Awards. He also founded the Design Flanders Gallery, the Triennials for Design and established the design magazine Kwintessens. He was elected to the Board of WCC-Europe and the Board of BEDA. Today, he remains active in the sounding board group for Design Museum Gent, the general assembly of HISK Gent and the purchasing committee of DIVA Antwerp. In 2018 he opened his gallery VALCKE Art Gallery.

Francis Carpentier is the Curatorial Project Coordinator for the architecture and design programme of Bozar. As the exhibition coordinator, he was responsible for, among others, Ado Chale (2017) and Richard Venlet (2019). Francis trained in the Conservation of Monuments and Sites and serves on the boards of directors of the Horta Museum, Docomomo and Europa Nostra Belgium.

Chris Baelus is a professor of product development at the University of Antwerp. He graduated in 1981 as an industrial designer from the NHIBS/Henry van de Velde Institute. After working as an independent designer for several years, he opted for education and research in product development. Since then, he has been affiliated with the Faculty of Design Sciences.

Elien Haentjens studied art science and journalism. As a journalist, she mainly writes about art, lifestyle and design, and she has curated and organised exhibitions and residences for designers since 2012, particularly in Brazil. She founded Joias and curates the Belgian section of Adorno, through which she wishes to promote Belgian design and stimulate valuable multicultural encounters.

Max Borka was mainly active as a lecturer, journalist, radio producer and art critic when he became the director of the Interior Foundation in 1999 and co-founded DAMn° magazine. In 2011, he launched Mapping the Design World, an international social design platform. He also taught at KASK Ghent, La Cambre Brussels and Fachhochschule Potsdam and became the director of Berlin Design Week. He returned to Belgium in 2017.

Ronald Bastiaens is an Industrial Product Design Training Coordinator at Howest and a professor of industrial product design, prototyping, sustainable design, design methods, materials and manufacturing. He is also the team leader of the Howest Industrial Design Center and a researcher in the projects Protolab, Protolight, Design for Impact, Innowiz, myMachine and Pro-Fit.