Meet Brenda Guesnet, Jester's new general and artistic director

Jester is pleased to announce Brenda Guesnet as its new general and artistic director. She will join the organization on 1st August 2026.

“Jester is a young organization with a solid foundation and enormous potential”, says Brenda Guesnet. “Building on a unique tandem between residencies and exhibitions, and working in close collaboration with our team, board, and partners, I want to grow Jester into a key player in the contemporary visual arts. My vision for Jester is to create a home for artists: a place where artistic practice thrives and leads to meaningful and lasting connections with local publics and an international audience.”

Brenda Guesnet (b. 1993, Bad Soden am Taunus, Germany) most recently worked as curator and deputy director at IKOB – Museum for Contemporary Art in Eupen, Belgium. At IKOB, she curated sixteen exhibitions since 2021, collaborating with artists including Kristina Benjocki, Marcin Dudek, Lili Dujourie, Veronika Eberhart, Helen Anna Flanagan, Jieun Lim, Myrthe van der Mark, Sophie Nys, Barbara & Michael Leisgen, Angyvir Padilla and Léon Wuidar.

She also curated the museum’s public and educational programmes, produced and edited the museum’s podcast, and set up an artist residency in 2024 as well as an ongoing artist mentorship programme.

Alongside her institutional practice, Brenda Guesnet has frequently guest curated exhibitions at galleries and institutions. She is a co-founder of celador, an independent art space in Brussels. Brenda Guesnet previously worked in the Artist Liaison department at White Cube in London (2017-2020) after completing an MFA in Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London (2015-17).

Statement of the board of directors (Tom Munters, Bernard Vanheusden, Nele Verhaeren, Caroline Dumalin, and Adriënne van der Werf)

Brenda Guesnet is, for us, not only an outstanding curator and a driven managing director, she is first and foremost a connector. Connection is the guiding thread throughout her trajectory: between artists and audiences, between local contexts and international networks, between ambition and care. It is precisely this connective force that Jester needs today, and what spoke to us most strongly in her candidacy.

We are convinced that she will build a home, for the artists who reside with us, for the audiences who seek us out, for the partners with whom we collaborate, and for the team that forms the heart of Jester every day.

With her appointment, we also bring a meaningful chapter to a close. The merger between FLACC and CIAP, which made the birth of Jester possible in 2021, has borne fruit. That process of growth has provided a solid foundation. Now it is time to build further.

Under Brenda Guesnet’s leadership, Jester takes its next step: as a strong local player rooted in the community of Genk and the C-mine site, and as a confident international voice within the contemporary visual arts landscape.