Bettina Pelz

Bettina Pelz (born 1963) is a German curator. Since 2002 her focus is light art, lighting design and light architecture. Her festivals in public space are exhibition formats with up to 20.000 visitors per day.

Life and Work
She grew up in Ennigerloh in Germany. From 1984 to 1989 she studied in Muenster at the "Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet" Philosophy and at the University of Applied Sciences Muenster Socialwork. In 1989 she became the artistic director of the sociocultural center „Schuhfabrik“ in Ahlen. From 1993 to 1996 she was the artistic director of the sociocultural center „Werkhof Hohenlimburg“ in Hagen. Since 1996 she works as free-lanced curator. She has been involved in many interdisciplinary projects in Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore South Africa, Switzerland, Sydney and USA. She lives in Wetter/Ruhr with the American musician Bradford Catler.

Lichtrouten in Luedenscheid
She is the founding curator of the festival Lichtrouten Luedenscheid in Germany. She curated the editions 2002 (Titled: „Black Boxes“), 2003 (Titled: „Blind Spots“), 2004 (Titled „Biotopes“), 2005 (Titled: „Park Sceneries“), 2006 (Titled: „Architecture of Remembrance“), 2010 (Titled: „Wunderkammers“) and 2013 (Titled: „The Art of Projection“) together with Tom Groll.

Participating artists have been Juergen Albrecht, Refik Anadol, Armsrock, Atsara, Gustavo Avilés, Gudrun Barenbrock, Tatsuro Bashi (alias Tatzu Nishi), Katharina Berndt, Christian Boltanski, Barbara Buchholz and Olga Koumeguer, Cuppetelli and Mendoza, Danica Dakic, Ghíju Diaz de León, Klaus Geldmacher, Christoph Girardet, Yvonne Goulbier, Jean-François Guiton, Ron Haselden, Hartung and Trenz, Georg Hartung, Daniel Hausig, Hermelinde Hergenhahn, Ali Heshmati and Lars Meeß-Olsohn, Stefan Hofmann, Nan Hoover, Sanja Iveković, Magdalena Jetelová, Kazuo Katase, Sabine Kacunko, Dieter Kiessling, Olga Kisseleva, Thomas Koener, Mischa Kuball, Christina Kubisch, Vollrad Kutscher, Thorbjørn Lausten, Dominik Lejman, André-Philip Lemke, Justin Lui, Francesco Mariotti, Jakob Mattner, Aurelia Mihai, László Moholy-Nagy, Molitor and Kuzmin, Jakub Nepraš, Klaus Obermaier, Ocubo, Otto Piene, Rainer Plum, Davide Quayola, Diana Ramaekers, Stephan Reusse, Thomas Roppelt, Sigrid Sandmann, Helmut Schweizer, Ursula Scherrer and Kurt Laurenz Theinert, Nicolas Schöffer, Roman Signer, Gebhard Sengmueller, Robert Sochacki, Stefan Sous, Max Sudhues, Jaan Toomik, Jan van Munster, Katarina Veldhues and Gottfried Schumacher, Michel Verjux and Amy Youngs amongst others.

"Glow" in Eindhoven
She is founding curator of the festival „Glow“ in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. She curated the editions 2006 (Titled: „Green Light“), 2007 (Titled: Sealed Spaces), 2008 (Titled: “The Forbidden City”) and 2009 (Titled: Being Public) together with Tom Groll.

Participating artists have been Armsrock, Artificiel, Siegrun Appelt, Armsrock, Gustavo Avilés, Rebecca Belmore, Alain Benini and Christophe Cano, Ulrike Brandi, Miguel Chevalier, Waltraut Cooper, Marnix de Nijs, Philipp Geist, Giessler and Sandmann, Stefan Hofmann, Magdalena Jetelová, Joeressen and Kessner, Tae-gon Kim, Mary-Anne Kryiakou, Vollrad Kutscher, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Mader Stublic Wiermann, Casa Magica, Francesco Mariotti, Achim Mohné, Geert Mul, Michael Najjar, Jakub Nepras, Charly Nijensohn, Tatzu Nishi, Nordegg and Berkh, Klaus Obermaier, Ocubo, Oeff Oeff Prodcutions, Kai Piippo, Raumlabor, Marie Sester, Max Sudhues, Axel Hanfreich and Kurt Laurenz Theinert, Ralph Ueltzhoeffer, Jan van Munster, Veronika Valk, Chris Ziegler amongst others.

"Narracje" in Gdansk
She is founding curator of the festival „Narracje" in Gdańsk in Poland. She curated the editions 2009 (Titled: „Open Spaces“), 2010 (Titled: „Lost and Found“) and 2011 (Titled: „Nature of the City“). Since 2012 every edition has been curated by different international curators.

Atsara, Sean Capone, Jennifer Braun, Barbara Buchholz and Pedda Borowski, Dominik Busch, Rob Carter, Lia Chaia, Kamila Chomicz, Lisa Dahl, Ghiju Díaz de León, Ahmet Dogan, Elektro Moon Vision, Gionata Gesi Ozmo, Günter Grass, Grupa Zespół, Marcin Grzęda and Paweł Sasin, Andrea Thembie Hannig, Hartung und Trenz, Fred Hatt and Daniel Schlaepfer, Hermelinde Hergenhahn, Magdalena Jetelová, Floris Kaayk, Danuta Kiewlen, Olga Kisseleva, Joanna Kosowska, Mary-Anne Kyriakou, Kobas Laksa, Francesco Mariotti, Neringa Naujokaite, Charly Nijensohn, Projektil, Marek Radke, Sigrid Sandmann, Robert Sochacki, Ricardo Stein, Kurt Laurenz Theinert, Dorota Walentynowicz, Rosmarie Weinlich, Ania Witkowska, Tomasz Wlaźlak, Marina Zurkow, Marek Zygmunt amongst others.

"Farbfest" at Bauhaus Dessau
She curated the edition 2011 of "Farbfest am Bauhaus Dessau" and developed the concept „Instead of Color: Light“.

Participating artists were Dominik Busch, Ghiju Díaz de León, Axel Hanfreich und Kurt Laurenz Theinert, Daniel Kalinke, Kill your Darlings, Kurt Schwertfeger, Raumzeitpiraten, Sigrid Sandmann, Robert Sochacki amongst others.

"Lichtstroeme" in Koblenz
She is founding curator of the festival „Lichtstroeme“ in Koblenz in Germany. She curated the editions 2011 (Titled: „Of blue flowers“) and 2012 (Titled: Art Forms of Nature“).

Participating artists were Atsara, Katharina Bernd, Dominik Busch, Casa Magica, Catherine Chalmers, Herbert Cybulska, Scott Draves, Emilia Forstreuter, Harald Fuchs, Hartung and Trenz, Norimichi Hirakawa, Loop.ph, Jakob Nepraš, Ursula Palla, Retouramont, Sigrid Sandmann, Ursula Scherrer und Kurt Laurenz Theinert, Edwin van der Heide.

"Switch on Beijing"
In 2013 she is co-curator of the festival "Switch on Beijing" together with Karen Chan and Tewa Srilaklang.

University of the Arts Bremen
Since 2004 she teaches at the University of the Arts Bremen. She developed the teaching field "Profession Developments in the Arts" and teaches in the study paths Fine art, Integrated Design and Digital Media. Since 2012 she is head of the MA-Studio "Material and Technology - Innovation Processing in product Design" in co-operation with Andreas Kramer.