Els Silvrants-Barclay (°1980) is artistic director of Netwerk Aalst, with Pieternel Vermoortel. Previously she was head of Contemporary Art Heritage Flanders (CAHF), a collaborative platform uniting the four contemporary art museums in Flanders: S.M.A.K., Mu.ZEE, Middelheimmuseum & M HKA on how to think and practice contemporary collecting. From 2010 to 2012 she coordinated the advanced master in theater studies at the University of Antwerp, where she also taught a course in dance theory. From 2004 to 2009 she lived and worked in China, where she was program coordinator and performance curator of the Dashanzi International Art Festival and worked as curator and artistic director for several exhibitions, projects, and organizations, such as the Dashanzi International Art Festival (curator, 2004-2006), Platform China Contemporary Art Institute (artistic director, 2005-2006), Convergence Satellite Exhibition Beijing Biennale (with Feng Boyi, 2006). In 2005, she co-founded the Institute for Provocation, a Beijing-based workspace for artists, architects and thinkers.