Born in Tunis, Chris Keulemans grew up in Baghdad, Iraq. He founded and ran three spaces for art and politics in Amsterdam. Now he’s happy to work outside of institutions.

For the European network of grassroots cultural centers Trans Europe Halles, he visits and coaches new spaces across Europe. He writes about cities, refugees, football, cinema, war and universal basic income.

He has been involved in numerous events at Framer Framed, often as a writer, host and moderator. Was one of the founders of the Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam, the previous location of Framer Framed, and fulfilled the role at the Tolhuistuin as Artistic Director until 2014. For his work he received the honorary pin of the city council. The city of Amsterdam praised him for his work for the city in recent years. For the next two years Keulemans will be appointed as the district-chroniquer of the Northern part of town. He also founded the literary bookshop Perdu in Amsterdam in 1984. Additionally, during the nineties he worked at De Balie, Centre for culture and politics in Amsterdam, first as a curator, then later as director.

He has published books, fiction and nonfiction, and has published numerous articles on art, social movements, migration, music, cinema and war for national newspapers. He has written essays for publications by Jonas Staal, Lidwien van de Ven, Anna Tilroe, Gert Urhahn, Fiona Tan and the exhibition The Unwanted Land (2009). He traveled extensively to study art after a crisis in cities such as Beirut, Jakarta, Algiers, Prishtina, Sarajevo, Tirana, New York, New Orleans and Ramallah, where he visited many talented artists.