Michiel van Iersel (1978) is an urbanist and curator working at the intersection of the arts, architecture, (urban) design and heritage. He started his career working for several visual arts organisations (Museum of Modern Art, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Art Rotterdam). In 2008 he co-founded Non-fiction, a collective of people with a common interest in public values and cultural production. They collaboratively make exhibitions and publications, conduct research, (re-)activate spaces, and organise events with the aim to bring people and ideas closer together.
In addition Michiel co-founded De Verdieping (2010 - 2015), a temporary project space for experimental culture in an abandoned printing plant in Amsterdam, and the international research foundation Failed Architecture, dedicated to exploring the causes, perceptions and representations of architectural and urban failures. Failed Architecture has contributed to the biennales of Venice and São Paulo and was featured in The Guardian and Harvard Design Magazine amongst others.
Michiel studied Business and Cultural Studies at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and Metropolitan Studies at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin. Currently he is guest lecturer at a.o. the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and Amsterdam University of the Arts. He is an active member of several (advisory) boards and frequently writes and lectures about his work and his fields of interest, from innovation in historic cities to user generated architecture.
