Jan Maertens (1972) works predominantly as a light designer within the international contemporary dance and performance field. Besides a long and fruitful collaboration history with Arco Renz, he also created designs for several performances by Milli Bitterli, Laurent Chétouane, Padmini Chettur, Claire Croizé, Trajal Harrell, Philipp Gehmacher, iAn Kaler, Mustafa Kaplan & Filiz Sizanli, Anna Mendelssohn, Manual Rastaldi, Riina Saastamoinen, Meg Stuart, Wen-Chi Su and many more project bases initiatives.
He often designs the light for theaters, repertory companies and opera houses, including recent work for Piet Arfeuille at both Het Paleis and Theater Malpertuis and for Mesuf Arsian at the Antwerp Toneelhuis.
Other than designs for formally staged performances, there is always been the interest for genuine collaborations on site specific and ‘off the beaten track’ projects, such as the On Orientations series by An Kaler, the early hallucinatory works by Brice Leroux, Out of Grace - a choreographic event for museums and galeries by Lynda Gaudreau and All Together Now - a participative performance by Meg Stuart for the Helmut list Halle in Graz, or shows by fashion designer Jean-Paul Lespagnard.
Further Martens participate in Meg Stuart’s improvisation project Auf den Tisch! in Lissabon, New York and San Francisco and worked with and for several dynamic installations by visual artist Lawrence Malstaf.