I AM THEY ARE
Amsterdam - they/them
Noël Sebastiaan Keulen (1978) grew up in the south of the Netherlands in the poetically named Simpelveld, Echt and Sittard. The local dialect and the presence of German culture in the region, gave them a bilingual upbringing of Dutch and German. Their fascination for television (as a child of electronics salespeople) added English to the mix. Their wide palette of interests journeyed them along Architecture, Design and Communication, for them to land on their first passion, (theatre) acting. They graduated as Bachelor of Performing Arts in 2006 at the ArtEZ Toneelschool and have worked successfully as an actor till present day. In 2019 they embarked on a new path, applying at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, where they graduated as Bachelor of Visual Arts in July 2025.
Their practice focuses momentarily on the act of human connection, where the investigated themes dictate the media, not the other way around. This can result in an architectural intervention in a building's facade (I AM WELCOME HERE), baking a cake (ALLES IS OK NU) or a loaf of bread (BREAK/BREAD/CONNECT) or a seat for a person recieving a compliment.
ACT OR
Noël Sebastiaan Keulen is an actor, mainly in the Dutch language. Noël is also fluent in German and English.
een Nederlandse acteur, afgestudeerd in 2006 aan de acteursopleiding van ArtEZ Toneelschool Arnhem.
theater
Noël speelde in voorstellingen zoals Jan Rap en z’n Maat, regie: Peter de Baan, Karakter, regie: Peter Sonneveld, De Verlichting is Stuk, regie: Floris van Delft, Saltimbank, De Lankmoedigen, regie: Joeri Vos, De ondergang van regie: Isil Vos, Al Mijn Zonen, regie Thibaud Delpeut, Glengarry Glen Ross, Mightysociety8, regie: Eric de Vroedt, en de Oerolvoorstelling Home Sweet Home, regie: Ria Marks. Noël speelde 1,5 jaar de rol van Victor in Soldaat van Oranje, regie Theu Boermans en was te zien als transgender Hansje in de alom bejubelde voorstelling De Onrendabelen, regie Marcus Azzini. Noël kwam terug voor de centrale rol van Hansje in het laatste deel van het drieluik Goede Bedoelingen, De Lankmoedigen. Verder was Noël te zien als alternate voor de rol van Polonius in HAMLET, regie: Pieter Kramer, en speelde de monoloog Radio Rusland onder leiding van het befaamde Ragazze Quartet.
tv
Noël was te zien in o.a. Moordvrouw (RTL), Flikken Rotterdam én Maastricht (TROS), Bellicher : CEL (VPRO), Harkum (BNNVARA), Hein (VPRO) en speelde de hoofdrol in de NTR KORT film WIL (2011) regie: Sander Burger.
U kunt Noël ook kennen van de Bolletje, Volkswagen, Toyota reclames en al meer dan een decennium als het tweede gezicht van Klene Drop.
film
In 2016 was Noël te zien als Anton in de familiefilm de Boskampi’s, regie: Arne Toonen. De Boskampi’s heeft vele buitenlandse nominaties en prijzen gewonnen en was ondermeer te zien op het prestigieuze Sundance Festival.
Als enige Nederlandse Film in de Tiger Competitie van het IFFR ging in 2017 Quality Time van Daan Bakker in premiere, waarin Noël één van de hoofdrollen speelde. Deze ontving unaniem lovende recensies en won ondermeer de Youth Jury Award.
Noël ontwikkelde zich vanaf 2019 verder als beeldend kunstenaar en schrijver aan de Gerrit Rietveld Academie, DOGtime en studeerde in juli 2025 succesvol af als bachelor of visual arts, naast diens reeds behaalde bachelor of performing arts.
under development
.PO.rtf.OLIO...
In my portfolio I sometimes use photos, but mainly self modeled 3D renderings, as documentation of the works. Photos were made in most cases, but I prefer to use the 3D models as representation of the works, to emphasize the unreliability of documentation. As almost all my works contain or fully are interactions between people, any documentation (except maybe first hand witnessing) is deficient. Without the 'life' put into the work there is no basis for staunch documentation.
..UPCO.ming..
Works in process. See the steps, sketches and half baked ideas. Dough after the rise, before the bake.
...m.ISC.Everything else; a book recommendation, things I want to get of my chest in word or image, a loose drawing, work that I made but didn’t fit my portfolio, a joke, a holiday picture, a recipe i made but that was ruined, an encounter I had, an audio file with a poem reading. things like that.
ART IS T
grew up quite solitary, mainly drawing and building alternate realities in felt pens, lego and playmobil. The need for creating these alternate realities instead of living and exploring the presented ‘real’ reality came from an inherent fear for the other. Where this fear itself came from, be it from their nature or nurture is still not, and will possibly never be (completely) discovered, despite years of therapy and the their own soul searching. Apparently not all searches lead to finds.
Also some finds are lost after being found. Where it was possible to take in the presented reality in a safe way, it was devoured; in text, in images, in tones and notes and, all these combined, in television. If anything formed them, it was television. Looking, observing, analyzing, [being safely confused) from afar.
It took every second of their life to slowly, slowly, yes unnoticeably slow, move closer and closer towards the other, through the screen, past the tubes and outlets, stepping into the world. A conquest without warriors, only a big (unceasing) kid taking it one step at a time. Taking steps that seemed heroic to the ones closest to them. To them no heroism, merely carefull choices, often choices that kept them away from even scarier choices that seemed obligatory. Avoidance was no stranger.
It is the realization that these ways of conduct (it’s growing wide span of interests and the way of reproducing those perspectives in stories and things) was what máde them them, what brought them towards themself, and the other. At the same time knowing nothing is to be kept, all is just to be experienced and hopefully shared.
Noël went on to act from their truth-full-ness and create from their own (partly fictionalized) reality. These may be considered (by the other) as lies. Even though lies, to them, were once considered bad, they realized they were similiar to fiction and started to become just another word for a story. The words one uses can be big or small, but a big word does not need to be considered intimidating, pompous, grandiose, pretentious, just going on its size. Yet can also be soft and familiar. It’s a word within a new context. A word that can feel very familiar to them who live more on the scale oft infinity (of the mind) han that of the constraints of everyday life, sounding to them of equal size. This is that human, that lump of unpredictable energy.
They died somewhere in the future.
Unlike their life, without loose ends,Everything nicely tied up in knots.
PORTFOLIO
In this portfolio I sometimes use photos, but mainly self modeled 3D renderings, as documentation of the works. Photos were made in most cases, but I prefer to use the 3D models as representation of the works, to emphasize the unreliability of documentation. As almost all my works contain or fully are interactions between people, any documentation (except maybe first hand witnessing) is deficient. Without the 'life' put into the work there is no basis for staunch documentation.
I chose works that represent my work currently in a coherent story.
I AM WELCOME HERE
from the 2025 GRAduation Rietveld Academy diploma ceremony:
“Noël Sebastiaan Keulen
I AM WELCOME HERE
On the flagpole in front of the Bentel Crouwel building of the Rietveld Academy hangs an old-fashioned telephone, with a canopy bearing routed letters: I AM WELCOME HERE. That same text appears on a banner several metres long, hanging from the seventh floor along the facade: I AM WELCOME HERE.
On that seventh floor of the building, we are guided by green arrows over a green path to a second telephone. A transparent dome offers a view of the telephone booth below. It is up to the visitor to take action: call 21, to connect with a random passer-by below.
Around the corner are two wooden ladders leading to openings in the ceiling, inviting visitors to meet one another in a space above the ceiling — lit in green, with the focus on each other.
Communication and dialogue are key concepts in your work. Making a connection with another person is, for you, a way of being.
In your graduation work, you translate this in an inventive way into a well-considered installation in which it is not you who makes the connection, but in which you invite and facilitate others to do so. Visitors have activated your work over the past week. It came to life — with the tension of whether the phone would be picked up, with the pleasure of unexpected contact, with curiosity about the other person. Wonderful to see this work come to live.
Driven by a personal necessity, you want to embrace everyone in your generous arms — including those who do not feel welcome here, in the bubble of the academy. You are well aware that it is an uphill battle. Yet without an attempt, little happens. Tolerance as a theme is greatly needed right now. So is keeping the conversation open.
An installation full of hope. Hope that people will participate, hope that people will call, hope that people will stick their heads through the ceiling, hope that people will feel invited.
Your enormous drive to act has produced action. A large, monumental, architectural and social intervention in Rietveld and art world culture — now cast into steel and bakelite. You have broken a hole through the facade, provided a lifeline, and hope has become reality.”
ALLES IS OK NU
a cake was made out of the anger and frustration about an 'unsuccesful' suicide close to home. And how we, who can just look on, are forced to chow down the 'okay-ness' of the aftermath.
The cake was cut and eaten in a roam between festive ceremony and gloomy ritual, the cake bleeding and the pills regurgitated.
UPCOMING
Works in process. See the different steps, sketches and other visualisations. Dough after the rise, before the bake.
MISC.
Everything else; a book recommendation, things I want to get of my chest in word or image, a loose drawing, work that I made but didn’t fit my portfolio, a joke, a holiday picture, a recipe i made but that was ruined, an encounter I had, an audio file with a poem reading. things like that.
CONTACT
hallo@noelskeulen.nl
@noelskeulen
agent
Tsilla van Coevorden
TvC Agency
tsilla@tvcagency.nl