Igor Zabel Award 2024 / Award Ceremony

Join us at this year’s ceremony presenting the 2024 Igor Zabel Award and Grants recipients, on 29 November at 20:30 in Sokol House, Tabor in Ljubljana.
Edit András, art historian, art critic, and curator from Budapest is named this year’s Igor Zabel Award Laureate. Irfan Hošić, Ovidiu Ţichindeleanu, and Natalija Vujošević receive the 2024 Igor Zabel Award Grants.
More info: https://award.igorzabel.org/award-ceremony/
ABOUT THE AWARD
The Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory acknowledges exceptional achievements of curators, art historians, theorists, art writers, and critics whose work supports, develops or investigates visual art and culture in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.
Named in honour of the distinguished Slovenian curator and art historian Igor Zabel (1958–2005), the award has been conferred biennially since 2008 in cooperation with the initiator of the award, ERSTE Foundation (Vienna), and the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory (Ljubljana). A three-member international jury selects the laureate and recipients of three grants based on proposals given by ten nominators. The laureate receives EUR 40,000; three working grants are endowed with EUR 15,000 each. With total prize money of EUR 85,000 it is the highest and most prestigious prize for cultural activities related to Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.
PROGRAMME
20:30 / Introduction and presentation of the Igor Zabel Award
Introduction by Nataša Živković, moderator Address by Urška Jurman & Mateja Kos Zabel, Igor Zabel Association Address by Katrin Klingan, ERSTE Foundation
20:40 / Jury statements and presentations of the Igor Zabel Award 2024 Grant recipients
Presentation of Irfan Hošić, Ovidiu Ţichindeleanu, and Natalija Vujošević
21:00 / Performance by Bowrain
21:10 / Jury statement and presentation of the Igor Zabel Award 2024 Laureate
Presentation of Edit András, followed by a conversation moderated by Urška Jurman
21:40 / Closing words
LAUREATE
Edit András
art historian, art critic, curator, and senior member of the Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Art History in Budapest
Budapest, Hungary
The jury has awarded Edit András the 2024 Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory in recognition of her exceptional contribution to counter-hegemonic discourses on Eastern European art and art history writing which emphasize the importance of local conditions and specificities, and for her progressive and critical work as a (feminist) curator, researcher, and author. Among András’s main research interests are gender studies and feminist art history writing. Many of her important scholarly undertakings focus on how Western theories can be transformed for the local and Eastern European context. She is also a critical analyst of the post-socialist condition, and has written and lectured extensively on nationalism and populism in connection to art and culture. As a radical voice against autocracy, András is one of the most dedicated advocates of contemporary visual art and culture in Hungary and the wider region of Eastern and Central Europe.
GRANT RECIPIENTS
Irfan Hošić
curator, critic, and artistic director of KRAK, Center for Contemporary Culture
Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The jury has awarded the 2024 Igor Zabel Award Grant to Irfan Hošić in recognition of his inspirational ability to connect art, education, and community-building. He is the founder of KRAK, Center for Contemporary Culture in Bihać, and has served as its artistic director since 2020. He also founded REVIZOR, Foundation for Science and Culture, located in Bihać, and serves as its president. His field of interest is broad, ranging from art to fashion, from notions of public space to ecology. He has also delved into the study of violence and crisis, and the role of arts and culture in post-war societies, especially in the context of the Balkans. The jury also acknowledges his ability to propose new initiatives, manage them, and give them the necessary impetus to thrive and have an impact on the societies in which they operate.
Ovidiu Ţichindeleanu
philosopher and cultural theorist, curator, translator, editor, author, and educator
Copenhagen, Denmark
The jury has awarded the 2024 Igor Zabel Award Grant to Ovid Ţichindeleanu in recognition of his extraordinary ability to create connections across disciplines and geographies, his impressive opus of theoretical texts and public lectures which reflect a deep engagement with cultural and social issues, and his commitment to involving Eastern European artists in international cultural events. He works in the field of critical social theory, philosophy of the senses, decolonial thought, transnational politics, artistic practices in Eastern Europe, and the cultural histories of socialism and postsocialism. Ţichindeleanu has been particularly engaged in the artistic and cultural life in Romania and Moldova.
Natalija Vujošević
artist and curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Cetinje, and Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, Podgorica
Cetinje/Podgorica, Montenegro
The jury has awarded the 2024 Igor Zabel Award Grant to Natalija Vujošević in recognition of her significant research, historicization, activation, and contextualization of marginalized but globally unique art collections and archives from the socialist Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav periods. In her work, Vujošević contributes to the visibility of these collections and archives as well as to the development of contemporary archival practices, and research and curatorial practices based on postcolonial theory and decolonization. The grant acknowledges the impact she has had as a curator through co-creating important international networks and collaborations with artists, researchers, and art institutions engaged in the examination and contemporary recontextualization of archives/collections and their cultural and political values.
JURY AND NOMINATORS
2024 jury
- Manuel Borja-Villel
art historian and curator, Madrid/Barcelona - Ilona Németh
artist, curator, and professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Design at the Slovak University of Technology STU, Bratislava - Angelika Richter
art historian, curator, and president of the Weißensee School of Art and Design, Berlin
2024 nominators
Zbyněk Baladrán • Pavel Brăila • Sandra Bradvić • Dessislava Dimova • Margarethe Makovec & Anton Lederer • Zofia Nierodzińska • Adrian Paci • Eszter Szakács • Attila Tordai-S. • Māra Traumane





















Partners: ERSTE Foundation, MG+MSUM