November 26–27, 2026
The ERSTE Foundation and the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory cordially invite the public to the 2026 Igor Zabel Award Ceremony and its accompanying programme, taking place November 26–27 2026 in Ljubljana. The programme brings together contemporary and historical avant-garde practices, forging connections across post-socialist and post-colonial contexts and geographies, while exploring how cultural infrastructures are sustained, reimagined, or rebuilt amid shifting political realities, conflict, and war.
The Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory honours the exceptional accomplishments of curators, art historians, theorists, and art writers whose work supports, develops, or investigates visual arts in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.
Thursday, November 26, 2026
Lili Novy hall, Cankarjev dom
3–4:30pm: Working Across Uncertain Grounds
A conversation with Igor Zabel Award Grant recipients Tania Arcimovich, Octavian Esanu, and Alona Karavai, moderated by Vasif Kortun and Jakub Gawkowski.
The session explores questions of displacement, exile, and both forced and professional mobility, alongside the challenges of working within and beyond institutional structures amid political and economic instability, and war.
Slovenian Cinematheque
6–7:30pm: Grounded Sun / Relations
A screening presenting some of the key artists and works of avant-garde and experimental film selected from three collections: the Kontakt Collection, the Slovenian Cinematheque Film Collection, and DIVA Station – Digital Video Archive.
Curators: Aleksei Borisionok and Peter Cerovšek
Friday, November 27, 2026
MGLC Švicarija
10am–12:30pm: Exhibiting Visual Art in Slovenia
The seminar examines the historical development of Slovenia's extensive visual arts infrastructure, its sociopolitical context, and its specificities. Focusing on examples of the Museum of Modern Art and MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts, both based in Ljubljana, it examines the legacy of Socialist Yugoslavia and subsequent developments on this legacy. The seminar includes lectures by Beti Žerovc and Zdenka Badovinac, and a guided tour by Božidar Zrinski and Dušan Dovč through MGLC / Švicarija.
Cukrarna Gallery
10am–12:30pm: Presentation of the Cukrarna Gallery & guided tour of the exhibitions untranquil now and Špela Petrič: Eating Back
The untranquil now exhibition, curated by Corinne Diserens, features artworks primarily from the Hamburger Kunsthalle collection that explore bodies and modes of perception as agents of contradictory states and troubled histories. The Eating Back exhibition by Špela Petrič draws on her interventions in industrial greenhouses to explore the material, ideological, and social conditions of technologically optimised environments that shape the food we consume.
Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM)
3–5pm: The End—Guided tour of the exhibition by curator Vladimir Vidmar
The exhibition asks how to contend with the end that we are already living and will be dealing with for the foreseeable future, without veering into the utopian or dystopian, since neither hope nor despair provide a solid base or have much to contribute.
Museum of Modern Art (MG+)
7–9pm: award ceremony
The Award Ceremony will unfold within a scenography created by artist Josef Dabernig, featuring a presentation of the 2026 Award and Grant recipients, followed by a conversation with the Laureate, Nataliia Ivanova.
The jury has awarded Nataliia Ivanova for her achievements as curator, educator, and the founding director of the Yermilov Centre in Kharkiv, Ukraine (2012–). Ivanova’s work strengthens visual art and culture in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe by bridging regional avant-garde heritage with contemporary practices, fostering global dialogue, and developing art infrastructure as a practice of care.
Tania Arcimovich, Octavian Esanu, and Alona Karavai received Igor Zabel Award Grants.
2026 jury: Vasif Kortun, curator, Ayvalık; Kasia Redzisz, curator and artistic director of Kanal – Centre Pompidou, Brussels; Sophie Thun, artist and professor at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna
2026 nominators: Aleksei Borisionok; Jakub Gawkowski; Flaka Haliti; Angela Harutyunyan; Elena Narbutaitė; Lívia Nolasco Rózsás; Michal Novotný; Boyan Manchev; Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas; Magda Radu
Produced by: Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory, Ljubljana, and ERSTE Fundation, Vienna
Partners: MG+MSUM, Cankarjev dom, MGLC, Slovenian Cinematheque, Cukrarna Gallery
