Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory
The laureate is selected annually by a renowned international committee of experts. International curators, theorists, writers, and critics are eligible whose work spans the region, and who either come from the region or live and/or work there. In addition to the award of 40.000 Euro, three working grants of 12.000 Euro each are awarded, two by the jury, one by the laureate.
2008
The international jury in 2008 compounded of dramaturg, curator and writer Eda Čufer (Slovenia/USA), artist Josef Dabernig (Austria) and Charles Esche, curator and director Van Abbemuseum (Netherlands) bestowed:
The winner of Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory
It went to the Croatian curatorial collective What, How & for Whom (WHW) (Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović) because of their unique working practice as a curatorial collective that has been dedicated to exploring relevant contemporary artistic issues in relation to social issues concerning the world after 1989. The jury views their work as continuing the principles represented in the diverse yet precise practice of Igor Zabel. The group became quickly known internationally due to the success of their first projects: What, How and for Whom, on the occasion of the 153rd anniversary of the Communist Manifesto; Broadcasting, a project, dedicated to Nikola Tesla, and START dedicated to young artists from the region. WHW curated also the 11th Istanbul Biennial (2009).
The grants of Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory
- Linguist Fouad Asfour, living and working in Vienna (Austria) and Johannesburg (South Africa) as a freelance writer, editor, programme coordinator and linguistic advisor. Asfour’s specific experience has been gained through his engagements in art fields and arenas of cultural theories. The jury recognizes his specific dialectical method which goes closer to the subject of the artist in synergy with critical political disposition as honourable in the memory of Igor Zabel.
- Writer Erden Kosova, publishing and editing in two Istanbul-based contemporary art magazines 'art-ist' and 'Resmi Gorus' and a member of a post-anarchist collective which runs the magazine project 'Siyahi'. He was awarded as a promising writer, who we anticipate will contribute much to defining the region in a way that does justice to Igor Zabel's own understanding of this geography.
- Prelom Kolektiv from Belgrade, established in 2001 as a project of the Belgrade Center for Contemporary Art, and from the very outset becaome a space for critical query of the political constellations between art, film and social theory in contemporary post-Yugoslav context. In the summer of 2004, the editorial board founded an independent organisation – Prelom Kolektiv, constituting itself as a publisher and laying the foundations for expanding activities - exhibitions, conferences, discussions, activist actions - beyond producing the Prelom journal.
2009
About Igor Zabel
Igor Zabel was a Slovenian curator, writer and cultural theorist who, during his entire life, was actively involved in many fields of theory and culture – as a philosopher, author, essayist, modern and contemporary art curator, literary and art critic, translator, and model for new generations of curators and critics of contemporary art. As a curator and writer, he tirelessly called for the profound exploration of those political, social and cultural undercurrents that had the potential to give us a better understanding of the post-communist world of today.
From 1984 to 1986 he worked as free-lance writer and since 1986 as curator of Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana. In his work as curator he organized numerous exhibitions at Moderna galerija Ljubljana presenting artists from Slovenia and abroad. From 1998 to 2000 he was coordinator of Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana. In 2003 he curated the show ‘Individual Systems’ as part of the 50th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale.
Zabel also published two books of essays on contemporary art and a number of essays and articles in catalogues and magazines. He was editor of the magazine of Moderna galerija Ljubljana ‘M’ars’ and co-editor of the journal of contemporary curatorship MJ Manifesta Journal. In 2008