The Igor Zabel Award 2018 for Joanna Mytkowska

Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw is pleased to inform that the Director of the Museum, Joanna Mytkowska, has been awarded the Igor Zabel Award 2018 for her committed and outstanding work as the director of the Museum.

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 ERSTE Foundation (Vienna) and the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory (Ljubljana). With prize money totalling 76,000 EUR, it is one of the highest and most prestigious prizes for cultural activities related to Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory acknowledges the exceptional achievements of cultural protagonists whose work supports, develops or investigates visual art and culture in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Since 2018 award edition a three-member international jury selects the laureate and recipients of two grants based on the proposals given by 10 nominators; third grant is still named by the laureate.

This year, the jury has awarded the grants are given to Edith Jeřábková (Czech Republic), Oberliht Association (Moldova) and The Visual Culture Research Center (Ukraine), nominated by Joanna Mytkowska.

The 2018 winners will be presented at an award ceremony on 7 December 2018, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana.

Igor Zabel Award Grant recipients:

Edith Jeřábková

Curator, researcher, teacher and art writer from Prague, for her resilience regarding emancipating non-institutional forms of cultural production and searching for new articulations of curatorial practice and theory.

Oberliht Association

An association from Chisinau, Moldova, in recognition of its ongoing support to the local artistic community and its innovative engagement with projects in the public space.

The Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC)

A curatorial collective from Kyiv, which, through the analysis of visual culture, aims to foster reflection on the post-Soviet political and economic situation, for its unique contribution to acting, critical thinking and creativity in the highly difficult context of Ukraine in the state of war today.

2018 jury members: Adam Budak (chief curator, National Gallery, Prague), Ana Janevski (curator, MoMA, New York), Erzen Shkololli (director, National Art Gallery of Albania, Tirana).

2018 nominators: Anna Daučíková, Branislav Dimitrijević, Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Christian Höller, Lívia Páldi, Dan Perjovschi, Magdalena Radomska, Barbara Steiner, Adam Szymczyk, Maria Vassileva.