Igor Zabel

Igor Zabel (14 August 1958 – 23 July 2005) was a Slovene art historian, curator, and essayist. He was curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana and one of the most prominent writers on modern and contemporary art in Slovenia.[1][2] In 2007 he was posthumously awarded the Rožanc Award for his essays on Modern and Contemporary Art.[3]

Igor Zabel
Born(1958-08-14)14 August 1958
Ljubljana, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia)
Died23 July 2005(2005-07-23) (aged 46)
Ljubljana, Slovenia
OccupationArt historian, curator, essayist and literary critic
Notable worksEseji I, Eseji II
Notable awardsRožanc Award
2007 for Eseji o moderni in sodobni umetnosti

The Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory and its Igor Zabel Award carry his name, in the memory of his work.[4][5]

Life

Zabel was born in Ljubljana. He graduated in Philosophy, History of Art, and Comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana in 1982. In 1989, he received his master's degree from the same university.[1]

Between 1984 and 1986, Igor Zabel worked as a freelance writer. In 1986, he started working as curator at the Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art, later gaining the title of senior curator.[1] In 2003 he worked as a curator for the Venice Biennale.[6]

Hi died on 23 July 2005 due to complications that followed a knee surgery.[7]

The Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory

Two years after Igor Zabel's sudden death, in 2007, his family members along the ERSTE Foundation founded The Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory. The association reports its goal as the promotion of the ongoing importance of Zabel's work "for art and cultural understanding between East and West" Europe.[5]

The Igor Zabel Award for outstanding cultural activities related to the Central and South Eastern European region[8] and the Igor Zabel Competition for innovative curatorial approaches and theoretical research in contemporary visual arts are both named after him.[9]

Work

Zabel's research focused on post-communist literature and art in Eastern and Central Europe. His complete bibliography can be found at the Association website.

In Ljubljana
  • Aspects of the Minimal: Minimal Art in Slovenia 1968–1980 (1990);
  • OHO–A Retrospective (1994);
  • Inexplicable Presence: Curator's Working Place (1997);
  • Tank! Slovene Historical Avant-Garde (1998, with Breda Ilich Klančnik);
  • The Eye and Its Truth (2001);
  • Seven Sins: Ljubljana - Moscow (2004; with Zdenka Badovinac and Viktor Misiano);
  • Slovene Art 1975–2005 (2003–05, with Igor Španjol).
  • Individual Systems, at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003)
  • 33rd Zagreb Salon, at the Museum and Gallery Centre Zagreb (1998);
  • Aspects/Positions, at the Museum moderner Kunst – Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (1999, along with the chief curator: Lóránd Hegyi);
  • The Future Is Not What It Used To Be, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig (2004, with Barbara Steiner).

Short stories
  • Strategije, taktike (1985)
  • Lise na steni (1993)
  • Magazine of Moderna galerija Ljubljana M’ars

Collection of Essays
  • Vmesni prostor: eseji o slikarstvu Emerika Bernarda [Intermediate Space: Essays on Emeric Bernard's Painting] (1991)
  • Speculationes (1997)
  • Connected Cities (1999);
  • L’autre moitié de l’Europe (The Other Half of Europe) (2000);
  • Primary Documents: A Primer of Critical Writing on Critical Art in Eastern Central Europe (2002).
  • Eseji I and II [Essays I and II; posthumously (2006 and 2008)
  • Igor Zabel: Contemporary Art Theory (after his death)

Edition and Translation

He edited the Manifesta Journal: Journal of Contemporary Curatorship (with Viktor Misiano) and the Magazine of Moderna galerija Ljubljana M’ars. He also translated to translations numerous texts and books from the field of humanities and literature: Thomas Pynchon, Edward W. Said, Oscar Wilde, Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein, Sigmund Freud, Michael Baxandall, Erwin Panofsky.[1]

Published works
  • Strategije, taktike, short stories, 1985
  • Vmesni prostor: eseji o slikarstvu Emerika Bernarda, collection of essays, 1991
  • Lise na steni, short stories, 1993
  • Speculationes, collection of essays, 1997
  • Eseji I, collection of essays, 2006
  • Eseji II, collection of essays, 2008

References
  1. "Biography - Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory". www.igorzabel.org. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  2. Umrl Igor Zabel (Igor Zabel has Died), Delo, 24 July 2005
  3. Letos rožanca Štegru in Zabelu This Year's Rožanc Awards for Šteger and Zabel, RTV Slovenija 20 September 2007
  4. "About us - Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory". www.igorzabel.org. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  5. "Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory – ERSTE Stiftung". www.erstestiftung.org. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  6. "Igor Zabel | ZKM". zkm.de. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  7. "RE: [Nettime-ro] Igor Zabel died". nettime.org. Archived from the original on 9 September 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  8. Rožanc Award at Culture.si Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia site
  9. "Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana site". Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
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