Round table: artistic and curatorial research
Date: 6.11.2026.
Time: 17:00-20:00
Location: Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb
Ilica 85, Nude hall (ground floor)
* The event is organized in a hybrid form and can be followed via live stream on Facebook.
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Starting from the question of how artistic and curatorial research is conceived and conducted, this round table aims to consider specific authorial and collective research practices, alternative pedagogies and methods of action, as well as to strengthen the links between institutional and non-institutional forms of action and cooperation. The round table will be attended by curators and cultural workers with experience working on the Croatian and international cultural scene, whose work extends from scientific research and artistic-curatorial research, through the management of museum institutions, to the organization of non-institutional art and theoretical educational programs. The discussion will focus on critical reflection on different methodologies, institutional conditions, alternative pedagogies and political dimensions of curatorial work.
The round table "Artistic and Curatorial Research" is organized as part of the ARCADE project implemented at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in collaboration with the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Milan. It is focused on exploring hybrid, artistic-curatorial research approaches and the ways in which different epistemologies are shaped in the interrelations of curatorial and artistic practices within different spatial, social and political configurations, and how their affinities and translational tensions produce specific forms of "situated knowledge".
Participants:
Ana Dević – Curatorial Collective What, How and for Whom/WHW
Lovro Japundžić – Independent Curator
Olga Majcen Linn – CONTAINER | Bureau of Contemporary Art Practice
Vesna Meštrić – Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb
Luja Šimunović – Curatorial Collective KUĆĆA
Vesna Vuković – BLOK Curatorial Collective/independent researcher
Moderation:
Nikola Bojić, Petra Šarin – Academy of Fine Arts
Ana Dević is a curator, educator and writer. She is part of the curatorial collective What, How and For Whom/WHW, whose members are curators Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović, and designer and publicist Dejan Kršić. From 2003 to 2023, WHW led the Nova Gallery in Zagreb. In 2018, WHW initiated the WHW Academy, an educational program for young artists.
Lovro Japundžić is a curator and producer with experience in curating exhibitions, performances, festivals and other cultural programs. He is currently part of the curatorial collective of the Organ Vida festival and one of the curators and program manager of the Mochvara Gallery. Previously, he worked as a producer of the BADco. collective, artistic director of GMK and selector of the program of the music collective Živa Muzika.
Olga Majcen Linn is an art historian, curator and researcher with a PhD in art and media. She is a co-founder of KONTEJNER, where she has been developing international curatorial and research projects at the intersection of art, science and technology since 2002. She is a guest lecturer and mentor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.
Vesna Meštrić is an art historian, museum consultant and, since 2024, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. Her curatorial and research work focuses on avant-garde and post-avant-garde art practices and the interpretation of museum collections. She is the author of exhibition and international projects, and in 2017 she participated in the MoMA program with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Luja Šimunović is a curator, researcher and co-founder of the KUĆĆA collective, founded in 2021. She teaches at the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and is working on a PhD on digitally mediated subjectivity and fiction. Since 2015, she has been working as a curator, educator and producer. Together with KUĆĆA, she has curated the Youth Salon, the Poreč Annals, the Zagreb Salon and Media Mediterranea.
Vesna Vuković is a researcher, curator and critic, PhD student at the Department of Art History at the University of Zadar. Since 2025, she has been an external associate on the scientific research project "Digital Network, Spatial and (Con)textual Analysis of Artistic Phenomena and Heritage of the 20th Century" at the Institute of Art History in Zagreb. Co-founder of the curatorial collective BLOK, with which she has realized several exhibitions, research, publications and projects in the field of contemporary art.
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The program is held as part of the NPOO project "ARCADE — Artistic and Curatorial Research: Institutional, Urban and Digital Epistemologies" (2025-2029), which is being implemented at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb. Project team members: Leonida Kovač, Marko Tadić, Ivan Skvrce, Petra Šarin, Nikola Bojić (PI).
More about the project: https://www.alu.unizg.hr/projekti/institucionalni-npoo-projekti/arcade.
