libraryline – on igor zabel and the igor zabel association for culture and theory in ljubljana
at 6 pm
libraryline–brainwork
film screening The Curator’s Room. Igor Zabel: How to Make Art Visible?
conversation by Urška Jurman, Program Director of the Zabel Association
at 6 pm
On 19 September at 18.00 at Studio Tommaseo in Trieste, screening of the documentary The Curator’s Room. Igor Zabel: How to Make Art Visible? . Directed by the award-winning Slovenian director Damjan Kozole, and produced by Vertigo Institute in Ljubljana, the documentary examines the great transformations of time and the role of the curator in the global art context and, through interviews and testimonies of important protagonists of the art world, such as Zdenka Badovinac, Francesco Bonami and Viktor Misiano, it explores the main exhibition projects curated by Igor Zabel and his role in Slovenian art history from the late 1980s to the early 2000s.
The film screening is offered by Trieste Contemporanea as part of the libraryline-brainwork programme carried out by the Library of the Trieste committee. These are in-depth meetings with contemporary art curators, artists and representatives of important European cultural institutions or projects who talk about their ‘work in progress’ or those of the organisation to which they belong. Thanks to the participation of director Urška Jurman, the evening is dedicated to presenting the activities of Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory in Ljubljana, founded in 2008 by Zabel family and ERSTE Foundation. This private Slovenian institution stands out for its commitment to promoting visual art and culture in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe through studies dedicated to Igor Zabel, residencies and fellowships for art curators and artists. The association is also responsible for awarding the prestigious Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory, which honours outstanding protagonists whose work supports, develops or investigates the visual art and culture of this region of Europe.
This Trieste event is made possible thanks to the cooperation of Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory and Vertigo film production company from Ljubljana. The working language (including film subtitles) is English.
Igor Zabel (ph. Borut Krajnc) and Igor Zabel’s office, 1997, photo by Lado Mlekuž, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana. Courtesy Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory
Igor Zabel (1958–2005) was during his entire life actively involved in many fields of theory and culture – as an art historian, modern and contemporary art curator, writer, literary and art critic, columnist and essayist, translator, and mentor for new generations of curators and critics of contemporary art. In his theoretical and curatorial work, he advocated an in-depth consideration of the political and social subcurrents that can contribute to a better understanding of art and, at the same time, insisted on the ability of art to tease apart the very substrata that so importantly determine it.
Urška Jurman is an art historian and a sociologist of culture. She is active as a curator, editor, writer, and producer in the filed of contemporary art.
Since 2013, she has been the programme director of the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory in Ljubljana.
Damjan Kozole is a Slovenian director who directed, among others, Spare Parts (2003), nominated for the Golden Bear at the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival and ranked among the ten most important films of New Europe by ‘Sight & Sound’ in 2008, Slovenian Girl premiered in 2009 at the Toronto IFF and distributed worldwide, and Nightlife (2016), winner of the Best Director award at the 51st Karlovy Vary IFF. In 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MedFilm Festival in Rome. He is a frequent author of documentaries dealing with visual arts, such as Ulay’s journal from November to November, a feature-length documentary about the artist Ulay (2012), or Two or Three Things I know About Her about the artist Zora Stančič (2010).
Film details
The Curator’s Room
Igor Zabel: How to Make Art Visible?
Slovenia, 2018, colour/black-white, 64 minutes
Director: Damjan Kozole
Scriptwriter: Urška Jurman
Photography: Matjaž Mrak
Editor: Jurij Moškon
Sound: Julij Zornik
Music: Laibach (Von Sonnen Untergang)
Producer: Danijel Hočevar
Production and distribution: Vertigo
Co-production: RTV Slovenia, Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory
Supported by: Slovenian Film Centre