Suzana Milevska: Troubled Relation Between Theory and Curatorial Practice

February 5, 2014, Ljubljana

In the lecture, Suzana Milevska addresses the important and complex relation between contemporary curating and theoretical discourses. She points to the limitations that occur when theoretical concepts are used as an excuse for and to advocate the curatorial choice of models, strategies and relationships instead of using these concepts as starting points for a critical self-reflection on art and curatorial choices.

Suzana Milevska (Skopje) is an art historian, curator and theorist of visual art and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths College in London. Her academic research and curating interests include postcolonial critique of hegemonic power in art, gender theory and feminism(s) in art practices and socially engaged and participatory projects. She publishes extensively, including among others Gender Difference in the Balkans and The Renaming Machine: The Book (both in 2010). In 2012, she was awarded the Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory, and in 2013 she was appointed as the first Endowed Professor for Central and South Eastern European Art Histories at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

The lecture was part of the 2014 World of Art public programme, which was organized by the SCCA-Ljubljana and Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory. The programme was supported by: the City of Ljubljana – Department for Culture; ERSTE Foundation.