Zdenka Badovinac


Zdenka Badovinac is a curator and writer, who has served since 1993 as director of the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, comprised since 2011 of two locations: the Museum of Modern Art and the Metelkova Museum of Contemporary Art in Metelkova, an autonomous art, culture, and social center in Ljublijana.

Career

Badovinac has curated numerous exhibitions presenting both Slovenian and international artists.
She initiated the first collection of Eastern European art, Moderna galerija’s 2000+ Arteast Collection. In her work, Badovinac addresses the processes of redefining history with the questions of different avant-garde traditions of contemporary art. Furthermore, Badovinac is involved in international dialogue surrounding the geopolitics of art after the fall of communism, believing that museums must face the complex histories of the recent past in conversations about the present.
She was Slovenian Commissioner at the Venice Biennale.
Badovinac was Austrian Commissioner at the São Paulo Biennial in 2002. She worked with the art group monochrom who created an elaborate hoax featuring Georg Paul Thomann. Badovinac discusses her role in the project in a short documentary film called "The Thomann Invention", created by Hadas Emma Kedar.
Badovinac was a board member of The International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art from 2005-2010 and president from 2011-2013.

Curated Shows

2000s

Badovinac's first exhibition, Body and the East – From the 1960s to the Present, was staged in 1998 at Moderna galerija, Ljubljana. The exhibit then traveled to Exit Art, New York in 2001. She continued in 2000 with the first public displaying of the 2000+ Arteast Collection: The Art of Eastern Europe in Dialogue with the West at Moderna galerija. In 2003, Badovinac completed a series of Arteast Exhibitions, mostly at Moderna galerija. In 2004, Badovinac co-curated 7 Sins: Ljubljana-Moscow with Victor Misiano and Igor Zabel. In 2006, she worked on Interrupted Histories and Arteast Collection 2000+23. In 2008, Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Badovinac was part of the Hosting Moderna galerija! project. Also in 2008, Old Masters Zavod P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E., Center in galerijaP74, Ljubljana, also part of the Hosting Moderna galerija! project!

2010s

In the next decade, Badovinac helped curate Museum of Parallel Narratives: In the Framework of L’Internationale at MACBA, Barcelona, 2011. L'Internationale is an international and cross-institutional organization created in 2009 to foster discussion between institutions whose collections focus on local histories and narratives. The organization takes their name from the left-wing anthem "The International." MACBA's exhibit presented Ljubljana’s Moderna galerija’s Arteast 2000+ Collection, the foremost and seminal collection of post-war avant-garde Eastern European art.

Other major projects

Badovinac's other major projects include: