LJUBLJANA.- Nataliia Ivanova, curator, educator, and the founding director of the Yermilov Centre in Kharkiv, is the 2026 Igor Zabel Award Laureate. Tania Arcimovich, Octavian Esanu, and Alona Karavai receive Igor Zabel Award Grants.

The Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory honours outstanding achievements in the field of visual arts, recognising visionary thinking and the lasting cultural impact of curators, art historians, theorists, and art writers whose work supports, develops, or investigates visual arts in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.

This year’s award ceremony will take place at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Friday, November 27. The ceremony will be accompanied by a supporting programme on November 26 and 27.

The jury has given Nataliia Ivanova the 2026 Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory for her achievements as curator, educator, and the founding director of the Yermilov Centre in Kharkiv (since 2012). Ivanova’s work strengthens visual art and culture in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe by bridging the regional avant-garde heritage with contemporary practices and fostering global dialogue. Her work demonstrates the necessity of cultural practice under complex conditions. Operating an institution near a frontline zone requires sustaining creative production amid danger. Under her leadership, the Yermilov Centre has strengthened its role as a cultural institution and a space of care, and has become a remarkable example of how art institutions can fulfill their social mission. The centre functions as both a bomb shelter and an active gallery, providing physical protection alongside intellectual, emotional, and resilience support for the local community. Her work demonstrates an uncompromising commitment to critical cultural discourse, artistic production, and international solidarity amid active conflict.

2026 Igor Zabel Award Grant recipients

• Tania Arcimovich, a researcher and art writer from Minsk, in recognition of her research and contributions to contemporary art, performance, and historical avant-garde studies in Belarus and among the Belarusian diaspora.

• Octavian Esanu, based in Beirut and Tokyo, in recognition of his art historical, curatorial, and pedagogical work connecting the artistic infrastructures and legacies of post-socialist Eastern Europe and the postcolonial Middle East.

• Alona Karavai, cultural worker and curator from Ukraine, for creating support structures for contemporary art outside metropolitan centres that transform temporary wartime crisis interventions into sustainable, long-term regional institutional strategies.

Named in honour of the distinguished Slovenian curator and art historian Igor Zabel (1958–2005), the award has been conferred biennially since 2008 in cooperation with the initiator of the award, the ERSTE Foundation (Vienna), and the Igor Zabel Association (Ljubljana).

A three-member international jury selects the laureate and recipients of three grants based on proposals given by ten nominators. With total prize money of EUR 85,000, the Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory is the most substantial and prestigious prize for cultural activities related to Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.

2026 jury

• Vasif Kortun, curator, Ayvalık
• Kasia Redzisz, curator and artistic director of Kanal – Centre Pompidou, Brussels
• Sophie Thun, artist and professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna

2026 nominators

Aleksei Borisionok, Jakub Gawkowski, Flaka Haliti, Angela Harutyunyan, Elena Narbutaitė, Lívia Nolasco Rózsás, Michal Novotný, Boyan Manchev, Hana Ostan-Ožbolt-Haas, Magda Radu