The jury of the prestigious Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory has awarded grants to Curators' Network founding members Anca Mihuleţ and Borbála Szalai. In the words of the jury, Anca is “one of the most promising young Eastern European curators, who has lately been especially interested in comparing different Southern positions”; Borbála and the curatorial team of the OFF-Biennale Budapest 2015, were awarded because they have “proved the viability, energy and professionalism with which contemporary art professionals were able to formulate answers to national state politics that have proven unfavourable to international exchange and the criticality of contemporary culture.”
Former Curators' Network resident Viviana Checchia from Italy was awarded by the jury for her "contribution to the comprehension of and international interest in Eastern European art”.
The Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory acknowledges since 2008 and every two years the achievements of cultural protagonists whose work is dedicated to deepening and broadening internationally the knowledge of visual art and culture in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Candidates for the award are international curators, art historians and theorists, writers or critics who come from or are living and/or working in the region and whose work spans Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, respectively.
The winner of the 2016 Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory is Viktor Misiano. First price winners were the curatorial collective What, How & for Whom (WHW) in 2008, followed by Piotr Piotrowski in 2010, the Macedonian art historian Suzana Milevska (2012) and the Russian curator and writer Ekaterina Degot who received the award in 2014.
