On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Igor Zabel’s death, the MG Archives, in collaboration with the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory, has prepared an updated bibliography and a list of his exhibition projects.
IGOR ZABEL (1958–2005, Ljubljana, Slovenia) was an art historian, curator, author, essayist, critic, and translator. He studied comparative literature, art history, and philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, where he also obtained his MA in 1989. From 1986 on, he worked as a curator for Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, where he curated numerous exhibitions and edited the M’ars journal for several years. He coedited the first six issues of the Manifesta Journal, coordinated Manifesta 3 (2000), and advised on the creation of the Arteast 2000+ collection.
As a writer, he published short prose (Strategije, taktike, 1985; Lise na steni, 1993; posthumously Podrobnosti, 2006), and translated works by Thomas Pynchon, Edward Said, Oscar Wilde, and Sigmund Freud, among others. His work significantly influenced art history, curatorial practice, and art criticism in Slovenia and beyond. In 2018, the documentary The Curator's Room. Igor Zabel: How to Make Art Visible? was released, directed by Damjan Kozole, written by Urška Jurman, and produced by Vertigo (Ljubljana).
The MG Archives hold part of Zabel’s archive, particularly materials related to his curatorial work in Slovenia and abroad. The materials are accessible to the public (contact: dokumentacija@mg-lj.si).
