12th cei venice forum for contemporary art curators: the speakers
Criteria of Memoria. Navigating Memory and Preservation in Contemporary Art.
12th CEI Venice Forum for Contemporary Art Curators. Continental Breakfast 2026.
Venice, Academy of Fine Arts, Academy Auditorium (Fondamenta Zattere Allo Spirito Santo, 423)
Friday, 8 May 2026 [2 pm – 6:00 pm]
The Speakers
KONSTANTIN AKINSHA | Ukraine
Art historian, curator and investigative journalist renowned for his expertise in Eastern European modernism. Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he has been advocating for the protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage, documenting the destruction and looting of art by Russian forces. Curator of the exhibition In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s (travelling in 2022–2025 in Madrid, Cologne, Brussels, Vienna, London, Łódź).
NATAŠA BODROŽIĆ | Croatia
Art curator from Zagreb and Trogir. Co-founder of Slobodne Veze (Loose Associations) and initiator of Motel Trogir project on the critical revaluation and protection of modernist architecture. Co-editor of several books in the field of contemporary art, cultural policy and heritage activism, among which Consumer Culture Landscapes in Socialist Yugoslavia (2018) and (Dis)trust the Storyteller. The Case of Krvavica Children’s Health Resort (2025). She curated numerous exhibitions and projects in public space, in Croatia and abroad, and co-curated two contemporary art biennials: Mediterranea 16: Errors Allowed in Ancona, 2013 and Ostrale O21: Breathturn in Dresden in 2021.
IARA BOUBNOVA | Bulgaria
Curator of contemporary art projects and art writer. From 1995 to 2018, she served as the Founding Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Sofia (ICA-Sofia). She was the Director of the National Gallery of Bulgaria from 2018 to 2025. During that time, she acted as the National Commissioner for the Bulgarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019 and 2022. Notable curatorial projects include the Bulgarian National Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia in 1999, Manifesta 4 in 2002, and the 1st and 2nd Moscow Biennials in 2005 and 2007. She also contributed to the 3rd Biennial in Thessaloniki in 2011 and the 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial in Yekaterinburg in 2012.
DEJVI DAUTI | Albania
Architect and founder of ORK, a workspace for young practices on reuse and material transformation. After the degree in Architecture from IUAV University in Venice and an internship at the Polis University in Tirana, where he currently works, in 2023 he completed the research project Çamëria–Tools of Mental Images, an exploration of memory, archives, and imagery. In 2024, he was awarded an Italian-Albanian PhD fellowship in Architecture and Urban Planning. His practice moves across architecture, research, editorial work, and curatorial projects exploring how memory and mental imagery can be articulated across disciplines and formats.
DESSISLAVA DIMOVA | Bulgaria
Art historian and curator of contemporary art. She is the commissioner of the Bulgarian pavilion at Venice Biennial 2026. MA in Art History from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia and MA in Aesthetics and Art Theory from CRMEP, Middlesex University, London. Her current research focuses on the history of Bulgarian art within a broader European context. In 2025, she organized the research and donation of works by contemporary Bulgarian artists to the Centre Pompidou, Paris. She has worked as a curator and researcher both independently and in collaboration with institutions including Bozar (2017–2019) and WIELS (2024–2025) in Brussels and Museum Susch, Switzerland (2024–2026). In 2025, she joined the curatorial team of the National Gallery, Sofia.
IRFAN HOŠIĆ | Bosnia and Herzegovina
Associate Professor of art history at the University of Bihać and founder of the KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture. He holds a PhD from the Department of Art History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb. During 2019-2020, as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, he attended the College for Creative Studies and the Wayne State University in Detroit (USA). Founder of the Revizor Foundation in 2017. Co-curator of the Bosnian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2013 (Garden of Delights by the artist Mladen Miljanović). He wrote the books Iz/van konteksta (2013) and Slika krize (2025).
ADRIANNA WIKTORIA KOWALIK | Poland
Contemporary art curator and researcher based in Warsaw. She studied at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, focusing on art history and cultural studies. For the past two years, she has been collaborating with the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation as the head curator and coordinator of Secondary Archive, an online project on feminist art histories, archival practices, and transnational artistic networks in Central and Eastern Europe.
LILIJANA STEPANČIČ | Slovenia
She is an art historian and an economist. Working in recent years as an art critic, she has been a prominent figure in the contemporary art management in Slovenia and a director of several art organisations. She was a board member of the International Foundation Manifesta and a founder of the pioneering organisation City of Women–Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture in Ljubljana.
DARKO ŠIMIČIĆ | Croatia
Art curator, researcher and collector whose studies and activities deal with croatian art from the 1960s to today. He is the head of the Tomislav Gotovac Institute in Zagreb. His topics of interest are historical avant-garde (Zenitism, Dada, photomontage), neo-avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s (Gorgona, Mangelos, Group of Six Authors, Tomislav Gotovac) and the media of photography and artist books.
JANKA VUKMIR | Croatia
Art historian and curator. Convenor of the 2026 CEI Venice Forum.
go to 2026 Forum main page
[update: 17 April, 2026]