Contemporary Art Theory

Igor Zabel (1958–2005) was one of Slovenia’s foremost curators and writers. Published as a part of JRP | Ringier’s Documents critical writings series (published with Les presses du reel), this important collection of Zabel’s writings—his first in English—serves as a methodology model for research into Eastern European art techniques and practices. The selected texts are divided into four chapters: “East–West and Between,” which explores perceptions of otherness following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; “Strategies and Spaces of Art,” which examines strategies of representation and theories of display and the role of the curator; “Ad Personam,” which includes individual artists and art from Socialist Realism and conceptualism to postmodernism and contextual art, particularly in Slovenia and South Eastern Europe; and “Extras,” a selection of Zabel’s columns on arts and culture.