The Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb with the Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana organize an expert forum in the context of the international project Bauhaus Ecologies. The forum will be held in two parts: on May 19, 2026 in Ljubljana and on May 20, 2026 in the Gorgona Hall within the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
Zagreb session under the title, Bauhaus Ecologies: Art, Environment and Critical Thought in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, gathers curators, artist and researchers to address questions about the relationship between art, environment and materiality, as well as about museal and artistic work with heritage, and with issues related to social consciousness.
The question of how to read anew the Bauhaus legacy and modernism through the ecology today is at the center of the program, whereby ecology is understood not only as a relationship to nature and environment, but also as a way of thinking, as a web of relations between materials and ideas, past and present practices, art and everyday life.
Two roundtables will take place through two interconnected thematic units. First is starting from artistic and curatorial practices in which nature is not a mere motif or object of representation, but the space of processes, material relations, and transformations. In dialogue with the exhibitions Ecologies of the Bauhaus – Webs of Continuity and Natura Po/etica, issues related to landscape, materiality, change, and recycling as artistic and curatorial techniques, and also as a way of different understanding the relationships between humans, materials, and the environment will be addressed.
Second thematic unit focuses on museal collections and archives as places for preserving, transmitting, and reactivating knowledge. The museum is viewed as a public space where heritage is interpreted and re-connected with current artistic, social, and institutional issues. A special emphasis will be placed on dynamic research spaces, accessibility, reinterpretation, and institutional responsibility for ecological values.
The program participants: Regina Bittner (Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau), Vera Lauf (Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau), Ovidiu Ţichindeleanu, Maja Vardjan (Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana), Jasmina Fučkan (MSU Zagreb), Silvio Vujičić, Darko Fritz, Ana Škegro (MSU Zagreb), Ivan Skvrce (Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb), and Vesna Meštrić (MSU Zagreb).
The program also includes a presentation of the project Ecologies of Absence, Learning Environment, associated with the Academy of Fine Arts, and guided tours for exhibitions Ecologies of the Bauhaus – Webs of Continuity and Natura Po/etica.
Bauhaus Ecologies: Art, Environment and Critical Thought in Eastern and Southeastern Europe
May 20, 2026
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
