Ivana Rumanová

Ivana Rumanová is a cultural critic, cultural worker and anthropologist.

She studied Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague and the Cultural Projects in Public Space programme at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Since then, she has never really left this interstice between social sciences and art, experiencing both deep enthusiasm and sincere scepticism towards them. She worked as a curator at Nová synagóga Žilina, she is a member of the editorial board of the magazines Kapitál and 3/4. Recently she's been interested in the financialisation of art and urban development, possible more-than-human alliances and alternative models of land ownership as forms of resistance to wild urban development projects, the destigmatisation of leftist thinking in the context of Central Europe, trade unionism and organising platforms of freelance cultural workers. She used to curate solo exhibitions, now she is more interested in exploring collective practices and event- and research-based projects. She is based in Bratislava. (2023)

Projects (selection)

• Dalibor Bača: Definitively Unfinished, exhibition project, New Synagogue Žilina, curator, 2018.

• Šimon Chovan: Human Allergic, exhibition project, New Synagogue Žilina, curator, 2018.

• Index Fossil, exhibition project, New Synagogue Žilina, curator, 2019.

• Urban Imagination Seminar, applied research project, co-curated with Eliška Mazalanová and Peter Szalay, since 2019.

• Radical Care, Nová Cvernovka Bratislava, residency program curator, 2021.

• Right to the City, Bratislava City Gallery, residency program curator, 2021.

• We Have Never Been Closer, exhibition project at tranzit.sk, co-curated with Dušan Barok, 2021-2022.

• FIST, festival of inclusive sexuality and physicality, collective curating, June 2022.

• L*st, after all, international symposium, co-curated with Ondřej Trhoň, May 2023.

• Urban monuments IX: Antifascist & Feminist and female working class activism in Turiec, research-based project, co-curated with Adam Galko, June 2023

• preliminary research of the incarcerated workers rights, realised together with Kristína Jamrichová for the Human Rights Forum, since 2023.

Publications

(in Slovak unless otherwise noted)

• "Kúpeľné mestá, regenerácia utópií a spoločnosť post-práce" [From liquid times to a pool. Spa cities, utopia regeneration and post-work societies], in Architektúra starostlivosti: slovenské kúpele v druhej polovici 20. storočia, ed. Petra Hlaváčková, et al., Bratislava: Archimera, 2019.

• "Osvietenie prichádza vždy neskoro. Počkáme.", Kapitál 2, Bratislava, 11 Feb 2020.
  • "Enlightenment always comes too late. Let´s wait", artPortal, Budapest: Artportal Hungary, 20 Feb 2020. (English)

• "Organs without a body", Kapitál, 11 Dec 2020.

• Nikdy sme neboli bližšie / We Have Never Been Closer (editor, with Dušan Barok), Bratislava: tranzit.sk, 2021, 40 pp. Exh. booklet. Exhibition. (Slovak)/(English)

• "Citáty z pamätí troch japonských anarchofeministiek", Kapitál 11: "Anarchia", 17 Nov 2021.

• Artalk Revue 6: "Komunity" / "Communities" (editor), Artalk.cz, Dec 2021, PDF/sk, PDF/en. (Slovak)/(English)

• "Za plotom: bratislavský Istropolis pod tlakom developerského feudalizmu" (with Peter Szalay), Deník Referendum, 23 Jan 2022.

• Kapitál 6: "Vyvlastnenie" (editor), Bratislava: KPTL, Jun 2022.

• "Domy nepadajú tak rýchlo, ako by si niekto prial", Kapitál 6: "Vyvlastnenie", Jun 2022.

• "Musíme sa uskromniť", Artalk, 30 Sep 2022.

• "You can be the boss, ANTI HEHE", Kapitál, 1 Nov 2022.

• "Morálna podpora nestačí", Kapitál 12: "DAV", 12 Dec 2022.

• "We are all well", Artalk, 26 Jan 2023.

• "Hell of a Masterplan! K bratislavskej prednáške Reiniera de Graafa", Kapitál, 20 Feb 2023.

• "Pytliaci a svalovci. O možnostiach odborového organizovania sa", Artalk, 22 Mar 2023.

• "Zasuk: Je třeba odbourat mýtus, že umění není práce", Artalk, 23 Mar 2023. Interview with Zasuk.

• "Všelijaké těžko definovatelné plácky. Bratislavské Lido v kontextu divokého developmentu" [All sorts of hard-to-define patches. Bratislava Lido in the context of wild development] (with Peter Szalay), ERA21 2: "Architektura a divokost", Brno: Era Média, 2023. [1] (Czech)

• "'Our clients are the most valuable thing we have.' Pseudooživovanie miest cez development na príklade bratislavského Lida" ['Our clients are the most valuable thing we have.' Bringing cities to life through development using the case study of Bratislava Lido] (with Peter Szalay), in Správa o slovenskej architektúre, eds. Henrieta Moravčíková, et al., Bratislava: Slovart, 2023. Publisher.

• "Je suis post-sedliak", Kapitál, 2 Oct 2023.

• "Všetku moc špekulácii!", Kapitál 11: "Vizionárska fantastika", Nov 2023.

• "Nemodli sa a nepracuj!" (with Jakub Huba), Kapitál 11: "Vizionárska fantastika", Nov 2023, pp 24-25. [2]

• "Postni to, a nič sa nestane", Kapitál, 11 Dec 2023.

Further texts in Kapitál, Artalk, Deník Referendum, Flash Art CS, A2.

Interviews

• Matej Sotník, "Študovala na Sorbonne verejný priestor: Paríž je sofistikovane segregovaný", Aktuality.sk, 22 Sep 2015.