Organ Vida
Photography Organisation
Organ Vida is a leading Croatian organization focused on researching expanded photography and contemporary image-based practices. Founded in 2008, we operate as an independent, non-profit platform that supports artists and encourages critical reflection through exhibitions, education, and research.
Centred on the Organ Vida Festival, our program includes curated exhibitions, artistic and curatorial research and residencies, and ongoing publishing.
Held biennially at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, the Organ Vida Festival brings together emerging and established international artists, creating a space for exchange and experimentation while opening new perspectives on image production and circulation. It engages critically with image culture in relation to popular and digital contexts.
Organ Vida was founded in 2008 by Marina Paulenka, who served as artistic director until 2018. Between 2019 and 2020, artistic direction was led by a curatorial collective including Barbara Gregov, Lovro Japundžić, Klara Petrović, Luja Šimunović, and Lea Vene.
Since 2020, the artistic direction has been led by Barbara Gregov, Lovro Japundžić, and Lea Vene.
Organ Vida is supported by:
Organ vida is a member of FUTURES Photography Platform:
Curatorial Collective
Lea Vene
is an art historian and cultural anthropologist. In her research in the field of visual art and anthropology, Vene constantly rethinks the role of visual media in translating elements of culture and everyday life through documentary film and photography.
For example, she examines image/visual ethics, self-reflexive practices in film making, sensory ethnography, the politics of representation, the relationship between “us” and “them,” advocacy in visual research, participatory and community art practices, and the negotiation of the marginal positions in the visual research.
Vene works as a curator in the gallery Miroslav Kraljević. She’s one of the organizers of ETNOFILm (Ethnographic film festival) and curator at ORGAN VIDA — International photography festival. She is an active member of the association grey) (area space for contemporary and media art. She is also a teaching assistant at Faculty of Textile Technology in Zagreb.
Lea Vene is also involved in ZMAG (Green Network of Activist Groups) and GMK (Gallery Miroslav Kraljević) that promote the interaction between artistic research and permacultural practices as a model for creating sustainable, flexible and productive cultures through the observation of natural systems. Three basic ethical principles are employed: care for people, care for the land and earth and the just distribution of goods. DIY principles and direct action are inscribed at the core of the permacultural way of thinking. Once a year they organize a thematic residency for an artist/artist collective, with topics so far ranging from alternative approaches to the production and processing of food based on renewable energy resources to DIY philosophy and ecological seed production.
Another project in which Lea Vene participates is Industrial heritage of the Island of Korčula, an inclusive collaborative platform encompassing scientific and artistic research which brings together the interdisciplinary approaches of cultural anthropologists, ethnologists, curators, artists, conservators, archivists and other experts. It also involves the local community, institutions, associations and initiatives. During the last century the Island of Korčula has based its production and economy to large extent on its well-developed industry: shipbuilding, assembling, fishing and package processing, textiles, paint, adhesives, varnishes, electronic devices, etc.
Lovro Japundžić
(1990) is a curator and producer based in Zagreb, Croatia. He holds a Master’s degree in Art history and Sociology from Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Zagreb. Last ten years he has been actively engaged in local and international art scene through work in different organizations that provided framework to develop curatorial agenda in a variety of media and formats. In 2018 he became a member of the curatorial collective that runs Organ Vida festival, focused on researching image-based practices, especially at the intersections of visual art and contemporary digital and popular culture. Since 2019 he’s been working as a curator at Mocvara Gallery doing event-based programs, mostly performances, reexamining established definitions of choreography and dynamics between performer and audience. Between 2021-2023 he worked as an artistic director at Miroslav Kraljevic Gallery (GMK).
He took part in numerous residencies and projects abroad like Young Curators Residency Programme by Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Madrid (2023); CuratorLab at Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm (2021/2022); Parallel – European platform for contemporary photography (2018/2019); Stacion – Summer School as School, Pristina (2018); Salzburg Summer Academy (2018), etc. Between 2013-2019 he worked as a program selector of the Association for the Promotion of Independent Music Culture – Ziva Muzika, active in promoting innovative approaches to club music. Apart from curating he also worked as a producer for BADco. – collaborative performance collective.
In 2024 he is curating 37th edition of Youth Salon, biennial for young Croatian artists.
Barbara Gregov
is a writer and curator with diverse interests spanning film, photography, contemporary art, and popular culture, focusing notably on feminist and queer perspectives. Holding a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature, she has an extensive experience in writing, editing, coordinating, curating, and producing exhibitions, festivals, and various cultural programs.
She has actively collaborated with numerous feminist and LGBTIQ organizations, including VoxFeminae, Zagreb Pride, and the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb. Currently, she serves as the editor of the feminist cultural website Krilo and holds the role of festival coordinator at the Zagreb Film Festival.
Barbara has been an integral member of the curatorial team for the Organ Vida International Photography Festival since 2018.
Documents
Yearly Report 2018