Maria Hlavajova (born 1971) is initiator and artistic director of the
FORMER WEST project, and artistic director of BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht since 2000. Hlavajova has organized numerous exhibitions and projects at BAK
including (selection): Lawrence Weiner: Dicht Bij, 2010;
Sanja Iveković: Urgent Matters (BAK and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven), 2009;
Artur Żmijewski: The Social Studio, 2008;
Kutluğ Ataman: Küba/Paradise, 2007;
Concerning “Knowledge Production”: Practices in Contemporary Art, 2006;
Concerning War, 2005. In 2011 Hlavajova organized the project of the Roma Pavilion in the framework of the 54th Venice Biennale entitled
Call the Witness, and in 2007 she curated a three-part project
Citizens and Subjects for the Dutch Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, which included a new video installation by
Aernout Mik consisting of three works embedded in an architectural intervention in the Dutch Pavilion. She regularly edits and contributes to numerous critical readers, catalogs, and magazines internationally. In addition, Hlavajova is co-founder of the tranzit network, a foundation that supports exchange and contemporary art practices in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. Previously she was a faculty member at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York (1998–2002), co-curator of Manifesta 3, Ljubljana (2000), and director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts in Bratislava from 1994–1999. Hlavajova lives and works in Amsterdam and Utrecht.
