Marko Stamenkovic

Marko Stamenkovic (1977) is an art historian born and raised in the south of Serbia. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Ghent in Belgium with the thesis entitled Suicide Cultures: Theories and Practices of Radical Withdrawal. He carried out his doctoral research under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Tom Claes at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences after joining its Center for Ethics & Value Inquiry (CEVI) in 2011 as the recepient of BASILEUS - Erasmus Mundus Partnerships Scholarship for academic exchange between EU and Western Balkans, funded by the European Commission.
Prior to his doctoral project, Stamenkovic graduated in History of Art from the University of Belgrade in Serbia with the thesis The Theory of the Gaze and Image Analysis (2003) and earned his M.A. degree in Cultural Policy from the University of Arts in Belgrade with the thesis The Status of Curatorial Practices in Post-socialist Conditions (2005). He is also a member of IKT – International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art. Given the profoundly interdisciplinary and transnational nature of his interests, his principal field of study (art history in general and theory of contemporary visual cultures/the politics of vision in particular) has expanded over the last ten years. His main areas of interest are globality, coloniality of necropower and decoloniality, most notably with regard to the issue of epistemic injustice.

Over the last decade, following his early professional internship positions in New York (Artists Space Gallery, 2001) and Venice (Peggy Guggenheim Collection, 2004), he has been working primarily in the field of contemporary visual arts as a curator, critic, and lecturer focused on the intersection of visual thinking with social theories, political philosophies, and cultural practices of the oppressed. He has been collaborating worldwide with artists from various fields (cinema, photography, painting, sculpture, video, choreography, sound, performance, activism) and contributed to numerous publications, exhibitions and catalogues. He is also regularly invited to give individual public talks and lectures at universities, schools, and cultural venues such as: Valand Academy-Gothenburg, 2015; Sehir University-Istanbul, 2014; City Library-Sofia, 2014; National Academy of the Arts-Oslo, 2013; The National College of Art and Design-Dublin, 2011; Faculty of Fine Arts-Brno, 2010; HISK, Higher Institute for Fine Arts-Gent, 2009; Mkhitar Sebastatsi Fine Arts College-Yerevan, 2009; and Contemorary Art Forum-Alexandria, 2007.
He has participated in numerous international conferences, among which: 40 Years after April 25, 1974: The Crisis of Liberal Democracies, Lisbon University Institute (2014); Visual Studies Today – The Power of Images, University of Zagreb (2013); 11th International Symposium on Contemporary Art Theory (SITAC), Polyforum Siquerios & MUAC - Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2013); Post-colonialisms: Colonial Relations, Processes of Domination and Resistance, University of Coimbra (2013); Rhetoric, Between the Theory and Practice of Politics, University of Minho-Braga (2013); Iconology Old and New: Transregional Conference on the Move, Central European University - Budapest (2013); Images of Terror, Narratives of (In)Security: Literary, Artistic and Cultural Responses, University of Lisbon (2013); Writing Life, University of Malta (2013); Death: The Cultural Meaning of the End of Life, Leiden University (2013); 1962: A World, Le Centre National de Recherche en Anthropologie Sociale et Culturelle (CRASC) - Oran, Algeria (2012); and After the Wall: The Geopolitics of Art, Foundation Joaquin Nabuqo - Recife, Brazil (2009).

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