Olja Triaška Stefanović
- Name
- Assoc. Prof. MFA Assoc. Prof. Olja Triaška Stefanović, ArtD.
- Position
- Associate Professor
- Department Chairperson
- Head of studio
- stefanovic(a)vsvu.sk
- Website
- www.portalvs.sk
- Address
- Drotárska 44, Bratislava
Online presentation:
oljastefanovic.myportfolio.com/home
Subjects:
- Studio of Photography and Critical Practice
- Bachelor´s Thesis (consultation, formulation)
- Degree Work (consultation, elaboration)
- Creation of Photobook
Olja Triaška Stefanović, ArtD.
Associate Professor | Visual Artist | Researcher | Photographer
Head of the Department of Photography and New Media
Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (AFAD)
Web: oljastefanovic.myportfolio.com/home
Biography
Olja Triaška Stefanović is a visual artist, researcher, photographer, and educator whose work investigates the intersections of photography, memory, political history, and visual culture. She serves as Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Photography and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, where she also leads the Studio of Photography and Critical Practice.
Her interdisciplinary practice combines photography, moving image, sound, archival research, artist publications and installation. Through artistic research methodologies she explores how political narratives, collective memory, and geopolitical imaginaries are constructed, performed, and transmitted through visual culture.
Her work focuses on the cultural legacies of former Yugoslavia, the Non-Aligned Movement, Cold War histories, decolonization processes, diplomacy, and systems of symbolic exchange. Drawing on archives, oral histories, institutional collections, and field research, she investigates how political relationships become embedded within objects, landscapes, infrastructures, animals, ceremonies, and systems of representation.
Current research projects include Quiet Fronts: Mapping the (In)Visible Cold War, The Elephant in Tito’s Menagerie: Animal Diplomacy, Hunting and Exchange, The Politics of Flowers, and Territories of Anticipation. Through these projects she explores the intersections of memory, geopolitics, diplomacy, ecology, and visual culture.
Stefanović was a Fulbright Scholar at Parsons School of Design / The New School in New York (2022–2023), Artist-in-Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts in California (2025), Studio das weisse haus in Vienna (2025), and BHROX Bauhaus Reuse in Berlin (2024). Her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions, conferences, symposia, and artistic research platforms throughout Europe and North America.
Research Statement
My artistic research explores the relationship between visual representation, political history, and collective memory.
Working across photography, archives, artist publications, oral history, installation, and moving image, I investigate how images and material culture participate in shaping historical narratives and political imaginaries.
My research is particularly concerned with the Non-Aligned Movement, Cold War diplomacy, decolonization, and the afterlives of socialist and post-socialist histories. Through interdisciplinary methodologies, I examine how political relationships become embedded within objects, landscapes, infrastructures, animals, ceremonies, and systems of representation.
Current projects address animal diplomacy, ceremonial hunting, Cold War infrastructures, diplomatic aesthetics, and forms of international solidarity. They aim to uncover overlooked historical narratives while creating new visual frameworks for understanding power, memory, and geopolitical relations.
I approach artistic practice as a form of knowledge production and public scholarship, where artistic work functions simultaneously as research method, critical inquiry, and social engagement.
Research Areas
Artistic Research
Photography and Visual Culture
Memory Studies
Archives and Archival Practices
Cold War Studies
Former Yugoslavia
Non-Aligned Movement
Decolonial Histories
Diplomacy and Soft Power
Political Imaginaries
Landscape and Geopolitics
Artist Publications and Photobooks
Contemporary Documentary Practices
Public Memory and Heritage
Visual Storytelling
Art and Pedagogy
Current Research Projects
Quiet Fronts: Mapping the (In)Visible Cold War
Ongoing artistic research exploring the material, spatial, emotional, and ecological residues of Cold War infrastructures.
The Elephant in Tito’s Menagerie: Animal Diplomacy, Hunting and Exchange
Long-term artistic research examining animal exchanges, ceremonial hunting, zoo diplomacy, and soft power as instruments of international relations during the Cold War.
The Politics of Flowers
Research investigating flowers, floral arrangements, and botanical symbolism as performative instruments of diplomacy and political representation.
Territories of Anticipation
Research focused on landscapes shaped by military infrastructures, political imaginaries, and future projections.
Academic Appointments
2019–present
Head of Department, Department of Photography and New Media, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava
2019–present
Associate Professor, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava
2017–2019
Lecturer and Researcher, Department of Photography and New Media, AFAD Bratislava
2009–2017
Assistant, Department of Photography and New Media, AFAD Bratislava
Education
2019
Habilitation, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava
2017
ArtD., Department of Intermedia and Multimedia, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava
2007
M.A., Photography and New Media, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava
2004
B.A., Photography and New Media, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava
Residencies and Fellowships
2025
Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
2025
Studio das weisse haus, Vienna, Austria
2024
BHROX Bauhaus Reuse, Berlin, Germany
2022–2023
Fulbright Scholar, Parsons School of Design / The New School, New York, USA
2002–2003
UNESCO Artist Residency, Centre d'Art i Natura, Farrera de Pallars, Spain
Awards
2019
Foundation Novum Grant, Bratislava, Slovakia
2017
Mayor's Prize, Slovak Press Photo, Bratislava, Slovakia
2015
Photographer of the Year, Slovakia
2015
DAM Architectural Book Award, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2010
Finalist, Award 333, National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic
Selected Publications
Brotherhood and Unity. Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, 2020.
Eastern Sugar. Sternberg Press / Slovak National Gallery, 2021.
Bratislava/(Un)Planned City. Slovart, Bratislava, 2020.
Shared Cities Atlas: Post-socialist Cities and Active Citizenship in Central Europe. nai010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2019.
At the End of the Road: Crematorium in Bratislava. Slovart, 2017.
Friedrich Weinwurm: Architect. Slovart, 2014.
Relay Race of Youth / Štafeta mladosti. Artist Book, 2014.
Modern and/or Totalitarian in Architecture in the 20th Century. Slovart, 2013.
Forthcoming Publications
Yutopislavia: Intimate Stories of the Non-Aligned. Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava.
Between Gift and Gesture: Animals as Political Agents in the Cold War. Transcript Verlag.
Kunstlicht: Aesthetics of Non-Alignment.
Research Platforms, Conferences and Symposia
2026 — Imagined Organisations: Practices of Artistic Research Moving Across Semiperipheries, Chișinău / Iași, Moldavia / Romania
2026 — The Power of Art, IAA Europe, Stockholm
2026 — For Freedom: Fight Against Corruption, Students and State Violence in Serbia, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2025 — On Friendship and the Political Imaginary, HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg
2025 — Battle Beasts: Animals in the Shadow of War, HBK Braunschweig
2025 — Navigating Diversity, Documenta Institute, Kassel
Selected Invited Lectures and Presentations
2026 — Helsinki Photomedia, Aalto University, Finland
2025 — Documenta Institute, Kassel, Germany
2025 — HBK Braunschweig, Germany
2024 — University of Vienna, Austria
2024 — Helsinki Photomedia, Aalto University, Finland
2023 — PhotoAlliance, San Francisco, USA
2023 — UMass Dartmouth, USA
2021 — Inside Art, Budapest, Hungary
2021 — Graz Museum, Austria
2020 — Cultural Centre Belgrade, Serbia
2019 — Paperlust Photo Book Fest, Kraków, Poland
2018 — UMPRUM, Prague, Czech Republic
2017 — Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia
International Teaching and Visiting Appointments
Jan Długosz University, Częstochowa, Poland
Fachhochschule Bielefeld, Germany
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Netherlands
Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, Ireland
University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
Academy of Fine Arts, Novi Sad, Serbia
Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Academy of Fine Arts, Cetinje, Montenegro
Research Networks and Affiliations
Centre for Art and the Political Imaginary (CAPIm)
HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design
Fulbright Scholar Network
Headlands Alumni Network
International Association of Art Europe (IAA Europe)
Artists’ Organizing in Times of Upheaval
Collections
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
Nitra Gallery, Nitra
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 – Aren’t They Cute, das weisse haus, Vienna, Austria
2024 – Stories from around the Non-Aligned, BHROX bauhaus reuse, Berlin, Germany
2024 – Yutopislavia, Artwall Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2023 – Non Monuments for Non-Aligned, FOG Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2023 – Brotherhood and Unity, CVPA Campus Gallery, UMass Dartmouth, USA
2021 – Brotherhood and Unity, Photon Gallery, Ljubljana & Vienna
2020 – Brotherhood and Unity, City Gallery — Mirbach Palace, Bratislava, Slovakia
2018 – New Bratislava, Primate’s Palace, Slovak Press Photo, Bratislava, Slovakia
2017 – As If It Never Happened, Open Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2014 – Relay Race of Youth, Month of Photography, Z Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2013 – This Could Be a Place for a Nice Life, Design Factory, Bratislava, Slovakia
2010 – Pink Shadows, Fiducia Gallery, Ostrava, Czech Republic
2004 – For Rent, IZBA Gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 – Medze krajiny, Rosenfeldov palác, Žilina, Slovakia
2024 – Pred časmi, Pistoriho Palác, Bratislava, Slovakia
2024 – Pod spoločnou krehkou strechou, Slovak Institute Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2023 – Family Matters, Nitra Gallery, Nitra, Slovakia
2023 – Somebodies Somewheres Somethings, Gallery at Bratislava Castle, Slovakia
2022 – Humanity, Pistoriho Palác, Bratislava, Slovakia
2022 – Archive Layers, Danube Festival of Contemporary Art, Novi Sad, Serbia
2021 – Hommage á Isaac Bashevis Singer, Medium Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2021 – Sugar — Industrial Heritage and Colonialism, <rotor> contemporary, Graz, Austria, with Ilona Németh, Eastern Sugar
2020 – No Demolitions! Forms of Brutalism in Prague, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2020 – Contemporary Art from Slovakia in the Time of Pandemic, Slovak Cultural Institute, Berlin, virtual
2020 – Sucre de l’Est / Sugar of the East, La Box / ENSA, Bourges, France, with Ilona Németh, Eastern Sugar
2019 – Urban Fragments, OKNA Gallery, Porto, Portugal
2019 – Architect Alexander Skutecký, Central Slovakian Gallery, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
2019 – Faces of Freedom, Nitra Gallery, Nitra, Slovakia
2019 – Memories of the Future, Schemnitz Gallery, Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia
2018 – Eastern Sugar, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia, with Ilona Németh
2018 – Friedrich Weinwurm, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2017 – Nekem Trianon // For Me, Trianon, OFF-Biennále Budapest, Chimera Project, Hungary
2016 – Social Unit, Ernest Zmeták Gallery, Nové Zámky, Slovakia
2016 – Neighbouring, Nomadic Arts Festival, tranzit.sk, Bratislava, Slovakia
2016 – Fear from the Unknown, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia
2016 – White Spaces in Slovak Photography, Leica Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2014 – Disturbances, EMOP — European Month of Photography, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2012 – DELETE, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
Recent and Upcoming Activities
2026
July 2026
Imagined Organisations: Practices of Artistic Research Moving Across Semiperipheries
International gathering co-organised by 1+1 Association and tranzit.ro/ Iași in partnership with HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design and the Centre for Art and the Political Imaginary (CAPIm).
Chișinău, Moldova / Iași, Romania
September 2026 — Practices of Nearness, solo exhibition, Ján Koniarek Gallery, Trnava, Slovakia
September 2025 — Brotherhood and Unity: The Presence of the Past, solo exhibition, Turčianska Gallery, Martin, Slovakia
October 2025 — Sensitively on Brutalism, solo exhibition, European Capital of Culture 2026 programme, multiple locations, Trenčín, Slovakia