Roundtable on National Populism and Art in Eastern Europe
A roundtable discussion initiated in late 2025 and extended into summer 2026, published across ARTMargins Online and its Print Journal, examines the impact of national populism on cultural and artistic production in Eastern Europe. The discussion features art critics, curators, and cultural managers from Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Romania, Albania, North Macedonia, and Poland. Contributors analyze how right-wing populism shapes art institutions, cultural policies, and aesthetic tendencies in their respective countries. Key themes include the instrumentalization of folklore in Slovakia, the Skopje 2014 monument project in North Macedonia, the use of nationalist architecture in Albania, and the reconfiguration of cultural funding in Hungary and Poland. The roundtable aims to explore the 'cultural logic' of national populism, questioning how it affects knowledge production, artistic freedom, and institutional legitimacy. The first part is published; a second part is forthcoming.
Key facts
- Roundtable initiated late 2025, extended into summer 2026.
- Published across ARTMargins Online and ARTMargins Print Journal.
- Contributors from Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Romania, Albania, North Macedonia, Poland.
- Discusses national populism's impact on cultural and artistic production.
- Skopje 2014 project in North Macedonia involved hundreds of oversized monuments.
- Slovak Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová promotes folklore as national culture.
- Hungary under Orbán doubled cultural spending to 2% of governmental expenditure.
- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama uses art to distract from controversies.
Entities
Artists
- Octavian Esanu
- Suzana Milevska
- Barbora Kundračíková
- Karolina Łabowicz-Dymanus
- Kristóf Nagy
- Cristian Nae
- Jonida Gashi
- Denisa Tomková
- Tihomir Topuzovski
- Sabin Bălașa
- Traian Brădean
- Maria Trifu
- Gheorghe Clit
- Alexandru Podea
- Valentina Stevanovska
- Darko Dukovski
- Jelena Dukovski
- Tamás Urbán
- Imre Makovecz
- Armando Lulaj
- Philippe Parreno
- Sejfulla Malëshova
- Jana Vaľová
- Romana Tabáková
- Martina Šimkovičová
- Linda Nochlin
- Slavoj Žižek
- Winy Maas
- Dorina Pllumbi
- Isabell Lorey
- Tomáš Kulka
- Ernesto Laclau
- Chantal Mouffe
- Étienne Balibar
- Boris Groys
- Maurizio Albahari
- Smoki Musaraj
- Andrej Babiš
- Viktor Orbán
- Robert Fico
- Edi Rama
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- Aleksandar Vučić
- Giorgia Meloni
- Tony Blair
- Belinda Balluku
Institutions
- ARTMargins Online
- ARTMargins Print Journal
- National Gallery in Prague
- Polish Academy of Sciences
- National Institute of Humanities (Poland)
- National Center for Culture (Poland)
- Center for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle
- Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź
- Hungarian Academy of Arts
- Union of Fine Artists (Romania)
- Art Safari (Romania)
- RAD Art Fair (Romania)
- MVRDV
- Center for Openness and Dialogue (COD)
- DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
- Slovak National Museum
- Museum of National Revival (Slovakia)
- Fund for the Support of the Arts (FPU, Slovakia)
- Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic
- Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Slovak Republic
- Open Culture! (Otvorená Kultúra)
- Smer–SD party (Slovakia)
- ANO party (Czechia)
- PiS (Law and Justice party, Poland)
- VMRO party (North Macedonia)
- Socialist Party (Albania)
- Albanian Parliament
- European Union
- Brussels institutions
- Freedom Party (Austria)
- Vlaams Blok (Belgium)
- Lega Nord (Italy)
- Front National (France)
- Czech Television
- Czech Radio
- Popular Schools of Art (Romania)
- Cântarea României (Song to Romania)
Locations
- Eastern Europe
- Hungary
- Slovakia
- Czechia
- Romania
- Albania
- North Macedonia
- Poland
- Austria
- Belgium
- Italy
- France
- United States
- Turkey
- Serbia
- Israel
- Prague
- Old Town Square (Prague)
- Bratislava Castle
- Východná (Slovakia)
- Skopje
- Tirana
- Cluj Napoca
- Iași
- Shëngjin (Albania)
- Gjadër (Albania)
- Sárospatak (Hungary)
- Ljubljana
- Frankfurt
- Cannes
- Basel
- Yugoslavia
- ex-Yugoslavia
- Republic of Macedonia
- Ottoman Empire
- Byzantine Empire
- Western Balkans
- EU-15 countries