On 30 June 2025, after 25 years of service, BAK’s founding director Maria Hlavajova will step down from her position as general director.

Message from BAK Supervisory Board:
Maria Hlavajova bids farewell to BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht

On 30 June 2025, after 25 years of service, BAK’s founding director Maria Hlavajova will step down from her position as general director. Hlavajova leaves behind a legacy of unique international practice of convening artists, scholars, and a multitude of other social actors at the theoretically informed and politically driven base. Committed to art and political imagination, and driven by the urgency of social and ecological justice, under her leadership BAK has realized numerous globally recognized projects, including Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2024); Trainings for the Not-Yet (with Jeanne van Heeswijk, 2019–2020); New World Academy (with Jonas Staal, 2013–2016); Former West (2008–2016); Posthuman Glossary (with Rosi Braidotti, 2015–2016); and Future Vocabularies (2014–2017); as well as the Roma Pavilion, Call the Witness, and the Dutch Pavilion, Citizens and Subjects (with Aernout Mik), at Venice Biennales in 2011 and 2007, respectively.

With her emphasis on collective research, Hlavajova led an acclaimed research and publishing program with publications such as Fragments of Repair (with Kader Attia and Wietske Maas, Jap Sam Books, forthcoming, 2025); Toward the Not-Yet: Art as Public Practice (with Jeanne van Heeswijk and Rachael Rakes, BAK/MIT, 2023); Deserting from the Culture Wars (with Sven Lütticken, BAK/MIT, 2020); Propositions for Non-Fascist Living: Tentative and Urgent (with Wietske Maas, BAK/MIT, 2019); Marion von Osten: Once We Were Artists (with Tom Holert, Valiz, 2017); Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989 (with Simon Sheikh, BAK/MIT, 2016); Future Publics: The Rest Can and Should Be Done by the People (with Ranjit Hoskote, Valiz, 2015); and We Roma: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art (with Daniel Baker, Valiz, 2013).

A committed educator, with the belief that art can function as public pedagogy, Hlavajova has guided the building of BAK’s recognized reputation in the field of learning through multiple learning forums co-initiated with artists, other cultural practitioners, and institutions worldwide, in addition to her teaching through BAK Public Studies.

Kitty Zijlmans, chairwoman of the Supervisory Board: “Maria Hlavajova is a visionary thinker and tireless proponent of the role of art in society. She has made BAK into the internationally renowned institute it is today. Its theoretical-cum-academic output is extraordinary—a word I use here deliberately. Maria has been the pivot around whom projects evolved, always in collaboration, always setting high standards, because art is important for being human. For her major contribution to the field, Maria was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, in 2024. It has been a pleasure and most inspiring to work with her. We express a wholehearted thank you to Maria for all she has accomplished with and within BAK, and far beyond. We wish her the very best in her life and further career.”

Maria Hlavajova: “Having dedicated nearly half of my life to the remarkable itinerary undertaken by BAK—something I have dubbed instituting otherwise—I feel immensely privileged to have been surrounded by some of the most inspiring artists, thinkers, and other social actors. I have learned from them the commitment to making pathways in, with, and through art toward what it would ultimately mean to live in a just society. I will take this with me further and will always cherish this unique experience. You know, my colleagues often poked fun at my overusing of the word “extraordinary.” But that’s what it has been to be able to do this work: extraordinary. I am forever grateful for this opportunity. I will always continue supporting this base which is so crucial in what looks like dark political times upon us, given the rise of authoritarian populisms the world over. Art’s political imaginaries are needed more than ever today, and I know that the collectively artist-led Basecamp for Tactical Imaginaries, under the guidance of long-time artist associate of BAK, Jeanne van Heeswijk, will do precisely this critically important work.”

The collective Basecamp for Tactical Imaginaries builds on the BAK legacy to experiment with the possibility of art and cultural infrastructure in the face of contemporary societal and political challenges. Confronting the current democratic deficit, Basecamp furthers the collective practice of learning by radically imagining and embodying a more just future. You are invited to join its thriving activities—that are organized across a network of both longstanding and new community partnerships— at BAK’s venue on Pauwstraat 13a in Utrecht. For more information, click here.