simona markel dvorák, Curator and Researcher, Paris. IASPIS expert visit in Gällivare, Kiruna and Stockholm 17–26 February 2026.

simona markel dvorák is a curator and researcher working at the intersection of art, ecology, and care, combining critical theory, poethical imagination, and collaboration-based methodologies. Originally from former Czechoslovakia and now based in the Greater Paris region, she brings a diasporic perspective informed by feminist thought and social justice, challenging dominant historical narratives. As curator of the Initiative for Practices and Visions of Radical Care, she collaborates with artists, researchers, and displaced communities to explore sustainable institutionalism and “life-affirming practices.”

dvorák has worked and collaborated with numerous institutions, including the National Gallery Prague, the Centre Pompidou, the Musée Picasso–Paris, the Beaux-Arts de Paris, the Frac Île-de-France, the Cité internationale des arts, the Rockbund Art Museum, SAVVY Contemporary, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. She was a fellow at documenta fifteen (2022), contributed to conception of Walking with Water for the Serbian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, and was part of the curatorial team led by Natasa Petrešin-Bachelez for When Solidarity Is Not a Metaphor at the 60th Venice Biennale.

Between 2021 and 2023, she served as Curator of Public Programs at the Centre Pompidou, co-curated, with Tadeo Kohan, actes de langage (Maison Populaire, 2023), and most recently worked as Associate Curator at the Cité internationale des arts. Together with Elena Sorokina, she is co-curator of the upcoming Survival Kit festival 2026 in Riga.