About
Biography
Marina Paulenka is a curator, artistic director, and cultural strategist working across photography, contemporary art, and multidisciplinary practice. Her work centers on socially engaged, research-driven projects that explore urgent questions of identity, gender, ecology, technology, and collective memory. She collaborates internationally with artists, institutions, and communities to shape exhibitions and programs that foster dialogue and new ways of seeing.
From 2022 to 2025, Paulenka served as the Founding Director of Exhibitions at Fotografiska Berlin, where she established the museum’s artistic vision and curatorial strategy. She led the pre-opening development, created inclusive public programs, and presented exhibitions featuring artists such as Candice Breitz, Juliana Huxtable, Sejla Kamerić, Josefa Ntjam, and Shirin Neshat. She also initiated the Emerging Berlin Program and developed Fotografiska Days, a citywide platform for performances, talks, and lens-based experimentation.
Previously, she was Artistic Director of Unseen Amsterdam, guiding the fair and its foundation through a period of significant expansion. She broadened Unseen’s international scope, strengthened editorial platforms, and championed artists from underrepresented regions while collaborating with institutions like the V&A Museum and LagosPhoto.
Paulenka is also the founder of Organ Vida, Croatia’s leading institution for contemporary photography and one of the most acclaimed festivals in Europe. Founded when she was age of 22, over more than a decade, she transformed it into a pivotal platform for visual culture, supported emerging artists through the Marina Viculin Award, and brought global voices into dialogue with regional contexts. The festival was recognized by The Guardian as one of the world’s top five photography institutions and received a Lucie Award for Best Photography Show.
Alongside her curatorial practice, Paulenka has an extensive academic and advisory profile. She has taught at leading art academies across Europe, including the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, ECAL in Switzerland, Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, UdK Berlin, Zurich University of the Arts, Manchester School of Art, Utrecht School of the Arts, and the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. As a keynote speaker, she lectures internationally on art, photography, feminism, technology, and innovation, with engagements at events such as 1-54, Paris Photo, EXPOSED Turin, Les Rencontres d’Arles, PHotoESPAÑA, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, and the Inside Out Centre for the Arts in Johannesburg.
Her background combines an MA in Photography from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, an MA in Graphic Design & Printing Technology from the University of Zagreb, and studies at the Centre for Women’s Studies and the Political School for Artists by BLOK.
Paulenka is a member of IKT and Oracle Photo and is a committed mentor to emerging artists. She has served on juries and as a nominator for major international awards, including the Joop Swart Masterclass, Prix Pictet, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, Les Rencontres d’Arles, and the Hamburg Triennial, and has collaborated with Magnum Photos, Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Prince Claus Fund, and numerous festivals across Europe.
Across all her work, she builds bridges between cultural contexts and future imaginaries, advocating for art as a space of connection, critical thought, and transformative possibility.
Curatorial statement
Based in Berlin and originally from Croatia, Marina Paulenka brings over 18 years of experience in artistic direction, curating, education, leadership, management, and cultural development—alongside her own artistic practice. Her work spans contemporary visual, digital, and performing arts, with a specialization in photography and new media. Across these roles and mediums, she consistently pushes boundaries, provokes critical dialogue, and engages with urgent global concerns. Her practice is shaped by intellectual rigor, a commitment to innovation, and a focus on intersectionality, experimentation, and the transformative potential of art.
Drawing on her post-Yugoslav and Balkan heritage, Paulenka’s curatorial approach is rooted in rich cultural histories and complex socio-political realities. She engages deeply with feminism, identity, gender, human rights, and social justice, as well as the politics of the body, digital representation, and the sociocultural impact of cyberspace. Her perspective is informed by non-Western epistemologies, and she actively centers voices from African, Asian, Latin American, Indigenous, and diasporic communities—foregrounding aesthetics and knowledge shaped by lived histories of resistance, displacement, and care. Working both locally and internationally, she builds bridges between diverse cultural contexts and imagined futures, and is interested in how knowledge is constructed at the intersection of art, science, spirituality, and technology.
She has built and led large-scale, multidimensional art projects and organisations that bring together artists, institutions, and the public, fostering collaboration and community. Her curatorial ethos prioritizes care, solidarity, and sustainability through inclusive and participatory infrastructures. Her approach to curating is guided by relational ethics—anchored in listening, exchange, and the ongoing reimagining of how art can be made, shared, and understood.
Her ongoing research into the Non-Aligned Movement informs a broader interest in decolonial and postcolonial thinking and how it can reshape global frameworks in the arts.
Education & conversations
- MA in Photography, Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb
- MA in Graphic Design & Engineering of Printing Technology, Faculty of Graphic Arts, University of Zagreb
- Centre for Women’s Studies, Zagreb
- Political School for Artists, BLOK, Zagreb
At AKAA, Marina Paulenka moderated “The digital era and augmented photography”, a panel discussion with artists Christa David, Denae Howard and Raquel Van Haver at the Carreau du Temple.
