There’s still time to submit your application — the deadline is March 31. Today, we’re introducing the four-member pre-selection committee responsible for reviewing submissions and selecting the artists who will advance to the final stage of this year’s competition.
Maria Bîrsan (b. 1998) is a cultural manager and curator. Since 2021, she has served as Director of Sandwich Gallery in Bucharest, where she collaborates closely on the development of the exhibition programme and a range of on- and off-site initiatives, including Watermelon AIR, international collaborations, and participation in art fairs.
In 2022, she founded Sandwich Library, a hybrid platform dedicated to visual arts and curatorial studies, based at Malmaison Studios. Since its inception, the library has developed a programme of responsibly curated talks and workshops, film screenings, and exhibitions. In 2024, she joined RAD Curatorial as co-director, an initiative held annually in the framework of the RAD Art Fair.
Monika Łuszpak-Skiba is a curator of exhibitions and artistic events at the Krupa Art Foundation, and a member of juries and festival selection committees, including the Oscar®-qualifying international competition of the ANIMATOR Festival. In 2026, she served on the nomination committee of the Human AI Art Award (Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany, and Art Collection Telekom). She is part of the curatorial team of the Punto y Raya Festival, dedicated to abstract art in motion. Since 2020, she has been the founder and president of the Punto y Raya Lab Poland Foundation in Wrocław. She has collaborated with cultural institutions (including the Wrocław Feature Film Studio), non-governmental organisations, and international events such as Ars Electronica.
Natalia Barczyńska (b. 1996) – curator, art historian, producer, and coordinator of artistic events. A graduate of Art History at the University of Wrocław and Curatorial Studies at KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent. She has collaborated with both public institutions (BWA Wrocław) and private galleries (Wouters gallery) and NGOs. In 2019, she co-founded the curatorial and artistic collective TakJakbyGrupa. In 2021-2023, she created an artist residency program for Komplot in Brussels.
She has carried out curatorial projects at, among others, iMAL, Center for Digital Cultures and Technology (BE), Extra City Kunsthal (BE), BWA Wrocław, Cloud 7 (BE), and Klaipeda Culture Communication Center (LT). Exploring the field of socially engaged art and the haptic aspects of curating, she is constantly looking for ways to bring art closer to everyday life. Since 2022, he has been co-creating the curatorial program at the Krupa Art Foundation.
Dominika Kluszczyk – curator and manager of international cultural projects, co-creator of artistic events in the field of media art. Since 2009, she has been affiliated with the IP Group artistic collective, with which she has been running IP Studio in Wrocław since 2014: an open experimental workspace operating in the areas of performance arts, sound, and image. Since 2011, she has collaborated with the WRO Art Center, where she co-creates the institution’s program and is responsible for international projects, including the WRO Biennale and EMAP – the European Media Art Platform. She is a member of the WRO Biennale curatorial team, the Best Media Art Diploma Competition, and a juror for the European Media Art Platform. Since 2018, she has been a member of the Program Council of the Lower Silesian Zachęta Fine Arts Society, and she lectures at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art and the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.