The retrospective exhibition of Zhivko Popovski is the first comprehensive presentation of the work of one of the most influential Macedonian architects.
Drawing on many years of research by Prof. Dr Aneta Hristova–Popovska and Prof. Dr Meri Batakoja, the exhibition sheds light on the architectural oeuvre of Zhivko Popovski, presented through exclusive materials from his private archive. Visitors will have the opportunity to see dozens of original projects, drawings, photographs and videos, which, for the first time, reveal the full spectrum of his creative preoccupations.
Together, these documents offer a more hopeful vision for our cities, portraying Živko Popovski as a true devotee of architecture – a man who dedicated his entire life to tirelessly imagining and designing architecture with an intimate dedication.
Through this exhibition, Popovski’s architectural imagination is further revealed as exceptionally complex and dialectical – shaped by preoccupations that range from the universal language of modernism to a deep cultural awareness and care for local continuities; from the rationality of the modern artefact to the eccentricity of artistic intuition and the layered textuality of postmodernism. His architecture is a living form – and like life itself, it is multifaceted, and in constant evolution.The curatorial structure follows this polyphonic trajectory through six thematic clusters:
• THE DUTCH EPISODE On the Architecture of the Open Society;
• FOCUS: GTC – ASSEMBLY OF THE CITY OF SKOPJE Urbarchitecture in Action;
• ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS A Reflection of Self-Management in Architecture;
• THE OHRID ARCHITECTURAL SCHOOL On Critical Regionalism of the Homeland Landscape;
• TO SKOPJE, WITH LOVE! For the City That Could’ve Been;
• PATTERNS OF ARCHITECTURAL IMAGINATION Authorial Themes and Semantic Idiosyncrasies.
Rather than a linear biography, the exhibition unfolds as a space of resonances, where the thematic clusters flow into one another – presenting Popovski’s work as a lasting reminder that architecture can – and must – be a deep authorial obsession, an intellectual position, and at the same time remain a cultural project with clear public responsibility.
The Curators Aneta Hristova-Popovska and Meri Batakoja
Exhibition opening: 3 September, 2025 at 8pm
PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY: Živko Popovski was born on 30 July 1934 in Skopje. He graduated in architecture from the Department of Architecture at the Technical Faculty in Skopje in 1961. From 1963 to 1999, he worked at the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje, within the Department of Public Building Design. He was actively involved in architectural associations in Macedonia and Yugoslavia, serving as Secretary and President of the Association of Architects of Macedonia, as well as President of the Coordinating Committee of the Association of Architects of Yugoslavia.He organised the first presentation of Macedonian architecture with the exhibition Macedonian Architecture (1974) and the first Biennial of Macedonian Architecture – BIMAS (1981) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje. He was the initiator and editor of the magazine A:, as well as the founder of the course Theory and Architectural Research, advocating for the mobilisation of a progressive Macedonian architectural discourse. He was a long-standing correspondent for the Yugoslav journals Čovjek i prostor, Arhitektura, and Arhitektura i urbanizam. He undertook numerous study trips, with a formative experience being his time at the office of Jo van den Broek and Jacob Bakema in Rotterdam (1964–1965).He authored dozens of projects, with many award-winning competition designs. Among his realised works are the Home for the Elderly and the reconstruction of the Cultural Centre in Ohrid, as well as the City Shopping Centre (GTC) in Skopje, for which he received the October Award for Architecture (1971) and the Borba Plaque (1974). He was the recipient of several special recognitions at BIMAS (1981, 1991) and the Andrejа Damjanov Lifetime Achievement Award (2002). Until the end of his life, he tirelessly defended the dignity of the architectural profession.
The exhibition is organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia, as a project of national significance for 2025.
Its realisation has been generously supported by the Chamber of Certified Architects and Engineers of the Republic of North Macedonia and KNAUF.
Friends of MoCA – Skopje: Tikveš.
All materials are part of the private archive of Živko Popovski.
