Draft:Marijana Berbakov

Marijana Berbakov (* July 30, 1974 in Pančevo, Yugoslavia) is a Yugoslav-Austrian cultural manager. At the age of 16, she was a multiple Yugoslav champion in swimming. Due to the exclusion of Yugoslavia from the 1992 Summer Olympics, she was unable to compete in Barcelona. In 2024, she became the vice world champion in the Masters category of the World Swimming Federation FINA.

Life Marijana Berbakov studied South Slavic studies in Belgrade and Hamburg, completing her studies in Germany at the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz with a degree in business administration and at the TU Dresden with a Master of Arts in Cultural Administration. She participated in various international cultural projects. As a member of a diplomatic family, she was involved in intergovernmental projects in the fields of music, literature, and visual arts in Prague. For many years, under the title ArtMonopol, she has dedicated herself to establishing galleries and cultural initiatives in Austria. From 2009 to 2014, her activities were centered in Mondsee, in the Schloss Mondsee gallery and in a private gallery, and from 2015 in the city of Salzburg and in Schloss Walpersdorf in Lower Austria, where she managed one of the largest galleries in the country in the Renaissance castle and its impressive open spaces, featuring artists from around the world. Since 2021, she has been living and working in the United Arab Emirates, focusing on the development of intercultural projects.