Projects & Grants
| Blind spot: Reflection of Socialist Past in the Art of Central European Countries | |
|---|---|
| Project Id | SGS |
| Main solver | PhDr. et PhDr. Kateřina Rathouská Štroblová, Ph.D. |
| Period | 1/2025 - 12/2025 |
| Provider | Specifický VŠ výzkum |
| State | solved |
| Anotation | The publication focuses on a segment of contemporary Central European artists whose work reflects the recent past, i.e. the period of socialism in their respective countries - Hungary, the Slovak Republic, Poland and the Czech Republic. It attempts to grasp this complex, hitherto unprocessed topic in a broader context and to place it not only in the art historical but also in the cultural and social context of the present. The thesis presents and subsequently verifies several initial theses and assumptions. The first is that in the global current of contemporary art, in which a strong inclination towards themes dealing with the past can be traced since the second half of the 1990s, this trend has also manifested itself in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, where it has taken on a characteristic form depending on the experience of socialism. This form is then characterized in the local environment not only by working with visual elements typical of socialist culture, but also with negative reflections of social phenomena characteristic of the era, which distinguishes it from "global art" in both visual and ideological aspects.Another assumption is that this historical epoch and its various aspects were continuously reflected in their work, especially by the generation of artists who spent their childhood and adolescence under socialism. They connect their artistic view of this period and its elements with their own memories, which relate to it with a certain nostalgic bond that influences their view of the past epoch. They then use a diverse range of strategies for this view, in which it is possible to identify some common practices, themes or phenomena that can be characterized and categorized. The peak of this artistic current can be dated to the first decade of the 21st century, analogous to similar trends in world art. One of the aims of this thesis is thus to anchor this art historical current in the broad contemporary trends. |
