VVP Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts (VVP AVU) focuses on basic and applied research, the processing of source documentation, and the critical evaluation and reinterpretation of Czech visual arts from 1945 to the present day. It has been involved in several research projects.
This project runs from 2021 to 2023. It explores the cultural transfers between artists, art professionals and intellectuals in the region during the 1970s with the aim of creating a new, transnational and dialogical history of neo-avant-garde art in Eastern and Central Europe. It is a collaborative project running from 2021 to 2024, which will be initially presented in the form of a travelling conference in four sections in Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Poznan, after which in 2024–2026 there will be another travelling exhibition and catalogue.
More information here.
Standard Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) project, project no. 16-15446S
This three-year project (2016–2018) conducted basic research into the history of Czech exhibitions 1957–1999 in terms of transformations to the exhibition qua medium and the changing role of the curator. The key issues included the theoretical and methodological framework of attempts at contemporary reconstructions of exhibitions, the historicisation of Czech art against the backdrop of groundbreaking exhibitions, the evolution of installation conventions, and the changing status of curatorship. These then became the main themes of the introductory scholarly publication.
The main project outcome was the publication The Exhibition as Medium: Czech Art 1957–1999.
A research project of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MŠMT), project no. MSM6046144601
This five-year project (2007–2011) researched and interpreted the milestones of Czech art in the transformation period from the 1980s to the present, with an emphasis on extra-aesthetic and intermedia overlaps.
The main project outputs included publication of the anthology Česká a slovenská architektura 1971–2011. Texty, rozhovory, dokumenty (Czech and Slovak Architecture 1971 – 2011: Texts, Interviews, Documents) and the anthology České umění 1980–2010. Texty a dokumenty (Czech Art 1980 – 2010: Texts and Documents), and the organisation of the exhibition Islands of Resistance: Between the First and Second Modernity 1985–2012 and the catalogue Between the First and Second Modernity 1985–2012.
A research project of the Ministry of Culture (MK ČR), project no. DD07P03OUK001
This five-year project involved the collection of textual and visual documentation on Czech art of the 1980s and 1990s, which was then subject to critical processing. The project included publication of the periodical Notebook for Art, Theory and Related Zones, which has been peer reviewed since 2009.
The main project outputs were the publication of the anthology České umění 1980–2010. Texty a dokumenty (Czech Art 1980–2010: Texts and Documents) and publication of the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Between the First and Second Modernity 1985–2012.
A research project of the MŠMT, project no. MSM520000002
The subject of the six-year grant was basic research, source documentation, and the critical evaluation and reinterpretation of the history of the Czech visual arts after the Second World War, with an emphasis on the political and historical context of that time in light of the parallel discourse of world art.
The main outputs were publication of the anthology České umění 1938–1989. Programy, kritické texty, dokumenty (Czech Art 1938–1989: Programmes, Critical Texts, Documents), and the anthology Utopien & Konflikte. Dokumente und Manifeste zur Tschechischen Kunst 1938–1989.
All the other activities of the Research Centre can be found on the page History.