Bridge Over Time. Contemporary Picture of the Past is a study on the history of contemporary art in the region including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, i.e. the countries that constitute the so-called Visegrad Group (V4). Today, these countries are the political core of Central Europe. They also constituted them at the time of the division of Europe by the Iron Curtain, because culture and art could draw on their own pre-war avant-garde tradition there. The articles in this book present the development of contemporary art in these countries, essentially in the period from the mid-1960s to the political breakthrough of 1989. Contemporary art in this period was synonymous with broadly understood conceptual and post-conceptual art, including action art. Everywhere, it was dissident art by its very nature. The authors present various ways of development as well as individual practices and forms of this art in the countries of the region. Descriptions of works of art have been closely linked to the development of an un-official infrastructure for presenting this type of art. The book has been divided into national sections. The articles are accompanied by an extensive database of illustrations. It also includes national Timelines of artistic facts, which facilitates comparative studies. They are accompanied by the Timeline of the political history of these countries, which allows the artistic facts to be placed in a socio-political context. The book is also provided with an extensive English-language bibliography of studies on the art of the region and national histories of contemporary art. The publication is a contribution to the scientific discussion due to the originality of the research approach, but also provides knowledge for cultural journalists, and can be used as a Handbook for students, due to the synthetic way of presenting a very extensive material on the history of contemporary art in the region.
Contributors:
Štěpánka BIELESZOVÁ and Ladislav DANĚK, (CZ); Róna KOPECZKY, Zsóka LEPOSA, Kata BALÁZS and László SZÁZADOS, (HU); Łukasz GUZEK, Paweł LESZKOWICZ, (PL); Vladimíra BÜNGEROVÁ, Ján KRALOVIČ, Daniela ČARNÁ, (SK).
The publication was prepared in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, acb gallery/research lab in Budapest, The Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery in Nové Zámky, the Silesian University in Opava and co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund.
Editing: | Łukasz Guzek |
Publisher: | LAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Art |
Data: | 17,6x25 cm, 432 pages |
Language: | English |
ISBN: | 978-83-61646-83-9 |