Study Workshop at the Archive of Fine Arts, Prague, 30 November – 1 December, 2023

Participants in the Art Archives Study gathered for their third workshop at the Archive of Fine Arts in Prague, from 30 November to 1 December.

Group photo (from left to right): Ana Obid, Irena Lehkoživová, Helene Baur, Teja Merhar, Veronika Rubášová, Jan Kuntoš, Andrea Neidhöfer, Sanja Kuveljić Bandić, Photo: Barbora Špičáková / Archive of Fine Arts

DAY 1

    The first day began with project updates and PowerPoint presentations summarising current progress with previously acquired database queries.

    In the presentation by the Archive of Fine Arts, results from the comparison of individual results in a broader context were highlighted.

    One of the findings presented was an increase in mobility between the Czech Republic and Slovenia after 2004.

    Exhibitions in the Czech Republic show a higher proportion of participants with connections (born, died, studied, lived) to Slovenia than before 2004, and vice versa. 

    The data was captured by comparing and combining results from abART and RazUme. In the case of Slovenia, there was a 45% increase in exhibitions with participants who have connections with the Czech Republic. In the case of the Czech Republic, there was a 35.5% increase in exhibitions with participants who have connections to Slovenia. Further analysis revealed that prior to 2004 exhibitions in both the Czech Republic and Slovenia were mainly specialised group graphic exhibitions or biennials, predominantly held in the capital or larger towns and cities, such as Ljubljana, Prague, Brno, Karlovy Vary, or Gottwaldov. After 2005, exhibitions expanded into different towns — Slovenia, for example, to Maribor, Ptuj, Celje, or Novo mesto in Slovenia, and Blansko, Náchod, or Olomouc in the Czech Republic. Additionally, there was a trend towards more solo exhibitions, featuring artists like Hynek Alt or Jindřich Štreit.

    The database queries showed that the combination of geographical references for persons and their exhibition practices, which include geographical references to the locations of exhibitions, produced data on more than merely mobility and movement.

    It is a method used to survey a mass of data to arrive at statistical correlations. However the results also highlighted examples that are not representative of the study, emphasising the complexity of historical developments and mobility within Europe even before the examined period.

    A number of artists born in the first half of the 20th century, were Czech-based, while born in Vienna, the capital city of former Austria-Hungary (e.g., Vojtěch Hynais, Vojtěch Kubašta, Karel Plicka). As a result, many artists may seem to have connections with Austria even though they lived and worked their whole lives in the Czech Republic. There are so many of these instances that, at first, data from the abART database indicated that there were 700 events in the Czech Republic with Austrian participants before 1988. However, upon closer examination of the participating artists, 540 of these exhibitions were deleted from the list as they did not actually involve Austrian artists.

    Similar situations can be found in Czechoslovakia, too, where many Slovak artists were born in Prague or Brno, in the Czech Republic, while considering themselves Slovakian. These examples raised questions about historical changes in geographical regions and the possibility of the automatic assignment of historical names to individual states based on specific years or periods.

    The second presentation, prepared by Moderna galerija, showcased various visualisations of results from RazUme queries. For instance, it highlighted a significant number of Slovenian students who had studied at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). Further main topics of discussion included strategies for sharing results and interpreting geographical references in the context of database queries.

    In the third presentation, basis wien addressed the challenge of working with the massive numbers of results that we gathered, and proposed focusing on our year of key interest. With the aim of finding out whether the increase in the number of exhibitions in Austria with participants with connections to the Czech Republic and Slovenia, was only around the year 2004, they conducted new searches incorporating the year of the exhibition. The result was surprising insofar as the numbers continued to rise, and actually spiked around the year 2014.

    Overall, workshop participants agreed that the queries proved to be a valuable tool. For the project partners, queries also provided an interesting method for gaining a better understanding of their data, and will impact future concepts for recording and analysing data.

    It is apparent that even though we are working with three different databases that work with similar yet different source documents, we can spot the same tendencies and increases in values. Even though our databases might seem like separate monoliths, they stand on the same ground. Additionally, their interconnection shows interesting relationships and patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed. This is most evident, for example, in the case of bibliographical research. 

    The workshop continued with the study of the documents curated by the Archive of Fine Arts that provided insights into the Prague art world around the year 2004. These documents included catalogues, invitation cards, magazines and clippings related to topics such as the Prague Biennale, Tina B., Tranzit.org, Divus publishing house (Umělec magazine), Galerie Futura, Galerie Jiří Švestka, or Galerie Hunt Kastner. Additionally, the Archive prepared specific documents for individual research related to the project, such as the Aleksandra Vajd and Roman Ondák catalogues.

    In the afternoon, participants enjoyed a guided tour of the exhibition 1939—2021: The End of the Black-and-White Era at the National Gallery Prague — Trade Fair Palace. The tour was led by Eva Skopalová, one of the Curators of the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art.

    The exhibition, comprising over 300 works from the National Gallery's collection, focuses on Czech art and serves as a testament to the times, reflecting not only authoritarian forces but also social, political, and economic influences. The exhibition presents an alternative methodology that emphasises understanding the motives behind the art produced during specific periods, accompanied by examples of exhibitions and acquisition stories.

 

DAY 2

    On the second day, participants met once again in the Archive of Fine Art. A significant part of the day was dedicated to discussing and planning a conference scheduled to be held in Vienna in the autumn of 2024. Following the conference planning, a review and outlook of the workshop in Prague were presented, along with proposals for the next meeting scheduled for March 2024 in Ljubljana.

    The workshop programme then continued with a visit to the Jiří Švestka gallery, where the group had the opportunity to tour the current exhibition Matyáš Chochola: Reversed Altars of Postmodernity. The tour was followed by an in-depth interview with Jiří Švestka, the gallery owner and curator. Established in 1995, the Jiří Švestka Gallery is one of the pioneering private galleries focused on Czech and international modern and contemporary art. Over the years, the gallery has organised numerous exhibitions in Prague and Berlin and participated in various international art fairs.

    The conversation with Jiří Švestka primarily revolved around his involvement in the local art scene and his outreach abroad, which was very beneficial due to his involvement in the Essl Award committee.

    The conversation with Jiří Švestka was followed by a final item on the programme: an interview with Vít Havránek, a curator, co-founder of Tranzit.org, and pro-rector for international and institutional cooperation at AVU, Prague.

    The interview was focused on Havránek's perspective of the Czech art scene within the international context during the turn of the millennium, as well as Tranzit.org, a unique network of civic associations working independently in the field of contemporary art in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and wider Europe. Tranzit.org was founded in 2002, and its main partner is the Erste Foundation.

    Both interviews have been recorded and will be presented in edited form on this blog.