Project Croatia and Central Europe: Art and Politics in the Late Modern Period (1780-1945), funded by Croatian Science Foundation (Hrvatska zaklada za znanost, HRZZ)
Project duration: 15 June 2014 – 14 June 2017
The main aim of the project Croatia and Central Europe: Art and Politics in the Late Modern Period (1780-1945), is to get a comprehensive insight on the basis of fundamental research into relationships between art and political regimes seen from various perspectives and based on different discourses (governmental, social, economic, religious, gender, ethnic and the like) in the given area which has a common political and socio-cultural background. The project spans the period from the 1780s, which was marked by great changes in the Habsburg Monarchy during the reign of Joseph II, to the end of the Second World War when political circumstances brought an end to the integrity of Central Europe.
The project has been conceived as a broad-based research of fine and applied arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, graphic arts, photography, comics, cartoons, etc.) through multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches using methods pertaining to humanities and social sciences.
Research will comprise topics relating to (mis)use of art for or against political regimes, artistic heritage of marginalized groups, the concept of unwanted heritage and institutional construction of art discourses and their reception. Understanding socio-political background can contribute to greater understanding of heritage-based conflicts, while indications of the transnational nature of Central European art can encourage its protection and ensure its sustainability.
The research team, headed by an assistant professor from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, consists of academic researchers, doctoral candidates, and professionals from museums and monument protection institutes. Expected results and outcomes of the project include publications on the given topics, a more profound scientific knowledge about art developments within socio-political contexts and future collaboration with foreign researchers.
Project leader:
Dragan Damjanović, PhD, associate professor
Collaborators:
- Zvonko Maković, PhD, full professor
- Nadežda Čačinovič, PhD, full professor
- Iskra Iveljić, PhD, full professor
- Frano Dulibić, PhD, associate professor
- Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić, PhD, senior research assistant
- Jasminka Najcer Sabljak, PhD, senior curator
- Željka Miklošević, research assistant
- Daniel Zec, MA, curator
- Silvija Lučevnjak, curator
- Sandi Bulimbašić, senior adviser – conservator
- Sanja Zadro, PhD student