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Viktória Citráková, Poezin 02

zine, 2025, Czech, Slovak, and English

Poezin 02, themed “Capitalism is not Vogue,” explores anti-capitalism, the commodification of culture, and the search for belonging. It follows the pilot issue Poezin 01, published in 2023 at the risograph studio KudlaWerkstatt, which focused on intersectionality, embodiment, and gender objectification.

Polina Davydenko, Ukrajinská levice: Dokument odporu proti ruské agresi [The Ukrainian Left: A Documentary of Resistance to Russian Aggression]

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech

Co-authored by Polina Davydenko and Lukáš Dobeš, this book lies at the intersection of journalism and personal testimony. It features interviews with leftist thinkers, activists, anti-authoritarians, and unionists who voluntarily joined the Ukrainian army following Russia’s 2022 invasion, critically examining oversimplified narratives about anarchist movement members fighting on the side of the state and challenges stereotypes regarding the Ukrainian left's role in the defense forces. Complemented by the author’s photographs and travel notes from the Donetsk region, the book also provides a civilian perspective on war and the transformation of Ukraine.

Eva Jaroňová, Svět prochází člověkem [The World Passes Through]

artbook, 2025, Czech
This book of illustrations and short texts builds on the author’s previous work with zines and prints, addressing themes of environmental crisis. The poetic-activist nature of the book is reinforced by DIY risograph printing techniques, making each copy a unique original.

Valentýna Landa Filípková, Collaborative & Conscious Material Design Futures

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech and English
This publication expands on the Collaborative & Conscious Material Design Futures exhibition, showcasing innovative approaches to material design in response to environmental challenges. It explores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration among designers, architects, scientists, and artists in developing sustainable materials and their applications. Through case studies of successful projects like Crafting Plastics, Malai, and ModernSynthesis, the book demonstrates the key factors needed for effective interdisciplinary teamwork in material innovation.

Martin Pfann, V pondělí zase brambory: Neviditelná topografie partyzánského hnutí na Horácku [Potatoes Again on Monday: The Invisible Topography of the Partisan Movement in Horácko]

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech
This book delves into the memory of the Horácko region, where dramatic events of the partisan movement unfolded in the final years of WWII. The movement left an indelible mark on the collective memory of local farming communities. The author, who spent his early years in one of Horácko’s villages, returns to his childhood landscape, exploring its connections to his Protestant family history. He gathers oral testimonies, studies archival materials, and documents topographical features such as hiking trails, abandoned buildings, and memorials that bear traces of the past. The book is illustrated by Štěpán Brož.

Pavel Ryška, Prostředníci: Charaktery české reklamy [Intermediaries: Characters in Czech Advertising]

peer-reviewed book, 2026, Czech
This book presents virtual advertising figures as narrative characters, analyzing their design and verbal and non-verbal expressions. It traces the evolution of advertising mascots from interwar Czechoslovakia through the era of state socialism to the reintroduction of the free market and the division of the republic. Alongside a chronological overview, the book examines artistic strategies in advertising within economic, social, and political contexts, drawing comparisons to similar international examples in comics, animation, board games, consumer product packaging, television, and online media.

Ján Solčáni, Return to Listening

peer-reviewed book, 2025, English
This book features in-depth conversations with artists, collectives, and theorists who engage with listening as a critical practice. It explores sound as a communicative tool that reveals and challenges shifting social, historical, ecological, technological, and political conditions. Positioning listening as a methodology for uncovering and interrogating power structures, the book expands the discourse beyond conventional sound studies through interviews with marginalized voices. Its methodological framework integrates autoethnographic approaches and listening-based theories, offering nuanced insights into how sound shapes ways of perceiving the world across diverse geographical and cultural contexts.

Lea Maria Spahn, Walking as Embodied Worldmaking: Bodies, Borders, Knowledgescapes

peer-reviewed book, 2025, English
Walking is as much a cultural practice as it is an embodied experience. The contributions of this book highlight the interrelations of bodies, knowledges, places, affects, and other materialities through the lenses of phenomenological, artistic, and methodological approaches. In the contributions, walking is addressed as a relational practice situated in specific landscapes; it connects different cultural practices, has material-semiotic performativity, and is always an act of interweaving (geopolitical) territories and borders. This book brings together written and visual contributions by social scientists as well as artists for a vivid spectral perspective on the phenomenon of walking.

Barbora Šedivá, Vašulkovi RELOADED: Kuchyňská kniha #2 / Vašulkas RELOADED: Kitchen Book #2

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech and English
Edited by Barbora Šedivá, Lenka Dolanová, and Miloš Vojtěchovský, this book critically reassesses the work of Steina and Woody Vašulka, their contributions to both global and Czech art, and the theme of open archives. It presents the latest research on the Vašulkas, featuring essays on their role in the European and American new media art scene, their collaborations with artists and institutions, issues of resource-sharing, and contemporary approaches to archiving and exhibiting their work.

Jana Švecová, Využití tkaného textu pro hledání rytmu [Weaving Text to Find Rhythm]

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech
This book explores the concept of “woven text” — a term coined by Daniela Hodrová — as a method of structuring writing through repetition, memory, interwoven connections, and a blending of reality and dreams. The author applies this technique to construct the text of the book itself, revealing the knots and links that hold it together. The work is based on the author’s dissertation, which examines the intrinsic connection between art, life, and lifelong learning.

Barbora Trnková, The Look of Internalized Machine Gaze

peer-reviewed book, 2025, English
This book examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and its hidden mechanisms in the digitally mediated world. Drawing on posthumanist theory and inspired by non-philosophy and autofiction, the author adopts a glitch feminist intersectional perspective to confront the hegemonic structures embedded in digital technologies. The book reveals how AI-driven metaprograms shape perception, limit human agency, and influence societal imagination about the future. By critically dissecting these systems, the work highlights the absence of marginalized perspectives in shaping a more meaningful and sensorially rich technological landscape.

Lenka Klodová, FaVU: Odcházení [Leaving]

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech

This book explores the experience of stepping down from the role of studio head, focusing primarily on members of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno. It examines the conditions and foundations necessary for successful art education and documents the complex web of professional and personal relationships that shape studio teaching, which also influence the unique nature of departure from such positions. The book delves into how, at the moment of departure, not only the dynamics within studio collectives come into play but also internal motivations and broader factors related to the status of artists and the economic standing of professional artists. It views leaving a teaching position as a transitional state that should be accompanied by appropriate rituals to ensure a proper emotional experience and avoid subsequent trauma. The book is co-authored by Lenka Klodová and Barbora Klímová, who approach the writing from the perspective of artistic researchers with a focus on social and pedagogical issues, and Lucie Vidovičová, a sociological researcher specializing in aging. Each chapter summarizes insights gained from semi-structured interviews conducted as part of an ongoing research project.

Michal Konečný, Tamara Divíšková: Můj život [Tamara Divíšková: My Life]

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech

This book, aimed at a broad audience, explores the life and work of sculptor Tamara Divíšková, a student of Vincent Makovský. Tamara Divíšková was a prominent artistic figure in Czechoslovakia during the second half of the 20th century. Her works, primarily made of ceramics, were exhibited in both domestic and international galleries and could also be found in architectural projects and public buildings such as hospitals, kindergartens, and housing estates, notably in Brno's Lesná district. Despite being limited by her social background, which restricted her artistic commissions, Divíšková maintained close friendships with significant artists like Sylva Lacinová, Inez Tuschnerová, Vincent Makovský, Bohumír Matal, and Miloš Axman. These relationships, along with her remarkable family background, play a crucial role in shaping this publication, which is structured as a biography. The book expands on the basic biographical narrative by incorporating themes currently emphasized in art historical research, such as the role of women in 20th-century art, the nature and process of state commissions, the influence of the state and Communist Party on artistic work, the role of official artists, the work of artists on the fringes of society, artistic associations, and the bonds of friendship between artists. The focus is particularly on the theme of women artists in the 20th century. The biography, with an expert introduction by the author, is based on interviews with Tamara Divíšková.

Judita Levitnerová, Art protis: tapiserie z černých ovcí [Art Protis: Black Sheep Tapestries]

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech

This book delves into the unique artistic technique of “art protis,” a type of non-woven tapestry that emerged in the 1960s at the Brno Wool Mills. Drawing from qualitative interviews with artists, technicians, historians, and various individuals across generations and professions connected to art protis, the publication captures a wide array of stories from those involved in this distinctive phenomenon. The book examines the repeated, yet unsuccessful, efforts to preserve art protis since the 1990s, seeking to understand why this art form is gradually disappearing from public spaces. It also raises the question of cultural heritage preservation. Using archival materials, the book documents this specific chapter of socialist-era Czechoslovakia, focusing on the development of art protis in Brno, where large-scale pieces were created and prominently displayed in public spaces. The author's artistic research methodology includes her own art protis practice and organization of art protis workshops, in which she collaborates with others to keep the unique art of art protis alive.

Barbora Lungová, Partyzánky s motyčkou v zelené městské krajině: (nejen) umělecké intervence spontánní zahradnické povahy ve veřejném prostoru [Partisans with a Hoe: Guerilla Gardening in Public Space]

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech

This book explores the concept of guerrilla gardening, focusing on (but not limited to) artistic interventions of spontaneous gardening in public spaces. These interventions aim to beautify the surroundings and even produce food within urban environments. The book is structured as a local guide to twelve selected sites in Brno, including courtyards, public areas in front of shopping centres, strips of land between tram tracks and sidewalks, railway viaducts and their surroundings, a solitary hollow stump in a park, areas around railway tracks, and the outskirts of housing estates. Employing an interdisciplinary approach that merges artistic and anthropological perspectives, a collective of artists and social anthropologists examines various forms of transforming, using, and sharing public spaces through gardening and planting interventions. The book also delves into the diverse motivations behind these guerrilla gardening efforts. The publication builds upon the group's extensive artistic, research, and organizational activities, which include documenting inaccessible or overlooked locations through photography and time-lapse sound recordings, sowing ruderal plants and other unusual botanical interventions, and organizing public walks.

Tomáš Moravanský, Odkud se berou děti: kniha reprodukcí / Where Do Babies Come From: Book of Reproductions

artbook, 2025, Czech and English

This non-fiction, conceptual book presents a series of seventy-two images that depict the genitalia of twenty-four parental pairs alongside their biological offspring. Designed in the style of a “coffee table book” and released in a limited edition of 150 copies, the publication seeks to connect two often disparate perspectives: the artistic (conceptualism) and the scientific. Each of the twenty-four chapters consists of a trio of photographs – two images are juxtaposed on a single spread (A4 size), with the photograph of the offspring occupying the entire next spread. The book features a foreword by Prof. RNDr. Jaroslav Flegr, CSc., a renowned Czech biologist, university professor, and science communicator. Flegr's research primarily focuses on biological evolution, particularly in ethology, evolutionary parasitology, and evolutionary psychology. He initiated a citizen science project involving large-scale surveys, including what is likely the largest Czech sexology survey to date, with 65,000 participants.

Jakub Polách, Czechoslayvakia

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech

The collective monograph Czechoslayvakia serves as a guide to political imagination, an artistic catalogue, a theoretical anthology, a dictionary, and a literary-photographic meme fiction centred around a fictional state of the same name. The content weaves together speculative narratives with essays that connect themes from visual projects to historical parallels, digital anthropology, legal and fashion theory, and music subcultures. The publication aims to compile over 200 dictionary entries and neologisms created by TikTok users in response to the author's exhibition projects. This book not only maps and contextualizes an internet micro-universe but also acts as a dynamic tool for expanding the subcultural capital of this digital community.

Kateřina Žák Konvalinová, VLNA [Wool]

peer-reviewed book, 2026, Czech

This book consolidates current knowledge on the domestication, breeding, and socio-economic conditions that influence the structure of sheep farming, breed representation, and wool typology in the region. Through a combination of expert texts, speculative storytelling, and analysis of selected artistic projects, the publication explores the sustainability of sheep's wool as a material in contemporary art. Drawing on contemporary eco-philosophical trends, posthumanism, new materialism, and feminist frameworks, the book delves into the often-overlooked complexities of the relationship between humans and domesticated/bred animals. The monograph further examines the intricate more-than-human relationships and connections involved in the craft of processing wool, such as weaving, felting, and knitting. It is based on a series of interviews conducted by artist Kateřina Žák Konvalinová and social scientist Tereza Špinková with various experts in the field, including a sheep breeding specialist, sociologist, breeder, shepherdess, a student of contemporary tapestry from the Brussels Academy of Arts, and other artists and designers. The focus is primarily on the local context, supplemented by examples from Spain, which held a monopoly on merino wool until the 18th century, and Belgium, where the Royal Academy hosts studios dedicated to contemporary tapestry and tapestry restoration. The book's creation and publication are accompanied by a series of public events, workshops, debates, and artistic interventions, including the production of a wool-based art protis piece in collaboration with artist Judita Levitnerová for the Prague Biennale Matter of Art.

Jiří Žák, We Love Shooting

peer-reviewed book, 2025, Czech

We Love Shooting is a collective interdisciplinary monograph inspired by a participatory theater production of the same name, created by artist Jiří Žák and the theater group 8lidí, which premiered in the spring of 2023 at Display Gallery in Prague. The book, in collaboration with selected authors from the fields of history, visual culture theory, and theater and art theory, aims to further explore and contextualize the themes raised by the performance. The monograph delves into the role of Czechoslovak, and later Czech, weapons in the Syrian conflict, examining this within a broader postcolonial perspective on Czechoslovakia's and the Czech Republic's involvement in the Middle East. In addition to historical analysis, the book expands on other aspects of the performance, such as the ongoing refugee crisis that peaked between 2015 and 2017, particularly in relation to Czech arms exports, and the issue of Czech racism towards refugees from the Global South. In addition to expanding on these themes, the monograph examines how the performance translates historical and artistic research – along with investigative documentary theater techniques – into a performative artwork that blurs the boundaries between exhibition and theater. The individual texts not only introduce readers to the complex issues of Czech involvement in global processes and history through arms distribution but also demonstrate how art can articulate and communicate this complexity. The book will be published in co-edition with Display.

Adam Vačkář, The Heracles of Hogweed

peer-reviewed book, 2025, English

The book examines the complex relationship between humans and Giant Hogweed, an “invasive” plant from the Caucasus. Challenging conventional views on plant migration, it traces Hogweed's journey from Central Asia to Europe and the Americas, exploring media-driven fear and the author's spiritual connection to the plant while encouraging reflection on our relationship with nature from a non-human perspective. Heracleum mantegazzianum, or Giant Hogweed, is a large, controversial plant known for causing severe skin burns and potential blindness. Originally introduced to Europe as an ornamental plant, it quickly spread uncontrollably, posing ecological threats by outcompeting native flora. Once admired, Hogweed's relationship with humans deteriorated as it spread beyond gardens into neglected spaces, symbolizing the unintended consequences of human activity. Today, European law mandates the plant's eradication by 2050. While some botanists criticize this goal as extreme, others support it. The book also highlights how, in regions like the Czech Republic, eradication efforts expose issues of exploitation and discrimination, with marginalized communities often tasked with this dangerous work. Giant Hogweed carries socio-political symbolism as well. The book discusses how, in post-Communist Czechoslovakia, the plant was metaphorically linked to the spread of the Communist regime. In the Sudetenland, it evokes memories of historical displacement and conflict, symbolizing the complex and often painful human history of the region.

Jan Šrámek, Kouzlo zapomnětlivosti Josepha Beuyse [The Magic of Joseph Beuys' Forgetfulness]

artbook, 2025, Czech

This book explores the life and legacy of the influential German artist Joseph Beuys, marking the centenary of his birth. Written by Veronika Vlková and Pavel Ryška, the book is accompanied by illustrations from the creative duo Veronika Vlková and Jan Šrámek. At its core, the book “reconstructs” a pivotal yet repressed event in Beuys’s life – his wartime plane crash over Crimea. Only later did he emerge as an iconic figure in German postwar art, enveloped in the self-fashioned mythology of a “master and apprentice,” carefully cultivating an aura around his work as both an aesthetic and political spectacle that transcends the art history of the 20th and 21st centuries. The book seeks to illuminate the thought processes and artistic principles characteristic of 20th-century art, highlighting their lasting impact on contemporary practice. It is designed for a wide readership, including younger audiences.

Jan Šrámek, Ohrožené druhy [Endangered Species]

artbook, 2025, Czech

The book project Endangered Species follows up on the publication Special Circumstances. The book presents a collection of 37 illustrations by Jan Šrámek, highlighting significant buildings of Czechoslovak architecture from the period 1948–1989, aiming to draw attention to the challenges of heritage protection for socialist-era structures. In addition to iconic works such as the Ještěd Department Store and Transgas, the book also focuses on lesser-known buildings from various regions, particularly those that are endangered or have already been demolished—such as Mazutka, the cultural center in Plzeň, and the aforementioned Ještěd Department Store. The illustrations are accompanied by a text by Ladislav Jackson.

Martin Mazanec, Frederick Kiesler: Selected Writings on Moving Image, Film, and Cinema

peer-reviewed book, 2025, English

The publication analyzes sources and related documents that are linked to the visual trace of a film space which may have expanded the limits of perception of visual arts and, in a more general way, transformed the social standard of perception of the film art. The space was designed by Frederick Kiesler, an architect of Austrian origin, in the late 1920s for an American client. The prerequisite of the text is the statement that in his space design, Kiesler strived to advance to authentic forms of film presentation which would be based on the uniqueness of the very technology and film production and which would be distinct from the architecture of theater halls. Frederick Kiesler designed an “ideal film space” for film presentation in the spirit of aesthetic and social principles of modernist thinking.