Finalized national projects

EU

Title of project: European Dimensions of the Artistic Culture in Slovakia
Principal investigator: Institute of Art History SAS
Project partners: Institute of World Literature SAS, Institute of Musicology SAS, Istitute of Theatre and Film Research SAS, Institute of Slovak Literature SAS, Jan Stanislav Institute of Slavistics SAS
Duration: 1. 5. 2011 – 31. 3. 2015
Registration number: ESF 26240120035
Annotation: The main aim of the "European Dimensions" project is to support research excellence within the field of theory and history of the Slovak art and culture.
The establishment of a research centre that will reflect and fulfill current needs for the further development of Slovakian culture in the knowledge society; would provide an efficient link between the quality of education, excellent research, usage and practical application of the IT research tools, as well as the availability of information resources, innovation and commercial downstream activities aimed towards the practice and networking between scientific and research institutes at home and abroad.

APVV

Title of project: Slovak theatre and contemporary theatre culture – continuity and discontinuity
Principal investigator: prof. PhDr. Miloš Mistrík, DrSc.
Duration: 1. 7. 2016 – 30. 6. 2020
Registration number: APVV-15-0764
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research of the Art Research centre SAS
Annotation: Slovak theatre research will focus on theatre tradition in comparison with the European influence that was present since the years of professionalization (1920), which also affects the current status of the early 21st century. The project aims to examine the Slovak theatre and context of intercultural situations, from several angles – in a dramatic, directing, music, acting and scenographic part. The Slovak theatre, drama and opera, where the project is mainly engaged, were essentially interfering with Czech, German and Russian inspiration, which were previously the most significant, but increasingly also other: mainly English, French and Polish. This project creates a collective platform to address issues being raised and the systematic analysis of the most contributed and contributes to transcend cultural boundaries and pushes us to the international level (within the theatre compagnies, productions and theatre personalities). Project does not circumvent the tradition of Slovak theatre, but explores its position in the European context. The research team cannot aspire to an overall and final Picture, but it can give a significant impetus for attention to this subject, to expand optics and trough intercultural dialogue to establish closer cooperation with foreign theatre research.

Title of project: Slovak Cinema after 1989
Principal investigator: doc. Mgr. Jana Dudková, PhD.
Registration number: SRDA 0797-12
Duration: 1. 10. 2013 – 30. 09. 2017
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Project partner: Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (Film and Television Faculty)
Annotation: The project maps the character of changes that shaped Slovak cinema in the period from the end of 20th century till now. Changes are understood in the sense of key events in shaping institutional, economical and legislative environment after 1989, but also in the sense of transformation of narrative models, genre structures, representational forms, rhetorics and relation between cinema and socio-political reality. The latter type of changes is much more resistant to simple location in time (as it is not possible to define the year 1989 as a strict time border). Thus the main research is focusing on a complex mapping and creation of a new, more precise periodisation of contemporary Slovak cinema. The project pays a special attention to variability and mutual complementarity of different methodological approaches of singular researchers who follow the most recent trends in film studies, namely the need to study cinema as a complex institution which has an important impact on the actual aesthetic forms and social functions of film. The project partner is Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava. The project brings together several generations of the most important experts on the subject from both institutions.

Title of project: Artistic and Social Funkcions of Contemporary Slovak Theatre
Principal investigator: PhDr. Andrej Maťašík, PhD.
Duration: 1. 5. 2011 – 31. 10. 2014
Registration number: SRDA 0619-10
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Annotation: Project´s aim is to realize a research on contemporary phenomenon of Slovak theatre culture of the end of 20th and beginning of 21st century. It will concentrate namely on artistic and social functions of the theatre. The project´s participants will combine their knowledge of theatre history/theory and the methods of particular theatre science sub-disciplines, such as drama and performance history, aesthetics and sociology. The project will precise the criteria of contemporary theatre in Slovakia. Its congnitive aspect lays in the discovery of untill now unknown (international, intercultural, multi-medial, social, artistic) contexts of Slovak theatre culture. It will analyse various staging poetics of Slovak theatre in the context of contemporary foreign tendencies. The cognitive aspect of the project will extend to the processes in the sphere of creativity, perceptional and dramaturgy in our society undergoing radical transformation. The specifics of Slovak theatre culture from 1980-ies till 2010 will be analysed from the aspect of artistic and social functions in such complexity for the first time in the history of Slovak theatre science.

VEGA

Title of project: The pathway of Slovak theatre from a closed to open society (events, personalities, productions)
Principal investigator: PhDr. Dagmar Podmaková, CSc.
Duration: 1. 1. 2019 – 31. 12. 2021
Registration number: VEGA 2/0173/19
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research of the Art Research centre SAS
Annotation: The project primary goal is to research on the impact of socio-political events on Slovak theatre between normalisation period (August 1968) and the present. The findings will be reflected in the publishing of historical connections between political events and theatre art productions, the impact of theatre makers and of personalities on social development, then and now. The authors will focus on the implication of social ruptures, diverse ideological and less significant decision relating to concrete dramatic Works that had been produced prior to 1989 and also to current dramatic pieces produced at a time of freedom of creation, namely, by probing into the dramaturgy of theatres, into the thematic focus of contemporary drama production covering past events (various cases having a broad media coverage). The authors will research the transformation of the protagonist of drama pieces and of the new forms of “catharsis”.
Title of project: Musical Theatre in Bratislava from the Second Half of the 19th Century to the First Half of the 20th Century (Exponents, Institutions, Repertory, Reflection)
Principal investigator: Jana Laslavíková
Duration: 1. 1. 2019 – 31. 12. 2021
Registration number: VEGA 2/0040/18
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research of the Art Research centre SAS/Institut of History SAS
Annotation: The projest was based on the primary source research aiming at the evaluation of the repertory of the Municipal TheATRE/THE PRESENT Historical Building of the Slovak National Theatre (SNT) in the period 1886 – 1920 and examination of the aesthetic-critical views on the musical theatre through the production practice in the SNT in the years 1920 – 1950. On the basis of the period opera reviewers subjected to the text-critical analysis, examining and researching primary and secondary sources (personal legacy, music material, decrees regarding the running of the theatre) and through the compilation of database of the daily performance schedule from 1886 we will gwt a general view of the musical theatre operating in one building during two historical periods. A two-volume monograph on the theatre history in Bratislava will is a part of the project.

Title of project: Institutional, Productional and Co-productional Relations Between Public-Service Television and Film Production After 1989
Principal investigator: Mgr. Martin Palúch, PhD.
Duration: 1. 1. 2018 – 31. 12. 2020
Registration number: VEGA 2/0120/18
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research of the Art Research centre SAS
Annotation: The project´s aim is to analyse the historical circumstances and their impact on institutional connections which determined production of television and cinematic films and their relation to the public television in Slovakia after 1989.
The analysis of the role of public television in production and co-production of Slovak films will be the key for determining the most influential themes in various phases of social, cultural and political development of Slovakia. The official ideology, television management in respective periods, or the dominant cultural policy will not be decisive for this analysis. The aim of the project is to define the basic topics, trends and problems which influenced Slovak film production made by public television after 1989. Besides the analysis of historical circumstances, the researchers will focus also on aesthetic and rhetoric functions of television film production (both live-action and documentary). The project will try to sum up the dominant political influences and to define the dominant impulses of various television formats and genres. The politics of television production experienced turbulent changes during the post-socialist era, which also had an impact on forms of production as well as on distribution of creative professions.

Title of project: Theatre as a Communication of the Crisis of Values
Principal investigator: PhDr. Elena Knopová, PhD.
Duration: 1. 1. 2016 – 31. 12. 2018
Registration number: VEGA 2/0170/16
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Annotation: The project focuses on the comparative perspective within the European coordinates. Existing international contacts with the members of research collective allow for close scientific cooperation also in other than Central European countries, mainly in France, Italy and Great Britain. International colleagues will join seminars and conference, and they will be also invited to publish partial outcomes in Slovenské divadlo magazine, or the final collection of research articles. In case of international cooperation, it will not be focused on individual examples but on theoretical dimension, in which theatre and transformation of values will be explored as well as the crisis itself from the philosophical-aesthetical, even transnational and intercultural, points of view. Due to this fact it is expected that the team members‘ research will be conducted abroad at expert departments (archives, libraries, etc.), as well as basic and comparative research will be done in international theatre-artistic enviroment.

Title of project: One Hundred Years of the Slovak National Theatre Theatre productions 1938 – 1970 (drama, opera), 2nd stage
Principal investigator: PhDr. Dagmar Podmaková, CSc..
Duration: 1. 1. 2016 – 31. 12. 2018
Registration number: VEGA 2/0143/16
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Project partner: Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (Theatre Faculty)
Annotation: The project follows up on the 1st stage of the theatre production research covering drama and opera of the SNT. The history of the Slovak National Theatre will be presented through another series of re-enacted key theatre productions staged between 1938 and 1970 (from 1938/1939 season onwards). Partial outputs having the form of working papers based on the basic research of cross-cutting issues will constitute a component part of the project. They will serve as supporting documents for the book in preparation entitled One Hundred Years of the SNT. The authors of the Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS and of the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava will be taking part in the project.

Title of project: Critical Voice in Slovak Dokumentary Cinema: Main Topics, Influence at Society, Critics of Institutions
Principal investigator: Mgr. Martin Palúch, PhD.
Duration: 1. 1. 2015 – 31. 12. 2017
Registration number: VEGA 2/0128/15
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Annotation: Research project is concerned at critical author´s documentary filmworks, which are the important part of the history of Slovak cinema from the beginning till nowadays. Concerned documentary cinema will show us the main topics and themas, which were crucial for the author´s of the documentary cinema, inspite of meantime ideology and political establishment. There is a question, when the concerned documentary cinema bigun in Slovakia as a genre and the a strong critical voice of independent author´s, because the main aim of these filmworks is to critic the conditions and relations in society or to describe an unfunction of the system, his institutions and politics, to show the ideological represions against citizens. Absolute increasing of concerned documentary cinema is connected with political changes in Slovakia after the velvet revolution in 1989 when finished represions against author´s for their independent opinnion. From this reason we can see in last 20 years the renesance of this genre in Slovak documentary cinema. Critical tendencies are now the base cathegory in lot of filmworks made by contemporary slovak authors.

Title of project: Jesuit School Drama in Slovakia of 17th and 18th Century
Principal investigator: Dr. Theol. Miroslav Varšo
Duration: 1. 1. 2015 – 31. 12. 2017
Registration number: VEGA 2/0149/15
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Annotation: The aim of the project is the research of the jesuit school drama in Slovakia of the 17th/18th centuries, focusing on the latin programs. A comparison of the dramatic peaces with the known dramatic activities in Europe of that time should expose the peculiarities of jesuit drama in the Slovakia territory. Beside that is of a great interest to see the connections and common lines with the jesuit dramatic finesses in Europe.

Title of project: Critical Voice in Slovak Dokumentary Cinema: Main Topics, Influence at Society, Critics of Institutions
Principal investigator: Mgr. Martin Palúch, PhD.
Scientific co-workers: doc. Mgr. Jana Dudková, PhD.
Duration: 1. 1. 2015 – 31. 12. 2017
Registration number: VEGA 2/0128/15
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Annotation: Research project is concerned at critical author´s documentary filmworks, which are the important part of the history of Slovak cinema from the beginning till nowadays. Concerned documentary cinema will show us the main topics and themas, which were crucial for the author´s of the documentary cinema, inspite of meantime ideology and political establishment. There is a question, when the concerned documentary cinema bigun in Slovakia as a genre and the a strong critical voice of independent author´s, because the main aim of these filmworks is to critic the conditions and relations in society or to describe an unfunction of the system, his institutions and politics, to show the ideological represions against citizens. Absolute increasing of concerned documentary cinema is connected with political changes in Slovakia after the velvet revolution in 1989 when finished represions against author´s for their independent opinnion. From this reason we can see in last 20 years the renesance of this genre in Slovak documentary cinema. Critical tendencies are now the base cathegory in lot of filmworks made by contemporary slovak authors.

Title of project: One Hundred Years of the Slovak National Theatre. Theatre productions 1920 – 1938 (drama theatre, opera) - 1st stage
Principal investigator: PhDr. Dagmar Podmaková, CSc.
Duration: 1. 1. 2013 – 31. 12. 2015
Registration number: VEGA 2/0070/13
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Project partner: Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (Theatre Faculty)
Annotation: The project objective is the processing of the 1st stage of selection and characteristics of the productions of the Slovak National Theatre between 1920 and 1938, covering drama and opera, which serves as a background for the book in preparation One Hundred Years of the Slovak National Theatre (SNT). The history of the SNT will be presented through a series of re-enacted key theatre productions. A component part of the project are alse partial outputs having the form of papers which will dram on the basic research of new cross-cutting themes.

Title of project: Noh Theatre - Models and Visions
Principal investigator: PhDr. Anna Hlaváčová, CSc.
Duration: 1. 1. 2013 – 31. 12. 2015
Registration number: VEGA 2/0047/13
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS (since 1. 9. 2015 Institute for Forecasting SAS)
Annotation: Project aims to develop the study of oriental theatre, namely Japanese Noh. Its aim is to apply the abstracted model of this sophisticated theatre form to cencrete plays as its variants and to provide a key to their scenic interpretation. The aim is to write a monograph. Besides its scientific value, the output should serve in the education cencerning no-European theatre: the influence of Noh on the contemporary theatre persists for more than a century - however, in Slovakia (after the retirement of Czech japanologist Dana Kalvodova, now late) we tolerate a provisory.

Title of project: The Social Context of the Establishment of the Slovak National Theatre
Principal investigator: PhDr. Andrej Maťašík, PhD.
Duration: 1. 1. 2013 – 31. 12. 2015
Registration number: VEGA 2/0046/13
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Annotation: In accordance with previous scholars, the current Slovak theatrology as a matter of habit adopted the phrase that the Slovak Nation Theatre (abb SND) was opened in Bratislava in March 1920. Actually, it is considered a more detail that on the base of the contract with the holder of the concession, the SND Cooperative, under the name of Slovak National Thetre performed in fact the East Bohemian Thetre Company led by the director and entrepreneur Bedřich Jeřábek. The issues concerning social context has been utterly overlooked - either the Slovak context and the situation which faced a formally national institution, but with the repertoire of Czechoslovak orientation or the Czech context where a theatre company that had a contract with the cities as Hradec Kralove or Pardubice, raising the question why the concept of extablishing the SND Cooperative was first discussed in the Club of Slovak MPs in Prague parliament and only subsequently steps were taken towards its realization in Bratislava.

Title of project: Multiculturalism in Film Theory and Practice
Principal investigator: doc. Mgr. Jana Dudková, PhD..
Duration:1. 1. 2012 – 31. 12. 2014
Registration number: VEGA 2/0171/12
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Anotation: This is the first Slovak project dealing explicitly with the impact of theories of multiculturality on the frame of film studies and cinema. Separate parts of the project include analyses of various theories of multiculturality or postcoloniality, analyses of their influence on film studies and of their impact on film practice. The last part of the project – analysis of selected examples of the influence of multuculturality on film practice – is ment to illustrate the broader effects of multicultural initiatives on contemporary cultural spaces. It includes analysis of several film texts in the light of their individual approaches to the coexistence of cultural patterns in various forms od contemporary societies.

Title of th project: Literary, theatrical and ethically space in „Operette morali“ of Giacomo Leopardi – common European Cultural identity
Principal investigator: doc. PhDr. Dagmar Sabolová, CSc.
Duration: 01. 01. 2012 – 31. 12. 2014
Registration number: VEGA 2/0061/12
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS (till 2013 Department of Italian Language and Literature, Catholic University in Ruzomberok)
Annotation: The project of the researche „Literary, theatrical and ethically spece into „Operette morali“ of Giacomo Leopardi, Italian romantic poet and one of the great literary figures of 19th century, is concentrated on analysis of the ethically dialogues of this writers, that is a part of European Cultural patrimony and who is still in Slovakia unknown, in difference f.e. from Czech, where exists the translation of the „Operette morali“ with the titel The Wagner of Prometheus, USA – 1982 – Operette morali (Essays and Dialogues. Berkeley: University of California Press, Princeton – Between the years 1823 and 1828 Leopardi composed his prose magnum opus „Operette morali“ (Small Moral Works“), which consists of a series of 24 innovative dialogues and fictional essays, treating a variety of themes that had already become familiar to his work by them. The dialogues are totality of the antics, philosophcally, ethically knowledges, explains in the innovatiove forms of figures like Nature, Man, Soul, Physicist.


Title of project: The Truth and the Method in the Theatre
Principal investigator: prof. PhDr. Miloš Mistrík, DrSc.
Duration: 1. 1. 2012 – 31. 12. 2015
Registration number: VEGA 2/0187/12
Co-ordinating organisation: Institute of Theatre and Film Research SAS
Annotation: In theatrology, just like in other art disciplines, the methodology research of a theatre artifact is crucial for the quality of knowledge. Throughout the development of this discipline, various methods have been applied, which elucidated certain aspects of this problem, although not all of them. Historic analysis, formal, structuralistic, semiologic as well as dialectical materialistic analyses were intended to contribute to truthful knowledge, although, with the passage of time, one will be aware of the significant limitations of the methods applied and in certain cases, even of distortions and untruths as an outcome of their application. What is the situation like today? How can a method and the truth be combined in contemporary theatrology? This is not only a philosophical question but also a clearly practical issue raising the curiosity of theoreticians and educators.