Project information
Czechs and the Colonial World: Design and Visual Culture since 1848

This project addresses the question: what is the relevance of debates over decolonization to the understanding of Czech design and visual culture since the mid-nineteenth century? From popular images of ‘exotic’ peoples to collecting artifacts and borrowing motifs in architecture and design, Czechs have long engaged with global cultures. Criticisms of colonial attitudes and practices are usually made of large European empires; how pertinent are they to the Czech case? The project considers how Czechs represented non-European cultures, and how that informed their conception of their identity. It analyses the role of political and ideological contexts of Czech society in shaping such representations, and how attitudes and representations developed during the period studied by the project. Outputs will be a monograph, an edited volume, articles and 2 PhDs. As preparation for a follow-on ERC application, the project includes workshops focusing on comparative case studies considering the pertinence of decolonial critiques elsewhere in central and eastern Europe.