Research profile

The research activity of the Department of History and Theory of Art covers four areas:

1. Interdisciplinary research on material culture and its symbolic aspects
2. Inclusive feminism and its relationship with art
3. Contemporary art studies in Central Europe
4. Studies in the theory of contemporary architecture and design

The research on material culture assumes the integration of scientific disciplines in the field of knowledge of world art, history, anthropology, language culture, connoisseurs, museology, collecting, ancient and modern culture and contemporary architecture and design. The main goal of the project is study on material culture as a source material. The studies are intended to facilitate the development of methods for analysing objects in various fields of science. They involve liberal use of a number of sources, as well as an individual way of developing research methods. As part of this project, you can develop various life stories of objects, as well as their creators, users, guardians or enemies, as well as those who write about them or even consider the concept of materiality.

Research on radical feminism and its relationships is based on gathering knowledge about activist art that resists power – capitalist, patriarchal, empowered by conscious exploitation, domination, violence and a sense of impunity.

Research on contemporary art in Central Europe aims to develop both its specificity and location within the global history of art. The scope of artistic geography covers countries located in the belt from the Adriatic to the sea Baltic. It is a kind of limes between East and West. This location and the huge cultural diversity of the region shaped its main distinctive feature – cosmopolitanism. Research is focused on contemporary art, which arose after World War II to the present day. It is descriptive, factual as well as contextual and interpretative. The general objective of the research is a dialectical approach to the contemporary art of the region, thus capturing both the dynamics of changes and local features as well as creating a comprehensive, synthetic picture of Central European art. One of the elements of this project is the study of contemporary art of Gdansk / Tricity.

Studies on the history of architecture with particular emphasis on the 20th century are related to the modern architecture of the region (including Gdynia and Torun modernism). The subject of research is also the modernist architecture of the Eastern Borderlands – an issue that has been poorly recognized so far, and crucial for understanding the complex issues of Polish architectural culture in the interwar years.

The research results are published in volumes such as Material Culture and its symbolic contexts, and Art and Documentation, as well as in individual publications posted to various Polish and foreign periodicals.