This book presents and analyzes artistic interactions both within the Soviet bloc and between the Western bloc between 1945 and 1989. During the Cold War the exchange of artistic ideas and products united Europe's avant-garde in a most remarkable way. Despite the Iron Curtain and national and political borders there existed a constant flow of artists, artworks, artistic ideas and practices. The geographic borders of these exchanges have yet to be clearly defined. How were networks, centers, peripheries (local, national and international), scales, and distances constructed? How did (neo)avant-garde tendencies relate with officially sanctioned socialist realism? The slowly expanding, newly translated literature on the art of Eastern Europe provides a great deal of factual knowledge about a vast cultural space, but mostly through the prism of stereotypes and national preoccupations. By discussing artworks, studying the writings on art, observing artistic evolution and artists' strategies, as well as the influence of political authorities, art dealers and art critics, the essays in Art beyond Borders compose a transnational history of arts in the Soviet satellite countries in the post war period.

Since the late nineteenth century, museums have been cited as tools of imperialism and colonialism, as strongholds of patriarchalism, masculinism, homophobia and xenophobia, and accused both of elitism and commercialism. But, could the museum absorb and benefit from its critique, turning into a critical museum, into the site of resistance rather than ritual? This book looks at the ways in which the museum could use its collections, its cultural authority, its auratic space and resources to give voice to the underprivileged, and to take an active part in contemporary and at times controversial issues. Drawing together both major museum professionals and academics, it examines the theoretical concept of the critical museum, and uses case studies of engaged art institutions from different parts of the world. It reaches beyond the usual focus on western Europe, America, and 'the World', including voices from, as well as about, eastern European museums, which have rarely been discussed in museum studies books so far.

Since the late nineteenth century, museums have been cited as tools of imperialism and colonialism, as strongholds of patriarchalism, masculinism, homophobia and xenophobia, and accused both of elitism and commercialism. But, could the museum absorb and benefit from its critique, turning into a critical museum, into the site of resistance rather than ritual? This book looks at the ways in which the museum could use its collections, its cultural authority, its auratic space and resources to give voice to the underprivileged, and to take an active part in contemporary and at times controversial issues. Drawing together both major museum professionals and academics, it examines the theoretical concept of the critical museum, and uses case studies of engaged art institutions from different parts of the world. It reaches beyond the usual focus on western Europe, America, and 'the World', including voices from, as well as about, eastern European museums, which have rarely been discussed in museum studies books so far.

The conclusion of the Cold War in 1989 signalled the beginning of a new era in Eastern Europe, and this widespread change was felt no less strongly in the world of art. In Art and Democracy in Post-Communist Europe, Piotr Piotrowski examines the art made after 1989 in Eastern Europe in light of the profound political, social, economic and cultural transformations in the region. As well as discussing these transformations, Piotrowski describes the changing nature of artworks themselves - from work moulded by the cultural imperatives of the communist state, used as a tool of political propaganda, to autonomous work protesting against and resisting the ruling powers. He describes the rich tradition of anarchistic motifs and themes of protest in Eastern European art, and the emergence of a utopian vision in more recent times. The discussion includes themes of communist memory; the critique of nationalism; issues of gender after 1989; and the representation of historic trauma in contemporary museology, going on to discuss the recent foundation of museums of contemporary art in Bucharest, Tallinn and Warsaw. The function of art in post-communist Europe is assessed, and above all its restrictions and hidden censorship mechanisms. Throughout the book the author provides close readings of many artists, some new to a Western audience, such as Ilya Kabakov and Krzysztof Wodiczko, and Marina Abramovic's work responding to the atrocities of the Balkans. This cogent investigation of the artistic reorientation of the former Eastern Bloc breaks important new ground, and fills a major gap in contemporary artistic and political discourse.