Stone, City, Paper: Mosaics – A Problematic Legacy

The conference will examine the role of mosaics in the propaganda of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, the organisational and artistic aspects of their production, and the transformation of public space through state-controlled monumental decoration. It will also address the contemporary reinterpretation of politically charged works, restoration approaches, and the material and technological aspects of mosaic art in the 20th century, as well as its future. The chair of the conference is a Czech sculptor, lecturer and writer specialising in visual art in public space Pavel Karous.

The event is aimed at both specialists and the general public. Presentations will be given by Czech and international experts (from Slovakia, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Italy, Hungary, Austria, France and Ukraine). The conference languages will be Czech and English with simultaneous translation.

This form is for audience members to register.

If you have any questions, please contact Agáta Young Hošnová.

 

9:30–10:00 am – Registration

 

10:00–10:15 am – Opening remarks: Marie Foltýnová

 

10:15–10:45 am – Magdalena Kracík Štorkánová & Anna Sejková

A New Life for Mosaics and Monumental Art: The Preservation and New Contexts of Endangered Works

Monumental mosaics of the 20th century were designed to be an integral and permanent part of both architecture and public space. Regimes have changed, buildings are disappearing – but the mosaics often remain. And that is precisely when their ‘second life’ begins. Many works are now losing their original context and institutional backing: demolition, redevelopment and thermal insulation works are systematically destroying mosaics and other forms of monumental art, often without documentation and without expert intervention. Only a small proportion of these works are listed; the rest fall outside the system of conservation. This paper will present the emerging MONU – Institute of Mosaics and Monumental Art, z. ú., as a response to this situation. MONU is conceived as a specialist and educational centre linking the on-site rescue of endangered works, their documentation, expert assessment and, where justified, their transfer, conservation and re-presentation to the public. The facilities currently under construction include restoration workshops, storage areas, exhibition and educational spaces, as well as a platform for research into materials and methods. MONU is not merely an archive of the past, but a place where conservation is linked to research, education and new contexts for the continued existence of these works. The aim is to open up a discussion on how to care for mosaics today as a specific part of cultural memory – regardless of their original ideological framework – and to offer MONU as a platform for interdisciplinary and international collaboration.

Magdalena Kracík Štorkánová is a conservator, mosaic artist and pioneer in the systematic preservation of mosaic heritage. For more than two decades, she has been dedicated to mosaics as a distinct component of architecture and public space. In her work, she combines research with practice and has long focused primarily on 20th-century works, the value of which is often only recognised once they are under threat. She is the founder of the Art and Craft Mozaika association and the driving force behind the emerging MONU – Institute of Mosaics and Monumental Art. Her long-term vision is for mosaics to be perceived not merely as historical artefacts, but as a living part of architecture, public space and cultural memory.

Anna Sejková is a curator and design theorist. She specialises in exhibitions that bring together multiple disciplines – public space, social issues and design. At the Benešov Museum of Art and Design, she organised, amongst others, the exhibitions Místo dětí and Postsvícení. She founded and ran the Výloha gallery in Tábor, where she carried out community projects focusing on social issues in dialogue with art. She is currently a project manager and curator at MONU – the Institute for Mosaic and Monumental Art.

 

10:45–11:15 – Jakub Ivánek & Marta Tomczok & Paweł Tomczok

Wall murals depicting mining and metallurgical themes in the Ostrava-Karviná coalfield

This paper will focus on the Ostrava region in relation to its mining history and will examine how, during the second half of the 20th century, the region’s industrial identity was forged through mural art projects, not only in mining and metallurgical complexes but also in public spaces within towns and in key buildings forming part of the urban infrastructure of Ostrava, Karviná, Havířov and other towns in the region under study. The paper will examine both the thematic content of these works and the frequency of occurrence of various types of mural art (mosaics, ceramic walls, murals, etc.) on this theme, as well as the materials used; in the case of exterior works, these materials were historically chosen with due regard to the chronically polluted air caused by industry in the region under study.

Jakub Ivánek completed his PhD in Theory and History of Czech Literature at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ostrava, where he has been a researcher at the Centre for Regional Studies since 2011 (since 2018 its director) and an assistant professor at the Department of Czech Literature and Literary Studies. His work engages with Baroque literature, overlapping into the 19th century and especially the issue of broadside ballads, as well as regional culture and literature of Czech Silesia and northeastern Moravia, and documentation of works of art for architecture and public space. His works include, among other, a web database Ostravské sochy (Ostrava Statues. Database of Works of Art in Architecture and Public Space of the City of Ostrava, 2015).

 

Colorful Mines: The Role of Mosaics in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin

After 1945, the role of heavy industry in Polish culture increased. With it, so did the role of industrial culture, particularly the work of coal mine workers. The Upper Silesian Coal Basin, with its rich, two-hundred-year-old culture, became a hotbed of industrial-themed mosaics. They began to be widely used primarily in mine buildings, such as pitheads, markhouses, and cafeterias, as well as in public spaces: train stations, bus stations, restaurants, and even on the walls of tenement houses.

Mosaics designed for the modern mines of the Rybnik Coal District (Szczygłowice, Jastrzębie-Zdrój) located near the Czech border (Ostrava) played a special role. Their role was to provide a form of therapy, diverting miners from underground labor, and reinforcing the modern, British mining model, friendly and completely different from the former Prussian mines. This paper will discuss the diverse roles of mosaics in the GZW, showcasing the results of research within the “Images and Histories of Black Cities” project (Weave Unison, leader: Dr. Jakub Ivanek, University of Ostrava).

Marta Tomczok is a literary historian, researcher of environmental cultural history and Holocaust literature, and member of the Geo-Eco-Humanities research group in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Silesia in Katowice. Her work focuses on environmental humanities and post-industrial heritage; she is particularly interested in the environmental and social consequences of industrialization. She is a scholarship recipient of the Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship, a laureate of National Science Centre competitions, and a representative of the European Society for Environmental History. Her scholarly texts have appeared in journals such as „Archiwum Emigracji”, „Czas Kultury”, „Porównania”,. She is the author of books including: „Blizny. Krajobrazy po przemyśle” (2026), „Black Friday. O kiczu i innych nadużyciach w pisaniu o Zagładzie” (co-authored with Jacek Leociak, 2025), „Postmodernizing the Holocaust. A Comparative Study of Chosen Novels” (2023), „Irit Amiel. Życie” (2021), „Czyja dzisiaj jest Zagłada? Retoryka – ideologia – popkultura” (2017), „Metonimie Zagłady. O polskiej literaturze lat 1987–2012” (2013), and „Trofea wyobraźni. O prozie Leo Lipskiego” (2011). Tomczok is co-editor of the volume „Industrial/Post-industrial Environments: Interdependencies (in Polish Literature and Culture from the 19th to the 21st Century)” (with Lucyna Sadzikowska and Paweł Tomczok, 2023).

Paweł Tomczok, Professor at the Institute of Literary Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland). Author of the book Literacki kapitalizm. Obrazy abstrakcji ekonomicznych w literaturze polskiej drugiej połowy XIX wieku (Literary capitalism. The images of economic abstracts in the Polish literature of the second half of the 19th century, Katowice, 2018). He conducts research on narrative representations of economics and environment. He is preparing a book about the work of Bruno Schulz.

 

11:15–11:45 – Bozena Kostuch

“They have the power to transcend the romantic aura – and so they retain their timeless freshness.” On mosaics in Poland

Although the oldest Polish mosaics, created primarily after World War II, were executed at the end of the 1940s, the popularity of the technique gathered momentum in the 1960s and 1970s. The basic material was either small tiles or big relief panels, occasionally accompanied by pieces of glass or pebbles. Mosaics were designed and usually also laid by professional artists, sculptors, and designers; investors were mostly state-owned institutions and enterprises. Compositions were assessed at the consecutive stages, beginning with design and continuing to completion. Ceramic decorations were frequently installed on the walls of edifices in exposed places, and they played a primarily decorative role. There are only a few mosaics with politically engaged themes in the whole country. The most important aspects of mosaic decorations in Poland will be discussed; the presentation will be accompanied by numerous illustrations.

Bożena Kostuch – an art historian, museologist, and curator of the ceramic collection at the National Museum in Krakow. She is the author of scholarly and popular publications and has curated numerous exhibitions. She specialises in 19th- and 20th-century Polish ceramics, contemporary design, and architectural ceramics. Her main publication on this subject is Kolor i blask. Ceramika architektoniczna i mozaiki w Krakowie i Małopolsce po 1945 roku [Color and Shine. Architectural Ceramics and Mosaics in Krakow and Malopolska after 1945], a monograph and catalogue of mosaic works.

 

12:00 am – 1:00 pm – lunch

 

1:00–1:15 pm – Presentation: Preciosa Ornela & Propamátky

 

1:15–1:45 pm – Matko Kezele

Restoration of the mosaics of the memorial monument in Plovanija and a review on other mosaics in Istria and Rijeka

The monument in Plovanija, located on the border between Croatia and Slovenia, is a project by the sculptor Aleksandar Rukavina (1934–1985). The World War II memorial sculpture was inaugurated in 1981 and consists of three vertical concrete fins onto which the artist designed and executed three mosaic panels. After more than forty years, visible deterioration of the mosaics required a major conservation intervention. The mosaics are composed of 2 × 2 cm industrial glass tiles in a palette of no more than fifteen colours. They depict three subjects typical of memorial monuments of this type: combat, the transport of the wounded, and figures in national costumes. The restoration work involved detaching the remaining original mosaics due to material degradation, with the aim of preserving and presenting them in a safer environment. Based on the original mosaics, complete reconstructions were produced using new glass mosaic tiles and the indirect technique on paper. New materials, including adhesives and grout more compatible with glass tiles, were used, resulting in mosaics better suited for long-term durability in an outdoor environment.

Matko Kezele’s interest in mosaic art began during his studies at the Mosaic School in Spilimbergo, Italy, where he completed a three-year program from 2000 to 2003. He was later introduced to the field of conservation and restoration, participating in various projects for the Croatian Conservation Centre. Since 2006, he has had the opportunity to work on a wide range of mosaics, from ancient Roman works to Art Nouveau and 20th-century pieces. After obtaining a restoration certificate from the Croatian Ministry of Culture, he established his own restoration company in Rijeka, Croatia. Alongside Kezele’s restoration practice, he has developed his own artistic mosaic projects and collaborated with other artists and the Mosaizm group. Kezele actively participates in mosaic exhibitions and regularly leads mosaic workshops, sharing his knowledge, experience, and passion for this ancient yet continually evolving art form.

 

1:45–2:15 pm – Elmira Ettinger

Preserving 20th-century Ukrainian monumental art through reinterpreting a contested legacy and popularizing unknown history

With the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an entire stratum of rich monumental heritage has come under threat. While decades of neglect during reconstruction projects had previously destroyed this Ukrainian heritage, today the negligence of artworks from the Soviet period is justified. This is happening despite the fact that communist symbolism may not even account for 10 % of the artwork. My team and I are working to prevent this in Ukraine. Through active social media, we tell the true story of these artworks and popularize them. We unite caring individuals, from teenagers to the elderly, to collectively care for, restore, and renovate the artworks, both through our own efforts and through crowdfunding. By communicating with government agencies, businesses, friendly organizations, professional artists, and art historians, we succeeded in preserving and protecting dozens of works of art, preventing the erasure of a unique heritage often created in defiance of the totalitarian regime. Most importantly, this has helped change the Ukrainian people’s attitudes toward this heritage, which will ensure the preservation of this heritage lives on into the future.

Elmira Ettinger is a researcher of modernist architecture and monumental art and President of the NGO “Union of Researchers and Restorers of Monumental Decorative Art and Architecture” in Ukraine. Her work focuses on the preservation of Soviet-era architectural and monumental heritage in Ukraine, combining research, advocacy, preventive conservation, restoration, and public engagement. Through her media and advocacy campaigns, more than 30 works of monumental art and architectural heritage have been protected from destruction, inappropriate alteration, or neglect. She also initiates and participates in hands-on conservation and restoration projects, including cleaning, maintenance, and preventive measures for outdoor monumental artworks. Her work explores how research, public communication, and community engagement can contribute to the long-term preservation of twentieth-century heritage.

 

2:15–2:45 pm – Pavla Bauerová & Dana Rohanová

Stone and glass speak to the people. Techniques and materials of Czechoslovak mosaics from the socialist era

Hundreds of mosaics from the socialist era have survived to this day in the territory of the former Czechoslovakia. Their installation in public spaces was controlled by the state. Most of the mosaics were laid by professional mosaicists from the mosaic workshop of the Central Office for Artistic Crafts. Over the years, the workshop’s staff developed standardised procedures for their production and installation. The tesserae were usually laid using the alla prima method onto reinforced concrete slabs directly in the workshop, and the individual panels were subsequently assembled into the final whole at the installation site. Innovative materials and methods for fixing mosaics were also developed at the studio of the state-owned enterprise Železnobrodské sklo (using polyvinyl butyral films). To a lesser extent, independent artists also secured commissions. They often developed their own creative methods.

Using several examples of mosaics examined by modern analytical methods (notably microscopy, thermal analysis and infrared spectroscopy), this paper will present the most common materials and techniques used during the period in question, as well as the differences between the various state-run workshops and independent artists. Typical materials for tesserae included stone of various geological origins (both split and unworked) or original Czechoslovak mosaic glass. Cement-based mortars were most commonly used to set the mosaics, though the use of synthetic resins has also been documented. The presentation will feature a study of the materials used in mosaics by artists working with state-run workshops (M. Sladký, S. Ballardini, E. Rožátová) as well as independent artists (E. Kmentová, the Vála sisters, V. Sokol and others).

Pavla Bauerová works at the Czech Academy of Sciences, where she has long been involved primarily in the characterisation of historical building materials using microscopic methods. She investigated mosaic fixatives, amongst other things, as part of her doctoral thesis, which she defended at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague. In addition to the lead author and her colleagues from the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, experts on other aspects of mosaics also contributed to the paper – restorer Magdalena Kracík Štorkánová, glass expert Dana Rohanová (University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague), geologist Barbora Dudíková (Czech Geological Survey) and materials scientist Martin Keppert (Faculty of Social Sciences, CTU).

 

2:45–3:15 pm – Coffee break

 

3:15–3:45 pm – Malu Storch

Mosaic Art during National Socialism

During the National Socialist era, numerous new construction projects were commissioned by the state, primarily monumental representative buildings. Mosaic, with its durable materials, was the ideal technique for the Nazi claim to eternity. The state positioned itself as a patron of “German mosaic art” supporting the workshops which had to face financial difficulties in the 1930s. The leading studio in Germany was the workshop of August Wagner in Berlin, which received nearly all major commissions. Van Treeck workshop in Munich created mosaics for military cemeteries. After Austria became part of the German Reich in 1938, the workshop in Innsbruck received public commissions. Large projects were often distributed among several workshops, but many were never completed.

Mosaic decorations covered floors, walls, and ceilings, ornaments often were combined with symbols of National Socialism (like swastika or imperial eagle). Gold was frequently used with natural stone; August Wagner’s Berlin workshop produced tons of gold smalti. The designs of figurative depictions served a propagandistic purpose. They showed the ideal image of work, struggle, and family life. The heroic figures are based on Aryan ideals, all muscular, in accordance with the body cult of Nazi ideology. They are larger than life and frozen in static poses.

A new element in German mosaic art was the use of natural stone, alone or combined with smalti. A new visual impact was received by an innovation, which has furthermore an economic benefit: only the motifs were set in mosaic and placed on a roughly plastered wall. Only a few mosaics from this period have survived; many were destroyed during the war or removed immediately afterward, either entirely or only fragments with clear Nazi symbols.

Malu Storch studied art history in Innsbruck and Vienna. She grew up in a mosaic workshop: her parents founded the company “Storch Mosaik” in 1986. She is already the fourth generation to practice this craft. Her great-grandfather, Josef Pfefferle, began his career at the Neuhauser mosaic workshop in Innsbruck before opening his own studio. Her grandfather, also named Josef Pfefferle, worked for the “Tiroler Glasmalerei- und Mosaikanstalt,” and translated designs by Tyrolean artists into mosaics. In 2011, Malu Storch and Michael Satlow opened their workshop “Mosaik Spechte” in Carinthia. Besides creating new mosaics and restoring existing ones, she is interested in the history of mosaics from Tyrol.

 

3:45–4:15 pm – Anna Caterino & Marco Santi (Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna)

Stone, City, Paper: Living Mosaic Practice Between Heritage and Responsibility

This contribution proposes a perspective grounded not only in historical or theoretical analysis but in living artistic practice, presenting the experience of Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna as a collective testimony of contemporary mosaic making within the historical city traditionally considered the capital of mosaic art.

The mosaic exists simultaneously as stone, city, and paper. As stone, it embodies a resilient yet vulnerable material culture whose longevity depends on technical knowledge, craftsmanship, and conservation ethics. As city, mosaic interacts with public space, architecture, and collective identity, continuously renegotiating its meaning in changing political, social, and cultural contexts. As paper, it survives through preparatory cartoons, archival documentation, restoration records, and educational transmission, revealing the invisible processes behind visible heritage.

Through case studies, workshop experiences, restoration collaborations, and artistic projects, the Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna will present how contemporary mosaicists confront the notion of “problematic heritage.” Mosaics often carry ideological layers, historical stratifications, and conservation dilemmas: they may function as art, propaganda, memory, or contested symbol depending on time and interpretation. Rather than treating mosaics as static relics, this paper argues for understanding them as active cultural agents, whose meaning is continuously redefined through making, restoring, teaching, and inhabiting urban space. The testimony of practitioners highlights the essential role of artisans and artists in mediating between past and present, preservation and transformation.

By bringing the voice of makers into academic discourse, the presentation aims to bridge theory and practice, proposing the mosaic workshop itself as a site where material knowledge, urban heritage, and archival memory converge, transforming a “problematic inheritance” into a shared and living cultural responsibility.

Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna, founded in 1947, is a historic company specialising in cultural heritage restoration and contemporary mosaic art. Reconstituted in 2008 under artist and restorer Marco Santi, it brings together highly specialised professionals trained at leading Italian academies and universities. Operating across Italy and internationally, notable projects include the Basilica di Sant’Apollinare in Classe and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The Group is also active in cultural cooperation initiatives in Jordan. Marco Santi teaches mosaic restoration at the University of Bologna, at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Ravenna and at the Accademia Belle Arti Macerata.

 

 

9:15–9:45 am – Registration

 

9:45–10:15 am – Brigitta Maria Kürtösi

Mosaic, emigration, identity. Research on the mosaic of Sister Antonia, Erzsébet Moullion in Toronto

In 1950, as a result of the political situation, all religious orders in Hungary were banned and disbanded, including the Society of School Sisters of Kalocsa, a female order that worked to educate girls from poor families. The young Erzsébet Moullion had chosen the life of a Catholic nun and believed that art was a useful tool for education. She graduated as an art teacher from what is now the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest, and later continued her studies with a fellow member of her order in Vienna. Under political pressure, the two decided to emigrate to Canada at the invitation of her younger brother, Monsignor Koloman Moullion, to decorate the German church he had founded in Windsor for Danube-Swabian immigrants. Only overseas did Sister Antonia begin working with mosaics. From Windsor she moved to Toronto, where she continued her community work and mosaic art. One of her works is the large outdoor composition of St. Elizabeth of Hungary for the Roman Catholic Church. The composition was created in 1974 and was moved from the original building to the façade of the new Hungarian church in 1985. Because of the outdoor conditions and technical problems, further damage occurred. Ongoing research and restoration have become urgent, not only because of the mosaic’s general condition but also because of the deep affection the present Hungarian community has for it. It is an excellent example of how a mosaic can become a symbol and testimony of freedom and patriotism.

Brigitta Maria Kürtösi graduated as a painting conservator (MA) and completed her doctoral studies (DLA) in Archaeometry of Roman and Medieval excavated mosaic finds at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary. She is an Associate Professor at the same institute and also teaches at Pázmány Péter Catholic University within the Doctoral School of History. She has been active in the field of mosaic conservation, restoration and art for over 25 years. Her academic work covers both theory and hands-on training in mural paintings and mosaics. She is actively involved in the study and research of modern mosaic heritage in Central Europe. She initiated and led the organization of the 6th SEE Mosaics Meeting “Mosaics from the 1900s: Modern Materials, New Problems in Focus” in Budapest. Since 2025, she is a board member of ICCM and she has served as Vice President of the Association of Hungarian Restorers.

 

10:15–10:45 am – Frédéric Lemaire

Socialist Mosaics Through the Eyes of a Traveller

This paper examines socialist-era mosaics across the former Eastern Bloc from the perspective of long-term field observation combined with independent digital research. While often treated as decorative remnants of a bygone political system, these works constitute a coherent layer of monumental public art that shaped urban and rural environments throughout the socialist period.

Based on two decades of travel across fourteen former Soviet republics and several satellite states, the paper analyses regional distribution, thematic frameworks, stylistic tendencies, and current preservation conditions of socialist mosaics. Commissioned by the state, mosaics functioned as instruments of ideological representation, celebrating labour, science, space conquest, education, folklore, and collective identity. At the same time, they incorporated local motives, creating hybrid visual languages that connected central political narratives with regional culture.

The research combines on-site documentation with remote investigation using archival materials, mapping tools, and social media-based image tracking. This dual approach reveals significant regional differences: while countries such as Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova retain dense concentrations of mosaics, in the Baltic states and parts of Central Europe other monumental techniques prevailed.

The paper further addresses the vulnerability of this heritage in the context of war, decommunization policies, economic transition, and rapid urban development. By situating socialist mosaics within broader debates on memory politics and urban transformation, the contribution argues for their recognition as a significant component of twentieth-century monumental art and post-socialist cultural heritage.

Frédéric Lemaire is a French mosaic enthusiast and independent researcher who has spent over 20 years travelling across the former Eastern Bloc. It was in 2016, during a trip to Georgia, that he began focusing specifically on mosaics. Since then, his travels have been driven primarily by the search for these works of art. Frédéric’s mission is to document every artwork he encounters, preserving a record of pieces that are disappearing at an alarming rate. Through this quest, he has developed a deep artistic sensibility alongside a broad knowledge base built from firsthand observation, published research, and an extensive network of fellow enthusiasts and experts.

 

10:45–11:15 am – Coffee break

 

11:15–11:45 – Veronika Vicherková

Glass in Architecture: Between Technology and Ideology

After World War II, social and political changes in Czechoslovakia led to a new emphasis on the role of art in architecture. The 1950s were a period of deep upheaval. On one hand, the state introduced radical and often destructive reorganizations of artistic life to ensure it followed strict ideological rules. On the other hand, this pressure forced a new connection between artists and nationalized industry, creating unique opportunities for large-scale projects.

This paper focuses on a crucial development: the establishment of the “Research and Development Center” at the glassmaking school in Železný Brod. This center became a laboratory for innovation, moving beyond traditional teaching to focus on experimental creation. It was here that the first works of experimental melted glass sculpture (tavená plastika) were created. The center acted as a bridge between art and technology, focusing on the “pre-production” of architectural elements designed specifically for modern buildings.

The staff and artists at the center had to develop entirely new technological processes, such as innovative casting and melting techniques. These methods allowed glass to be used on a monumental scale, meeting the structural demands of architecture. Finally, we examine how these works served as a tool for ideological coding. In new public buildings, glass was used to communicate the values of the socialist state. By looking at specific examples, we show how this research center transformed glass from a craft object into a defining element of post-war architectural identity.

Veronika Vicherková is an architectural historian specialising in 20th-century architecture. Her research focuses on political, social and cultural contexts, as well as the broader forces that shape the built environment around us. Vicherková has a long-standing interest in the relationship between visual art and architecture, with mosaics serving as the starting point for much of her research in this field. Her work encompasses cultural heritage preservation, heritage care, and the documentation and interpretation of modern architecture. Vicherková is particularly interested in sustainability and the question of how existing buildings can be protected, sensitively adapted, and meaningfully integrated into contemporary society. Civic engagement and the active involvement of both experts and the public in safeguarding architectural and cultural values are central to her approach. Her broader interests include circularity, adaptive reuse, and low-tech ecological solutions.

 

11:45–12:15 am – Sven Eggers

The Interrogation of Power – Conditions of mosaic art production in the socialist society

How was artists’ work organised when it comes to art production in the scale of the urban in a Socialist society?

By looking into art production enterprises, art agencies, and state art commissioners of GDR we search for conditions for withstanding power relations and transforming public space. How did monuments’ production, if efficacious, interrelate with society’s needs and demands? Is Mosaic Art an Art to show the whole picture?

Sven Eggers is consulting architect for the restoration of landmarked modern monuments. He taught at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, TAIKE, University of Ulster Belfast, SYH. He lectures on international symposia (e.g. “cinema foyers as urban type” at ISGV 2020) and lead the conference “Shoa in the Baltics“ and “models of urban planning” at NGBK. His “Heritage of the Socialist City” was at the Venice Biennale 2021. He designed exhibitions at Victoria & Albert London, Haus der Kunst, Berlin Biennale, MoMA and curated the 2006 Normalnull exhibition in Berlin (catalogue) and “Kawiarnia Europa” in Lodz, both with Hofter; invited architect at Wall House, Groningen. With Moré Arquitectos he designed the High Court of Justice of the Dominican Republic. He was cinema director, in programme commissions and juries of international film festivals, chief editor of magazine 1:1. He is a member of the Society of Construction History and of the Society of New Phenomenology.

 

12:15 am –1:15 pm – Lunch

 

1:15–1:45 pm – Lubava Illyenko

Ukrainian Soviet Mosaics through a Postcolonial Lens

In Ukraine, Soviet-era mosaics formed a major part of the architectural heritage. Between the 1960s and 1990s, monumental decoration was produced on such a scale that it created a vast corpus of mosaic art, varied in materials, technique, style, and theme. Perceptions of this legacy have shifted dramatically over the past thirty-five years—from neglect in the early years of independence, through partial destruction during decommunization, to recent use within decolonization efforts. The history is equally fraught from a postcolonial perspective. While mosaic-making revived in Moscow during the 1920s–30s (notably the Lenin Mausoleum and Palace of Soviets), Ukraine suffered major cultural losses: in 1937 Soviet authorities demolished Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, a cradle of Kyivan Rus mosaic tradition, while modernist movements like the Mykhailo Boychuk school were suppressed. Post-war mosaic production, centralized through the Artists’ Unions and Art Funds, served state propaganda promoting idealized Soviet values and was subject to censorship. Yet the medium’s physical qualities—its materials, scale, and role in shaping urban space—pushed artists toward visual innovation, often yielding experimental or nationally-inspired work. Some pieces survived censorship; others, deemed “formalist” or “nationalist,” were destroyed (e.g., Alla Horska’s stained-glass Shevchenko. Mother, and Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko’s Wall of Memory). Artists faced persecution, from institutional expulsion to KGB violence, as in Horska’s murder. Despite this, many Ukrainian artists pursued creative autonomy, forging a visual language beyond Soviet canon. Today, as Ukraine works to dismantle Russian colonial narratives amid its fight for sovereignty, these mosaics hold renewed value.

Lubava Illyenko is a Ukrainian art historian and provenance researcher based in Germany. Her doctoral research at the University of Augsburg examines Ukrainian Soviet mosaics from the 1960s to the 1980s. Her broader work engages with Soviet monumental heritage in Ukraine more generally—including political monuments and statuary of the same period—and questions its preservation. Since 2022, her research has expanded to encompass the translocation and expropriation of Ukrainian cultural assets. Lubava previously worked at Izolyatsia, Platform of Cultural Initiatives, in Donetsk and Kyiv, and is co-founder of the open online archive of Ukrainian Soviet mosaics, www.sovietmosaicsinukraine.org.

 

1:45–2:15 pm – Nikoleta Bukovská

The Rise and Fall of Glass Mosaics in Slovakia

This article traces the development of glass mosaics in 20th-century Slovak architecture and monumental art, from their heyday to their current inevitable decline. It presents various ways in which glass mosaic has been used, ranging from façade cladding on significant architectural projects (V. Karfík, V. Dedeček) through monumental artworks (D. Castiglione, M. Šimurda), to its widespread use in standardised housing developments, which has had a negative impact on the public’s perception of it. In conclusion, he draws attention to the gradual disappearance of glass mosaic works from public spaces as a result of thermal insulation, and to the need to protect them as a valuable part of our cultural heritage.

Nikoleta Bukovská is an art historian and curator. She studied the history of fine art at Comenius University in Bratislava and the theory of contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. Her professional work focuses primarily on art in public spaces, sculpture and artistic interventions in architecture. She currently works at the Bratislava City Gallery, where, as part of the ‘Art of the City of Bratislava’ project (www.umeniemesta.sk), she is engaged in the research and interpretation of art in public spaces.

 

 

Special thanks go to Preciosa Ornela, which has revived the production of Czech glass mosaics after many years and is thus making a significant contribution to preserving this unique tradition. We also thank the company for supporting our seminar and for helping to keep the art of mosaic alive for future generations.