Archives and documentation of performance art: at the intersection between history and myth.

The PhD thesis deals with the role of archives in the contemporary artistic and curatorial practice, with an emphasis on the performance art. It also analyses the creation process, methodology and the contents of selected personal and institutional archives in both Czech and international contexts. The objective of the paper is to answer the following questions: In what way is the documentation and subsequent archiving of process-oriented forms of art performed? How is the history of the contemporary art formed and interpreted through these archives and with the help of the artistic and curatorial practice? To what extent are we able to reconstruct the history from records and performance documents that are only fragmented, thus making a reference to a real action? Do the archives leave some room for misinterpretation, creating a myth or personality cult through its system of classification of knowledge? How indeed is the performance art related to its own history; how is this history perceived by the performer alone; and how is it approached by the professional audience? The paper will also include the analysis of current state and possible solutions to the operation of the archive of the Faculty of Fine Arts, which is related to opening a dialogue among artists, theorists and institutions that might be interested in better accessibility of such an archive