Zuzana Dedík Šidlíková
If you had asked artificial intelligence in 2023 when and why the Centre for Folk Art Production (ÚĽUV) was established, the answer would have confirmed it was about time to carry out a research project focusing on the history of this institution. Artificial intelligence had an incorrect date in its database and defined its territorial activity as covering only Slovakia. It apparently never existed in the Czech Republic. We have to note that a similar opinion is still prevalent among the general public today. In the Czech Republic, the disappearance of the collective memory of this institution is the result of its closure in the mid-1990s, linked to rapid social change and a problematic privatisation. In Slovakia, ÚĽUV overcame the turbulence of the post-revolutionary period, and set itself new objectives.
In 2025, ÚĽUV is celebrating the 80th anniversary of its foundation, which is why preparing a publication became an important challenge. The decision to prepare a concept which would map out its history from its foundation until the revolutionary year of 1989, not only within Slovakia, but also as a Czecho-Slovak institution was a crucial one.