Preparing a publication on the history of the institution
Zuzana Dedík Šidlíková
If you were to have asked artificial intelligence (AI) in 2023 when and why the Centre for Folk Art Production (ÚĽUV) was founded, the answer would have been a confirmation that it was high time to carry out a research project focusing on the history of the institution. AI had an erroneous date in its database, and defined its activity as covering exclusively the territory of Slovakia. It apparently never existed in the Czech Republic. It is important to note that a similar discourse reigns among the lay public even today. In the Czech Republic, the extinction of the collective memory of this institution is the result of its liquidation in the mid-1990s, linked to rapid social change and problematic privatisation. In Slovakia, ÚĽUV overcame the post-revolution turbulence and set itself new goals.