The PhD research focus on an unexplored relationship between the Zurich Dada group in 1916 and the ‘Nature Apostles' community of Monte Verita in Ascona, Switzerland. Researching activities of Zurich Dada and Monte Verita and their mutual ideas as developed in the context of the First World War and the decade of the 1910s, further proposes a questioning of their contribution to the progressive elements in art and the re-thinking of avant-garde narratives of 1910s Europe. It is the aim of this research to accurately historicise the formation of the cultural avant-garde that were blossoming in that decade and the next. A historical lens will draw upon archives that embody and document the activities of both Monte Verita in Ascona and Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. In analyzing of existing academic literature, I wish to bring expertise across the cultural and social studies in order to make sense of the early 20th century avant-garde and how they interact within the field of history of art alone.
After completing my BA History of Art, Design and Film dissertation 'The Power of the Dissidents: Reconfiguring the Avant-Garde in 1960s Slovakia' (2015) at Kingston University in Surrey, I continued with my MA studies at the same faculty and having successfully accomplished the course in 2016 writing a comparative dissertation about fumist humour and avant-garde in fin-de-siecle-Paris and Dada in Zurich, I worked as research assistant to my academic tutor, Profesor David Cottington, specialist in 20th and 21st century artistic avant-gardes, and consequently applied for PhD at Kingston School of Art, where I'm currently enrolled in my fourth year of the part-time course, researching histories of living communities in Switzerland during the First World War, their relationship and significance for Dada group in Zurich and potential re-thinking of Avant-Garde narratives in 1910s Europe. I'm currently in the process of writing up the thesis.