Faces of Rurban Mobility of Artists in Slovakia

Rurbanizaton is often being considered in the context of rurban policy with the aim of rural development. It represents a chance for revitalization of countryside by introducing some of the urban features, while at the same time preserving the rural ones. In the conditions of highly industrialized and urbanized countries, mobility of the urban population to the countryside shows various forms and functions. One of the vectors of this mobility is also the mobility of artists from the city to rural areas, which serves as a source of inspiration for artists, but also as a stimulation for overall process of rurbanization.

Our paper aims for mapping the trend of mobility of artists in Slovakia who moved from urban to rural area, and for comparing this trend with the situation in other countries. We are looking for answers to the questions of what are the artists' motives for leaving the city and moving to countryside, if and how mobility affects the manner of artistic creation, nature of works of art (topics, genres), ways of distribution of works of art, and its reception. We pay particular attention to mobility of artists in Slovakia from the point of view of post-socialist transitions. Methodologically, the technique applied is semi-structured interviews with visual artists, whose mobility seems to be the most visible among diverse artistic professions at present. Mapping of artists' mobility from city to village allows us to identify more concrete processes of changing social contexts, and vice versa, to see how the mobility of artists is reflected in the processes of rurbanization. The comparison of different geographical localities permits to see local particularities of rurbanization.