Artlist.cz was created as a non-profit project of the Center for Contemporary Art Prague and was launched in 2006. Artlist is a database that maps the development of contemporary Czech art in its various manifestations (artists, spaces, concepts, exhibitions, etc.) from the mid-20th century, with special emphasis on the period after 1989, and it contains valuable information about many artists who worked in Czechoslovakia during the communist era. The database aims to serve as a free resource not only for professionals, but also for the public, both local and international - the database is systematically built in both Czech and English. Artlist is also intended to be a selection database. Every expert representation of individual passwords is decided by a professional council composed of theoreticians and art historians, represented by the editorial board. Membership in the editorial board has a limited term of three years. The main emphasis in the creation of the database is on the image and documentation, which should be user-friendly, and everyone should be able to quickly orientate themselves in the database. The aim is also for the database to document the current projects and creations of a younger generation of artists.
Artlist does not seek to be an encyclopaedia of contemporary Czech art, but rather a moderated signpost and a report on the development and current forms of art in the Czech Republic. The database is still in development and is far from complete. The public has the ability to nominate artists for inclusion in the database. These suggestions are always discussed by the editorial board.
The Artlist database is useful for the study of cultural dissent, and also because it makes accessible information about artists who worked in the former Czechoslovakia, systematically and in one place, together with information on their activities, artistic creations and often also includes an example of their work and references for more information and literature. Artists included in Artlist were often active even during socialism. The collection thus includes profiles of nonconformist artists and dissidents who were more or less openly critical of official culture and state socialism.
The history of Artlist dates back to the 1990s. The Soros Center for Contemporary Art was founded in 1992 and one of the Center's projects was the documentation of contemporary Czech art. This was done according to the pattern of Artispace, a New York organization, in two ways: firstly by using Artisfiles, where each artist could provide documentation (information about himself as an artist, information about his works, exhibitions, etc.), and secondly by providing detailed documentation of Czech artists, created by experts. And it was clear that if the necessary technique became available, all this documentation would become electronic. After some time, between 2005 and 2006, the Center tried to put everything in electronic form. Nowadays, the electronic form is basically a questionnaire that is somewhat unified. Previously, processing was somewhat looser. From the beginning, the documentation progressed slowly, mainly due to financial issues, and the Center was able to process about a dozen profiles a year.
Artlist's content is constantly being refreshed and is currently focused on new and young artists, as well as adding interesting locations. It is, for example, devoted to galleries that do not exist anymore, but played an important role in their time, such as the Gallery Na Bidýlku in Brno, etc. In 2016, an active collaboration with the Artyčok internet art platform began, and artists' profiles in Artlist began to be linked to their video profile in the Artyčok database, where, for example, there was footage from exhibitions.
