The thesis focuses on extending collecting activities across the Czech lands and the associated founding of the first institutions of museum and gallery character. The first part deals with Společnost vlasteneckých přátel umění (The Society of Patriotic Friends of Art) and its founders and supporters, which is followed by a chapter concerning collectors and patrons in Bohemia and Moravia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The second part of the thesis deals with the area of South Bohemia, České Budějovice in particular, with one chapter devoted to the South Bohemian Museum. The author mainly focuses on the origins, history and significant personalities associated with its operation. The subsequent sections deal with two major natives of Ceske Budejovice and its surroundings, an industrialist Vojtech Lanna, later acting in Prague, and a businessman and a politician August Zátka, who, thanks to his social activities played an important role in the early days of collecting and patronal activities of the Zátka family.

This dissertation is about the tension and continuum between localism and nationalism in contemporary Thai Buddhist art and architecture. It deals with two contemporary Buddhist temples as works of art and architecture set into particular spatial relations. In this dissertation I compare two contemporary neo-traditionalist Buddhist temples, Wat Rong Khun and Wat Pa’O Ram Yen, situated near the city of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. Neo-traditionalism has been identified as an important and relatively standard artistic style in Thailand since the 1970’s. However, the social anxiety experienced during the 1970’s social uprisings, then following the 1997 Asian financial debacle and more recently during and after the early 21st century yellow and red shirts rallies in Bangkok and Chiang Mai led to a profound reevaluation and reassessment of Thai national identity formation. Many Buddhist, social, ecological and political movements have since either obviously or subtly destabilized the perceived Thai national image. These movements often include, even promote, discourses on localism where Thai nationalism is experienced, questioned and adapted by and for the local community. Yet the art historical discourses on neo-traditionalism still follow a conventional national identity formation and visual propaganda. In this dissertation I analyze how two northern temples promote different national vocabularies, from a centralized and more accepted nationalism, to one where concepts based on localism, such as local knowledge, have the potential to destabilize and reevaluate, national identity, without negating it. Charlermchai Kostipipat is the mastermind behind Wat Rong Khun’s design and construction. Though this temple seems to differ from other temples in Thailand, I will show how the main emphasis of this neo-traditional monument is to promote and support a more conventional and institutionalized version of national identity. I will show how the visitor’s aesthetic experience emphasizes aspects of Buddhism also promoted by the centralized Thai national identity formation. Most importantly, there is a strong artistic emphasis on the Traiphum Phra Ruang, an important religious text in Thailand. Wat Pa’O is also the artistic project of another northern Thai artist, this time Somluk Pantiboon, a ceramicist established in the village of Pa’O. The temple of Pa’O is a neo-traditional work because of its use of traditional media, artistic details and monastic conventions. Yet I will show how this artistic architectural project has the potential to destabilize the more conventional understanding of ‘neo-traditionalism.’ For example it promotes different elements of the Thai discourses on localism, including an engaged form of Buddhism focusing on social interactions and an acknowledgement of one’s relation to others at the immediate local level. It also promotes a connectedness with nature, allowing the participant to experience and realize dependent origination by observing and experimenting with nature. This dissertation shows the complexity of Thai national identity negotiated in two case studies of northern Buddhist art and architecture in a post-1997 financial debacle and current political situation. I hope to have demonstrated that this complexity needs to be taken into account in the artistic discourses on Thai neo-traditionalism.

This Thesis is a contribution to the research of Entrepreneurship and its impact on process of historical change. The paper focuses on life and career of the South Bohemian Entrepreneur, Industrialist and Patron Vojtěch (Adalbert) Lanna. By examining his life it is possible to explore wider social processes leading to fundamental social change, based on switching from feudal to modern arrangement of state and society. Vojtěch Lanna begins his career, like many of his ancestors, as a salt carrier. Later he manages to run his own business, based on river transportation and water engineering, which allowes him to accumulate enough capital to enter other industrial sectors. During his later life he participates on to the construction of railways, later he focuses on coal mining. His biggest achievements is building of modern ironworks named Vojtěšská huť. Throughout his life he runs many other business that are related to his main lifelong activities. He is also known for his charity and a humane approach. He supports education, music and art. His life and his business activities is a reflection of the economic development of the first half and the beginning of the second half of 19th century.

Esta tese se dedica à análise dos filmes: A vida provisória (1968), de Maurício Gomes Leite; Sagrada família (1970), de Sylvio Lanna; Crioulo doido (1970), de Carlos Alberto Prates Correia e Perdidos e malditos (1970), de Geraldo Veloso, com o objetivo de compreender uma questão central apresentada por essas obras: na virada dos anos de 1968/1970, para pensar o Brasil seria necessário voltar a Minas Gerais, mesmo no limite de sua negação física. Seus diretores partem de uma formação comum: o cineclubismo vivido no Centro de Estudos Cinematográficos de Minas Gerais (CEC) e o exercício da crítica cinematográfica desenvolvida na Revista de Cinema e em jornais diários na cidade de Belo Horizonte. A migração para o Rio de Janeiro, ocorrida na década de 1960, e a formação profissional nessa nova cidade, marca a história de todos esses realizadores, bem como imprime aos filmes perspectivas que, segundo nossa análise, criam trânsitos sinuosos entre os dois maiores movimentos do cinema moderno brasileiro: o Cinema Novo e o Cinema Marginal. / This thesis is dedicated to the analysis of the films: A vida provisória (1968), by Maurício Gomes Leite; Sagrada família (1970), by Sylvio Lanna; Crioulo doido (1970), by Carlos Alberto Prates Correia and Perdidos e malditos (1970), by Geraldo Veloso, aiming to understand a central issue presented by these works: at the turn of the years 1968/1970, it would be necessary to return to Minas Gerais in order to think Brazil, even at the limit of the city\'s physical negation. These directors had a common background: the cinephilia exercised in the Centro de Estudos Cinematográficos from Minas Gerais (CEC), as well as the exercise of the film criticism developed in magazines and newspapers from its capital, Belo Horizonte, such as the Revista de Cinema. The migration to Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s and the professional formation in this new city marks the history of all these filmmakers, as well as the films which, according to our analysis, create sinuous transits between the two major movements of the Brazilian modern cinema: the Cinema Novo and the Cinema Marginal.

Depuis les années 1960, la couverture forestière de l’Asie du Sud-Est continentale a été réduite de plus du tiers. C’est également au début des années 1960 qu’une conscience environnementale s’est développée dans la région et plus particulièrement au Vietnam et en Thaïlande. Cette conscience environnementale associée à des intérêts commerciaux, à des questions politiques de « sécurité nationale » ainsi qu’à une croissance élevée de la population, a abouti, quelques années plus tard, à un développement considérable des réseaux d’aires protégées dans les différents pays de la région. Mis en place progressivement et principalement dans les régions montagneuses, ces parcs et réserves ont contribué, de façon plus au moins volontaire, à « coloniser » des espaces périphériques et donc à mieux les intégrer aux ensembles nationaux qui ne contrôlaient parfois pas du tout ces territoires il y a cinquante ans. En effet, à l’intérieur de la majorité des États, en particulier ceux d’Asie du Sud-Est continentale, des territoires sont éloignés des lieux où se prennent les décisions politiques et économiques; peuplés faiblement ou par des groupes ethniques différents, difficiles d’accès, ils apparaissent finalement comme des territoires périphériques et l’on peut dire qu’ils sont marginaux. L’hypothèse retenue dans le cadre de cette recherche est que la délimitation de territoires voués à la protection et à la conservation des forêts constitue, en Asie du Sud-Est, une réponse parmi d'autres face aux problèmes environnementaux mais également un outil d’intégration territoriale notamment des régions marginales. / Since the 1960’s, the forest cover of continental Southeast Asia was reduced by more than a third. From that time on, an environmental consciousness developed in the region, particularly in Vietnam and in Thailand. This environmental consciousness, in a context where trade interests, national security and population growth were all contributing to a specific socio-economic framework led, a few years later, to the development of a protected area system in all the countries. Set up gradually and mainly in the mountainous areas, these parks and reserves contributed to better integrate peripheral territories into national bodies; some of these territories were hardly controlled fifty years ago. Indeed, within the majority of the States, in particular those of continental Southeast Asia, some territories are far from the places where are taken the political and economic decisions; slightly populated or by different ethnic groups, difficult of access, they seem peripheral territories finally and one can say that they are marginal. The assumption behind this research is that, in Southeast Asia, the delineation of territories dedicated to forest protection and conservation constitutes, on the one hand, a response among others to solve what is considered an environmental problem but also, on the other hand, a tool for territorial integration, which is particularly efficient in marginal areas.