This research project investigated radical historical and contemporary avant-garde art practices that combine cooperative actions with theoretical reflection in order to generate artistic intervention. The project’s examination of these subjects showed how practices and theoretical concepts relate to each other when implemented. The previous focus of avant-garde-related research on manifestos and procedures is thus redirected towards practice theory and praxeology, which allowed for a better grasp of the embedment of aesthetic programmes in dramaturgies of action as well as their social reach.

The focus was on Central-Eastern Europe, although Italy's Futurists made an occasional appearance, as these avant-garde “pioneers” made a particular impact through their activities. International anarchism is also seen as a “missing link” between the theory and practice of the various avant-garde movements. Through the state-initiated centralization of the arts in the 1930s, these alliances lost their practical draft-like nature, were weakened, and were either destroyed or pushed into the private sphere, but have experienced renewal at the beginning of the 21st century via modern-day protest art.