Zuzu Hudek

Zuzu Hudek completed her Master’s degree in scenography at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (SK), spent a year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (PL) and completed two years of postgraduate studies at the Frank Mohr Instituut in Groningen (NL). During her career Zuzu Hudek applied for several grants to create small independent projects and art installations where she proved herself for being a writer, director and artist at the same time. Nowadays she works as a freelancer in stage and costume design, teaches art lessons and leads different creative workshops for youngsters, students, professionals and amateurs. Zuzu Hudek works as a president for Slovak OISTAT centre PRO SCENA and is a member of the OISTAT costume design group. Zuzu is a doctoral student at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, research field Costume Design. 

Zuzu’s doctoral research project is titled “Active Costume: An interdisciplinary study of costume as performative and spatial agent in contemporary theatre”. This research investigates costume as a central catalyst in contemporary theatre, redefining it as an active, performative, and spatial agent that generates new dramaturgical possibilities. The project opens new horizons and dissolves boundaries between artistic disciplines, offering fresh methodologies for performance-making. Although some practitioners have begun to develop ‘Insubordinate costumes’ (Marshall, 2025) as a means of articulating individuality and creativity, there is still a notable lack of collaborators in dramaturgy, choreography, and directing who are trained to engage with materials, objects, and costumes as integral elements of creation. My current doctoral research focuses on developing an interdisciplinary toolkit and methodology through practice-based research, international workshops, and collaborative experiments. This research challenges conventional hierarchies and directly responds to contemporary needs in both scholarship and artistic practice, offering a transformative vision for the role of costume in the future of theatre.