#2 Modernism.lt. Influences, Ideologies, Heritage
Fate of the last generation of ultra-modernist buildings in Eastern Europe under communist rule
Why the talk is inspiring?
David Crowley will explore the present fate of the last generation of ultra-modernist buildings in Eastern Europe under comunist rule.
Many of the most ambitious examples of modern architecture from the 1960s and 1970s in Eastern Europe now stand in ruins. The early years of the C21st saw prominent examples of socialist modernist architecture being destroyed (such as the Republik der Palast in Berlin or Supersam in Warsaw). These buildings were punished – in the most literal and spectacular fashion – for the sins of the regimes which built them. Their destruction was not uncontested: popular campaigns have been mounted to save prominent socmodernist buildings. At the same time, there has been a considerable reassessment of socmodernism on the part of artists and film makers and, to some extent, architects. What can the work of artist like David Majlkovic, Hubert Czerepok, Monika Sosnowska and Deimantas Narkevičius tell us about the landscapes of socialist modernity? What alternative dreams might be bound up in these ruins?
2010
Speaker
David Crowley (DB, PL)
How the speaker is exceptional?
Professor the Royal College of Art. His fields of interest are Eastern Europe in the C19th and C20th; aspects of cultural history with a particular focus on the way everyday objects are inscribed with ideology, Polish art and architectural history. David was one of the co-curators of the exhibition „Cold war modern, art and design 1945-1970“, presented at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as well at the NDG in Vilnius.
RECOMMENDS TO READ
The Future of Nostalgia
Svetlana Boym
Why the book is worth reading?
Boym presents a compelling argument for thinking about the relations of the past, present and future. Utopias are often strangely nostalgic, projecting into a future nirvana all the qualities of life that were once found in some halcyon past. Boym – a brilliant writer, originally from Russia – brings this insight to a set of vivid reflections about the legacy of Soviet socialism.
