Relics of Socialist Architecture
The project Relics of Socialist Architecture is a series of short experimental-documentary films featuring the most significant relics of socialist architecture in selected cities of the former Soviet Bloc. The final video-art format uses split-screens combining both actual and archival film footage of roughly five minutes length for each of the selected topics. The moving pictures of the architectural objects in focus are underscored by original music soundtracks based on communist songs, and audio of speeches by communist leaders and other important figures “mashed-up” into a contemporary electronic music composition. The scenes are accompanied by inserts of some of the crucial historical events in various Soviet Bloc countries from the Second World War up to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The film is based on the premise that socialist architecture is not necessarily insignificant because it was built under the communist regime and that it may possess its own important historical value. Many of the remarkable buildings have been destroyed because of a perceived association with a hated regime, but some of them are memorable pieces of architecture, witnesses of the era, and should be preserved.