Post-Communist Aesthetics: Revolutions, Capitalism, Violence by Anca M. Pusca

Author:Anca M. Pusca [Pusca, Anca M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317360650
Google: 16PhCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-11-06T12:41:24+00:00

Photo 3.2 Metal Scrapping Hunedoara

Tamas Dezso, Romanian–Hungarian Photographer

As part of a larger movement that advocates the preservation of old industrial buildings as part of Romania’s industrial patrimony, a group of photographers supported by Igloo Press published a catalogue of photographs focusing on industrial ruins entitled Kombinat (2007). The word carries particular connotations, signalling the informal way in which workers addressed the industrial plants where they worked: Combinat. The ‘K’ is both ironic as well as ‘hip’, signalling a clear shift in the way in which these industrial spaces are treated. The album contains a combination of photos from the largest industrial plants within Romania – including Hunedoara – as well as a series of essays discussing the symbolism and possible future uses of these spaces. As Bruno Andresoiu explains, the album is clearly critical of communism as an ideology that had a particular impact on Romania’s built environment as well as society at large:

Kombinat is not only a different way of spelling the name given to large industrial platforms – combinate – but also the name that we chose to give to this bizarre world of industrial ruins, of concrete and iron monsters in decay, of forbidden sites of the now dead socialist economy. Perhaps the most somber built expression of a criminal ideology, Kombinat illustrates the violent destruction of a society in the name of ideology. Kombinat: Industrial Ruins of a Golden Era is also a collection of images from some of these industrial sites whose abandonment led not only to an advanced state of ruin of their built components but also of the society surrounding them.

(Andresoiu 2007)

The album however goes beyond a simple critique of communism. In fact, the images speak a different language from the essays: the critique of communism is far less obvious in the pleasing black and white aesthetics of the half built and half ruined. The spaces are not mourned, saddened or even perceived as an environmental threat. Instead, the photographs focus on unexpected symmetries and asymmetries created by the collapse and transformation of different materials, as well as on the refreshing possibility of wide-open vistas that register no human presence. The ruins seem to have a positive emotional and aesthetic appeal, similar perhaps to that of natural landscapes.

The essays accompanying the volume reinforce this optimism by arguing that new uses for these industrial sites are not only possible but can also help regenerate communities culturally, socially, economically and politically. Other successful transitions from former industrial sites to museums and commercial spaces provide important inspiration, such as London’s TATE Modern, Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry or Saint-Maurice, Canada’s the Forges Du Saint-Maurice. Proposals to preserve entire industrial or historical cities, such as downtown Detroit or Rhyolite, Nevada offer even more ambitious perspectives, suggesting a possible merging of everyday spaces with museumised spaces. These proposals, although perhaps unrealistic as far as the Hunedoara Ironworks are concerned, have opened up new critical spaces of discussion and imagination, with young architecture students working on would-be plans for the Ironworks.

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