Architekton
The imaginative built structures from a GDR panel building construction kit work like sketches, they seem unstable and unfinished. These places of longing not only break with norms, but also create projection surfaces. The photographs call for more awareness of complexity and diversity and at the same time they seem like fragments of a possible different future.
Soviet ideology permeated every area of life, and the state also had clear ideas for housing construction. The kleine Großblock Baumeister was designed to give kids an understanding of construction in a playful way.
The set, designed in the late 1950s, contains all the parts needed to design a prefabricated housing estate: light square panels, narrow walls, blue intermediate strips, shop windows, revolving doors and balconies.
They correspond to the characteristic architecture of the time - clear, neat, functional. I played with it myself as a child and I still remember the little umbrellas and tiny flowerpots that broke up the monotony of the city blocks. When I rediscovered the boxes of the building set in my grandparents' house, I wondered why I had obediently followed the usual construction methods when playing back then. "Instead of the building models shown in the picture, let your imagination run wild, you're bright!" it says in the building instructions. I take this hint literally and make the building elements float in front of my large format camera: the models seem to dissolve and reassemble, they transform into skyscrapers, sprawling rooms, endless dwellings.
In my work Architekton I loosely quote utopian architectural design of the twentieth century and create models that represent a deliberated approach towards the system. These places of longing create spaces of imagination and projection surfaces.
Exhibition views
Photo: kunzten
