Rahova
The presented project of a Czech artist David Možný is based on artist`s reserach and records taken in Rahova housing estate in Bucurest, Romania. The place is the epitome of urban utopia and its failure connected with the socialist past of the Central and Eastern European countries. Referring to Baudrillard`s definition of simulacra Možný, in a spatial installation and video projection, captures the mistakes of the mass production, simulation, imitation of classic architectonic components and their bizzare use in the pre-fabricated architecture of the 70`s of the 20th century. By means of a digital decomposition of an image, multiplications and combinations of its parts Možný recreates the harsh socialist reality of this housing estate and provides the viewer with a dreamy, even though a little bit apocalyptic, vision of – maybe the near future.
Projekt českého umelca Davida Možného vychádza z umelcovho výskumu panelového sídliska Rahova v Bukurešti v Rumunsku, ktoré je stelesnením urbanistickej utópie a zlyhania smutne spojenými so socialistickou minulosťou stredo a východoeurópskych krajín.
- The project is named Rahova00:00:14.348
- 00:00:14.348
- after a housing estate in Bucharest.00:00:17.936
- 00:00:17.936
- I work with the theme of urban spaces00:00:22.819
- 00:00:22.819
- that stand apart from the structure of the city.00:00:28.397
- 00:00:28.397
- Michel Foucault calls it heterotopia.00:00:34.117
- 00:00:34.117
- A few years ago00:00:38.223
- 00:00:38.223
- I helped organizing an exhibition in Bucharest.00:00:40.723
- 00:00:40.723
- Before I went there I looked at some satellite photos00:00:45.406
- 00:00:45.406
- and I saw that several areas in Bucharest00:00:51.773
- 00:00:51.773
- were completely different00:00:56.755
- 00:00:56.755
- from the overall structure of the city.00:00:59.886
- 00:00:59.886
- So after I came to the city I visited those areas00:01:04.502
- 00:01:04.502
- to see what they looked like in reality.00:01:10.046
- 00:01:10.046
- And I was fascinated by this housing estate.00:01:15.816
- 00:01:15.816
- I realized that it resulted00:01:24.685
- 00:01:24.685
- from the combination of several phenomena.00:01:28.324
- 00:01:28.324
- First, it represents the dead end00:01:35.357
- 00:01:35.357
- of a certain type of urbanism,00:01:40.864
- 00:01:40.864
- of the social ideas developing since the 1930's.00:01:45.315
- 00:01:45.315
- Rahova is a material proof00:01:56.345
- 00:01:56.345
- that this idea came to an end00:02:04.251
- 00:02:04.251
- and transformed into something else.00:02:10.790
- 00:02:10.790
- The utopia became a heterotopia,00:02:15.195
- 00:02:15.195
- a city without the elements normally expected in a city.00:02:19.261
- 00:02:19.261
- One of the expected elements is a supply structure00:02:26.949
- 00:02:26.949
- comprising shops etc, which is absent from Rahova.00:02:33.693
- 00:02:33.693
- It's just a housing machine.00:02:39.034
- 00:02:39.034
- I was fascinated00:02:42.454
- 00:02:42.454
- by this housing machine people built for themselves00:02:45.454
- 00:02:45.454
- without thinking about its viability.00:02:51.067
- 00:02:51.067
- I'm interested in digital video and animations.00:02:54.640
- 00:02:54.640
- At the time when I was in Rahova I did a certain type of animations.00:03:00.211
- 00:03:00.211
- And I thought Rahova was great material for my animations.00:03:06.176
- 00:03:06.176
- I didn't care about the social context,00:03:11.862
- 00:03:11.862
- only about the appearance, the gray concrete,00:03:15.909
- 00:03:15.909
- and the uniform architecture on a mass scale.00:03:21.192
- 00:03:21.192
- It's a natural continuation00:03:36.622
- 00:03:36.622
- of my interest in heterotopias,00:03:40.060
- 00:03:40.060
- in spaces differing from the structures they exist in.00:03:43.721
- 00:03:43.721
- The video and the installation you can see here00:03:51.545
- 00:03:51.545
- speak little of the real situation.00:03:56.391
- 00:03:56.391
- In reality the whole estate looks a bit different.00:04:00.150
- 00:04:00.150
- I shifted the reality00:04:05.346
- 00:04:05.346
- towards a film-like appearance00:04:09.705
- 00:04:09.705
- or an apocalyptic vision.00:04:15.052
- 00:04:15.052
- However, the housing estate is not apocalyptic,00:04:18.943
- 00:04:18.943
- there's normal life, no social segregation.00:04:23.486
- 00:04:23.486
- I just thought it was a good idea00:04:30.482
- 00:04:30.482
- to create a vision of an apocalypse00:04:35.313
- 00:04:35.313
- people made for themselves and now they have to live with it.00:04:39.313