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COSMIC COMMUNIST CONSTRUCTIONS PHOTOGRAPHED
Frederic Chaubin
Taschen, 2010
Hardcover
312 pages
Fully illustrated, colour
ISBN: 9783836525190
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| Excluding GST A$90.00 |
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A$99.00 |
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Photographer Frédéric Chaubin reveals 90 buildings sited in fourteen former Soviet Republics which express what he considers to be the fourth age of Soviet architecture.
His poetic pictures reveal an unexpected rebirth of imagination, an unknown burgeoning that took place from 1970 until 1990. Contrary to the twenties and fifties, no "school" or main trend emerges here. These buildings represent a chaotic impulse brought about by a decaying system. Their diversity announces the end of Soviet Union.
Taking advantage of the collapsing monolithic structure, architects went far beyond modernism, going back to the roots or freely innovating. Some of the daring ones completed projects that the Constructivists would have dreamt of (Druzhba Sanatorium, Yalta), others expressed their imagination in an expressionist way (Wedding Palace, Tbilisi). A summer camp, inspired by sketches of a prototype lunar base, lays claim to its suprematist influence (Promethee Youth Camp, Bogatyr).
This puzzle of styles testifies to all the ideological dreams of the period, from the obsession with the cosmos to the rebirth of identity and it also outlines the geography of the USSR, showing how local influences made their exotic twists before bringing the country to its end.
(Multilingual Edition: English, French, German)
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