The Art of repetition: self expression in Communist-era Hungary
They may have been subjected to the rigidity of the country’s Communist regime, but Hungarians living in post-war state housing nevertheless made the monotonous block dwellings individual and full of character through painting and decoration. Artist Katharina Roters has documented the phenomenon in a new book, out now.
Humanity will find a way to express itself, and in Communist-era Hungary during the Fifties and Sixties it expressed itself through ornament.
A large part of post-Second World War domestic rebuilding in the country came in the form of the Magyar Kocka, Hungarian Cube houses (not to be confused with that other ubiquitous Hungarian cube, created by Erno Rubik).
Breaking out from the rigid conformity of Communism, represented by these homogenous block houses, individuality was expressed through painting and decoration.
Hungarian artist Katharina Roters has been documenting the houses since 2005 and now they appear in Hungarian Cubes: Subversive Ornaments in Socialism, published by Park Books.
Roters doesn't simply represent the building here, she goes one step further by clearing off all surplus information, such as antennas, road signs, electric power lines and the like, to put the focus purely on the cubes.
The norm is subverted, although maybe for reasons of humanity rather than political agitation.
