Icon-fragments: monumental façades and the afterlives of the socialist city

Existing studies of visual culture in socialism have tended to concentrate on its initial decades, the avant-garde frenzy followed by Stalinist conservatism. By contrast the art of mature socialism has been less studied. The Eastern bloc of the latter twentieth century has entered history as a stagnant, demoralised culture, characterised by unrelenting monotony and homogeneity in its built environment. Developed partly as a defensive mechanism against the creeping sameness of socialist cities, the late modern genre of art on the building was meant to imbue public spaces with visual interest, aesthetic harmony, and ideological content. Though it was invariably commissioned with propaganda functions in mind, monumental art in architecture could be technically excellent, stylistically innovative, and locally specific. These nuances are brought to light through three site studies, East Berlin, Kyiv, and Minsk. The choice of so-called peripheral capitals both illustrates the importance of horizontal linkages within socialist globality, and contributes towards the deconstruction of Moscow as supposed ultimate origin point of creativity in socialism. Today, this monumental inheritance faces an uncertain fate, heightening its relevance as an object of historical study.