RELICS OF
COMMUNIST
ARCHITECTURE
DOCUMENTING SOCIALIST
ARCHITECTURE IN EASTERN
BLOCK
VIDEOART PROJECT
by Haruna Honcoopova /
www.harunahoncoop.com
BIO / INTRO
CHARLES UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE GRADUATE (2008)
– SINOLOGY – comparative approach - sino–japanese
war in film, running school film club, amnesty international
taiwan film festival
work experience / freelance:
Film festivals – translations, production – one world,
documentary film festivals..
Filmmaking – international network of filmmakers “KINO”
– self taught filmmaking. Professional film productionassistant on feature film sets
development of WWII documentary film about french war
prisoners in the CZ (2013), shooting in Guatemala
(201O)– social issues and religion
Why socialist architecture?
Came across the topic while traveling in eastern europe Bucharest – 2013
socialist architecture, statues, public spaces from 1950’s –
1990’s
Not very well documented and covered topic – not taught
at art history or architecture universities, it is a minority
interest in the czech republic, no ngos or initiatives to
protect those buildings
VIDEO / STUDY CASE
TREI MINUTE DESPRE UN ORAS BUCURESTI (4:20,
2015) - https://vimeo.com/132759924
METHODOLOGY –
research & videoproduction
State of research in each country - books, films, documentary
films, organizations dealing with the topic, contacting
architecture department at local universities, museums
Videoproduction
1. Create a list of locations, collecting archival footage,
photographs
2. Contacting local filmmakers for help, Searching for locals to
show me to locations, filming
3. Music composition – work with music local music composers –
old communist songs, speeches – mash up composition
4. Editing, translation
5. Distribution – film festivals, galleries, online
GENERAL RESOURCES
about socialist modernism
/ARCHITECTURE
Books of photographs: "Sozialistische Moderne Archäologie einer Zeit" ("Socialist Modernism - Archeology of
an Era“, 2011) by Roman Bezjak - 5 years taking pictures in
the region - Poland, Lithuania, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine and
Georgia
"Cosmic Communist Constructions,” - by French photographeR
Frédéric ChaubiN – 90 buildings in 14 ex-Soviet Republics,
1970-1990
Film: architecture and power
www.socialistmodernism.com
romanian NGO: an initiative to protect and document socialist
architecture, statues and public spaces developed by BACU –
BUDAPEST
State of research:
-Film: BUDAPEST RETRO by Gábor szigmond papp (1998)
-Books: Politics in Color and Concrete: Socialist Materialities
and
the Middle Class in Hungary by Krisztina Fehérváry (CEU
LIBRARY)
-museums: memento park, house of terror
-blogs written in hungarian
- Communist History of budapest Communist guided tours
Shooting locations in
BUDAPEST
koztarsasag ter
Széll Kálman ter
felvonulasi ter
csepel muvek
déli pályaudvar
kutvolgyi korhaz
krisztinakorut magas haz
MÉMOSZ-székház
szovjet emlékm
farkasrét templom
corvin áruház ma.
Budapest hotel
OSA MATERIALS
Hu OSA 306 – collective works – records related to the 1956
revolution
Hu OSA 320 PRIVATE PHOTOS AND FILMS - 453
CONTAINERS
HU OSA 320-1 Films, 1910-1996
HU OSA 320-1-1 Original finding aid to the home movies, 19801989
HU OSA 320-1-2 Hungarian home movies, 1910-2000
HU OSA 320-1-3 Interviews with relatives of home movie
makers, 1985-1997
HU OSA 320-1-4 Art documentaries of Peter Forgacs, 19331960
FUTURE
Fining a producer and necessary funding with the
bucharest trailer
Travel, research and film in 10 cities- Berlin, warsaw,
prague, bratislava, dunaujvaros, moscow, belgrade,
chisinau, beijing, pyongyang
FILM FESTIVAL SUBMISSION / distribution of the
collection of videos
VIDEOART INSTALLATION IN THE GALLERies – 1st
presentation of the work: videokemp videoart festival in