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Eastern Suburbia - Life in a Block of Flats by Andrej Balco
More than 2 million Slovaks, which makes up more than one third of population, live in large block of flats complexes. In the seventies of the last century the building of the blocks of flats contributed to 97% of overall housing developments in Slovakia. For comparison this was 70% in the Czech republic and 50% in Poland.
Dolphins are leaping across the wall, their leaps frozen against the blue background of the wallpaper. Then there is the reference to Alcatraz, but the floors of the cells are covered with industrial oriental carpeting. People, like furniture, sit between furniture, but there is also a touch of glamour in the chipboard ambience, not to mention the varied longings in the interior of the housing blocks. No, the inhabitants of these Slovakian prefabricated buildings probably do not behave as uniformly as might be suggested by the exterior of the omnipresent high-rises filling the suburban landscape. Built with the intention of providing affordable housing for everyone, the industrial structures of these buildings quickly became synonymous with a highly anonymous lifestyle, devoid of any individuality. This the point of departure in this photo essay by the Slovak photographer Andrej Balco. Who are the people in these prefab buildings? Is there a prevailing type, perhaps even a prefab person? These unavoidable questions are a natural response to something as stereotypical as these buildings, providing a starting point from which Balco undertakes his photographic exploration of these boxes full of everyday Slovakian life. What he brings to light creates a sharp and varied contrast to the serial façades: dreariness has been replaced by individuals, who have rescued their palms, baroque fantasies and eroticism by bringing them into their apartment block. A bit of heaven on a flat roof, a hint of countryside in the garage, if only as a pig in the boot of a car.
