12/2/2023 0 Comments Moma concrete utopia yugoslaviaFriends of mine who grew up in Cuba in the 1970s and ’80s remember fondly the time when the country’s educational system was superb, the health care system was the envy of the world, and the planned economy sustained a standard of living that got better every year. Many a Cuban will also wax nostalgic for the decades that followed the triumphant revolution in 1959. The hotel, the management tells me, is kept full by wealthy Russians who come to Cuba to bask in the sun and indulge in nostalgia for an era when the Soviet Union was at the height of its power, the Eastern Bloc was leading the space race, and Soviet imperial influence extended all the way to the warm Caribbean. Each suite is named for a Soviet cosmonaut, and the principal salon is decorated with vintage photographs of Russian spacecraft and celebrities, including Laika, the dog who orbited the globe aboard Sputnik 2. ![]() It has since then been meticulously restored as a boutique hotel, with appointments more lavish than the original and tricked out with Soviet space-age memorabilia. When I first visited the site, in 2002, the building was an abandoned shell, an eerie relic. ![]() Designed in 1974 by Antonio Quintana - Fidel Castro’s favorite architect - the daring concrete structure was built as a rest and relaxation retreat for Russian cosmonauts and military brass. Installation view, Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 Ĭasa de los Cosmonautas cantilevers dramatically over the powdery white sands of Cuba’s fabled Varadero beach. A new exhibition documents an extraordinary architectural legacy that has been neglected by mainstream historians. From the sculptural interior of the White Mosque in rural Bosnia, to the post-earthquake reconstruction of the city of Skopje based on Kenzo Tange’s Metabolist design, to the new town of New Belgrade with its expressive large-scale housing blocks and civic buildings, the exhibition will examine the unique range of forms and modes of production in Yugoslav architecture and its distinct yet multifaceted character.The republic of Yugoslavia lasted barely half a century. Exploring themes of large-scale urbanization, technological experimentation and its application in everyday life, consumerism, monuments and memorialization, and the global reach of Yugoslav architecture, Toward a Concrete Utopia will feature work by important architects, including Bogdan Bogdanović, Juraj Neidhardt, Svetlana Kana Radević, Edvard Ravnikar, Vjenceslav Richter, and Milica Šterić. ![]() ![]() The architecture that emerged during this period- from International Style skyscrapers to Brutalist “social condensers”-is a manifestation of the radical pluralism, hybridity, and idealism that characterized the Yugoslav state itself. The exhibition will include more than 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film reels culled from an array of municipal archives, family-held collections, and museums across the region, introducing the exceptional built work of socialist Yugoslavia’s leading architects to an international audience for the first time. The Museum of Modern Art will explore the architecture of the former Yugoslavia with Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980, the first major USA exhibition to study the remarkable body of work that sparked international interest during the 45 years of the country’s existence.
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