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 production- assistant 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
10/ 2015 – FAMU – FILM ACADEMY OF PRAGUE – proper study of filmmaking
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 &
videoproductionState 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 –
Bureau for Art and Urban Research
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, 1980-1989
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, 1933-1960
HU Osa 394 - Records of the Film Studio of the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior
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 Prague 31/7/2015