Utopia as Escapism, Escapism as Protest

Abstract

Radical experimentation, formal plurality, and oscillation between architecture and visual arts permeated the 50s and 60s generation of architects and artists on both sides of the politically divided Europe. Central and Eastern European examples from this period are often undervalued, if addressed at all, both by Western European standards and even their local contexts. VAL—Voies et Aspects du Lendemain—collective was formed in 1968 Czechoslovakia by the conceptual artist Alex Mlynárčik and the architects Viera Mecková and Ľudovít Kupkovič. VAL developed eight distinct utopias and megastructures in parallel to the global trends and Michel Ragon’s techno-centric theory of prospective architecture. As the height of VAL’s activity coincides with the peak of the normalisation period in the 70s Czechoslovakia, their utopian projects remain resistant to clear-cut interpretation then and now. Heliopolis, Akusticon, and the People’s Assembly of Argillia are three distinct projects of VAL explored in reference to the themes of monumentality and architecture-sculpture, prospective architecture, and performance art influenced by Nouveau Réalisme. Despite the unobstructed idealism that VAL emanates, it is argued that VAL’s proposals go beyond an uncritical techno-positive utopia and can hardly be distilled from the irony and socio-cultural critique. And it is in the act of designing the libertarian utopias that VAL members found a form of individual escapism as means to express themselves creatively and to manageably live in a totalitarian regime—utopia as escapism. By subverting the expectations of what are the forms of expressing architectural dissent, escapism is understood as an act of resistance. Resistance to socio-cultural regression, economic depression, professional frustrations, and personal disillusionment with the failed Communist utopia—escapism as protest. The thesis questions our contemporary standing towards Central and Eastern European architects and artists whose work—as illustrated by VAL—entails complexities and contradictions of its socio-cultural and political context.