BETONIUM is an ongoing project, it explores the relationship between contemporary identity and architectural heritage in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on the panel-built residential blocks. 

It is interesting for me that people live in houses created during the Soviet period, but their worldview and ideological component are already developing in a different environment from the socialist one. In this situation, they form new urban rituals, practices and meanings.

Through “human sculptures” that I create, the project highlights the dynamic interplay between architecture and its inhabitants. Just as bodies are structured and moved, the urban planning ideologies of the state subtly shape the lives of those who reside within its cities, embedding collective dreams and aspirations into concrete. 

BETONIUM spans 11 countries across the former Iron Curtain, including Poland, Slovakia, Georgia, Estonia, Serbia, and Belarus, where I integrate printed on curtains block houses from one country in another, seeking to discern whether there is the common experience of residing in prefabricated housing. 

The whole BETONIUM exploration is rooted in my personal experience of growing up in a former Soviet republic, providing an insider’s perspective on the enduring legacy of these monumental spaces.

The project consists of several chapters, including documentary and conceptual parts (performance, still nature, video). Zine is released.

P.S. Photos are not in the sequence, just a representation of the working directions.