Non-historical town of Banská Štiavnica

• 

  1 / 1

  Non-historical town of Banská Štiavnica |

I created a concrete object called „non-historical core of Banská Štiavnica“ for the event „The invisible Štiavnica“. It represented a housing estate Drieňová in the scale 1:500. Originally I meant to install it in the centre of the town, as an alternative to traditional tourist locations, the descriptive models of historical centres, replicas and sculptures. Finally, I chose a different place, with a view on the Drieňová housing estate, with a neutral nature, non-defined by predetermined function, which enables us to percieve the work without irony and recession. I live in a housing estate in Trnava town, which often inspires me to process the theme of collective housing in block of flats. I worked with this theme in the form of photographic series of geometric structures of insulation. One of my creative intervention in the public space was also monumental sculpture „Antimonument“. In 2013 a model of historical centre of author´s hometown was placed in one of the town squares. The trend of placing bronze historical models as a tourist and information points, has not arrived to Banská Štiavnica. I therefore took the lead by realization of „Antimonument“, which draws attention to the modern „non-historical core“ of Banská Štiavnica. I try to think of housing estates in a broader context and associates various themes with the concept of existence in our cultural environment. On one hand, I recognize the function in the vision of cheap collective housing of previous political regime, but on the other hand, I notice the disproportionate market growth of this type of housing after the fall of totalitarianism. I assume, the state does not create adequate regulations and sensible housing policy for young families, paving the way for the indebtness of families. There is also a lack of culture in this environment, which is centralized into the historical core of the town. This trend acts antisocially and turns housing estates into ghetto.