It cannot be denied that the spectre of communism, in all its austere glory, is a subject that provokes a huge gulf in opinion between those who lived it and those who did not. Yet, in an ironic twist that cannot have gone unnoticed, communism – or rather, the tangible aspects of communism – have never been more in vogue. The hammer and the sickle, the symbol of misery for millions, are now as recognisable as its antithesis, the golden arches of McDonalds: strange how these products of two very differing worlds have such parallels.
As we are all aware, the Soviet experiment was brought to its end and capitalism won out, with the relics of the USSR being sold just like any other product in this global village, and yet art history throws little light upon anything which occurred behind the Iron Curtain. However, Les Promesses du Passé (Promises of the Past) brings together the artistic products of communist regimes past into an altogether westernised present, and the notion of linearity within the history of art is cleverly and successfully deconstructed.
There is no doubt that auto-destruction is the motif that runs throughout the exhibition; both within the works and of the work itself. Cyprien Galliard’s Dammarie-dès-Lys, is a perfect example of the former, portraying a block of flats – the modernist ideal for living – which has been reduced to rubble and bits of twisted metal in a scene vaguely reminiscent of war zones. Equally dramatic, Tibor Hajas’ Detonación de análisis 1-5 (Destruction Analysis), shows five negatives of Budapest at various stages of destruction by fire, giving the concrete towers of uniform beige an almost post-apocalyptic edge.
But whereas Galliard and Hajas focus upon the fragility of modernist ideals and cityscapes, Ion Grigorescu’s Le Boxe (Boxing) alludes to a sense of playfulness that is often ignored within Soviet art retrospectives. In this black and white short, Grigorescu superimposes two images of himself boxing in the nude, ducking and throwing punches, humorously hinting at an underlying feeling of hatred against and admiration for the totalitarian society in which he lived.
Les Promesses du Passé, in wanting to offer a near-complete look at Eastern European art over the past six decades, is a wildly ambitious project, and one that arguably favours completeness over accessibility. Nevertheless, it offers a stark and interesting insight into a world which, given the fall of communism, is now consigned to the annals of history.
Les Prommesses du Passé runs at the Centre Georges Pompidou until the 19th July 2010
Alexander Britton
