LE BÉTON PARAÎT PLUS DOUX AU SOLEIL

Model City in Brussels is impressive because of its dimensions but the blackened blocks have something frightening to them as well. The idea of integrating multiple social groups in one newly constructed neighbourhood was presented by Fernand Brunfaut in 1958 during the Universal Exposition. The project was subsequently realized but due to a lack of money wasn't completed properly.   ''Le béton paraît plus doux au soleil'' mixes stills from Model City and Falowiec, the latter being a social housing block of 860 meters long in the city of Gdańsk, my home town in Poland. Designed by Tadeusz Różański, Danuta Olędzka and Janusz Morek, erected in the 70’s, it was at the time considered as an ephemeral building - a temporary solution for a lack of housing. Nonetheless it exists to this day.   By mixing images from Poland and Belgium, I am trying to represent a general issue with this type of buildings. Built after the W.W. II in the spirit of modernism, they were meant to provide better conditions of living for the poorest and to bring together different social groups. Today those communal high-rises are no longer adapted to the needs of the contemporary citizen. They have become another malfunctioning dystopia. However, its inhabitants make it vivid.