Kult or Kitsch? Urban Graphics of the Communist Period

Imagine: instead of recognizable brands, how about having only the general functions that they represent signposted in the city? How would we differentiate between different stores with the same title but different management? What commercial, graphic and geographical landmarks would we have? How would we perceive the offer without any additional clues in the name or logo?

During the communist period, urban commercial communication was purely informative, simply expressing function – which was obvious when activities and services were uniformly and entirely state-run. From the 1960s onwards, commercial signage became an object of study included in building design. Architects, visual artists and craftsmen together analyzed and proposed solutions for the optimal setting and making of signs that would not only enhance their visibility, but also harmonize with the adjacent built details. Since the 1970s and 1980s, commercial street signage has been the subject of informative, technical and even critical articles, always noting that its role is to beautify the urban environment.

Coming back to our own times, the stories of the groudfloors, of the shop windows left over from the communist period, are closely linked to these titles, whose lack of particular toponymy anchors them much more in the context of the streets. In recent years, the physical erasure of these landmarks has been accentuated by the covering of facades in polystyrene, the sale or late retrocession of inter-war buildings, and the cessation of activity, with commercial firms ending up mostly dismantled or in the landfill.

Witnessing these erasures, in 2015 we started collecting commercial firms from the communist period – for us, they represent precious objects, which from multiplications of the same version have become, through loss, unique specimens. Each recovery was done carefully, with the consent of the owner and the promise of preserve. The volumetric letters have varying degrees of fragility, and traces of wear and tear are preserved as a testament to the materials used and to the conditions of exposure. Some have been repainted, others have repaired parts, like a cherished object.

Detached from their context, commercial firms become either objects of study or objects of art – their aesthetic character and technical achievement taking dominance in the absence of obvious utility. Kult or Kitsch is a traveling exhibition and an opportunity to question their value: parts of the story of the city, of the street, of the people who preserved and cared for them, of those who still have them present as landmarks even though the places have long since changed, of the way they were made, of the materials that are no longer manufactured. Through them, we watch and learn, we wonder about another city and another time, while keeping the current city and times beside us.

Photos by Marius Vasile, Ștefan Hillerin, thanks to Studiogovora, RDW