NEW COAT OF PAINT (Central Europe, 2010-2011)

Asked to characterise the residential flats in what was once the East Bloc, most people would reach for the words ‘grey’ and ‘drab’. To try to change that perception, many of these prefab buildings have been given new layers of paint, in colours that not only suggest a utopian promise of cheerfulness and diversity, but also polish up the past. Maros Krivy photographed these buildings in various former communist bloc countries – but black and white. He deprives us of the simple pleasure of smiling at the idiosyncratic colour combinations, but in his captions lists the colours we would have seen. Is a metropolitan Utopia really dependent on something as superficial as a lick of paint? Under layers of paint, doesn’t the city remain just as drab as ever?