“Black Holes” Exploitation: A Central European City Between Monument, Document, and Mockument

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The article focuses on the lively urbanism of Central European historical centres in the second half of the twentieth century and, based on a private photo album, ref lects on the processes of shaping local socio-cultural customs and practices. If the common features of these centres are the careful preservation of the historic core and the more or less systematic re-construction of residential districts or industrial complexes, it is the selective blindness to the gaps and spaces “in between,” escaping any coherent or consistent urban planning, where these processes manifest themselves most “naturally” and almost without any imposed control. Indeed, these imaginary “black holes” are where everyday experience unfolds. To this end, the current approaches of Central European Studies are connected with the history of art and visual culture. A specific triadic model of monument-document-mockument and the concept of the “living monument” are used to develop a crucial link between them all and contemporary urban studies. The theoretical insights are illustrated by the case study of the city of Olomouc in the Czech Republic, using the private photographic documentation of local artist and graphic designer Oldřich Šembera.