From modernism to kitsch: the aesthetics of corruption and nationalism in Bulgaria and Macedonia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since 1989, Eastern European cities have been radically refashioned, often with kitsch new buildings accompanying the introduction of market capitalism. Modernist spaces built during socialism in Bulgaria and Macedonia, to manifest progress, were supplanted by new “baroque” architecture designed to symbolize wealth, independence, and freedom. Unlike socialist spaces, however, neo-baroque aesthetics failed to capture the imaginations of local residents, especially urban professionals. For those involved in urban management, we argue that neo-baroque buildings came to embody the corruption and loss of urban planning standards that accompanied the privatization of socialist cities and the emergence of a mafia-connected entrepreneurs. Impossible to avoid and derided internationally, neo-baroque buildings became a tangible sign of the transitional process that belied citizens’ hopes for European integration and provoked a sense of economic oppression