Why is one of the billboards in English?
IMO that’s almost ugly but not quite. It’s in the middle ground between garishly new and drabbily old where you’re right, it just looks like how big city buildings are supposed to look.
Here’s an ugly building in Orlando that also has the totalitarian aesthetic down for me despite all the glass. The statues combined with the greater-than-life scale of the first stories really remind me of oppressive artistic impulses.
Thanks for the background, it’s cool to hear from a native. It’s sad what the communists did to Eastern European cities. American cities faced a similar fate, all in the name of “progress,” and “renewal,” just as was the case in the Soviet block. America basically destroyed its cities, tearing down prime real estate and urban neighborhoods and replaced them with… highways and parking lots. Here’s a “before and after” pic of Atlanta, GA
https://66.media.tumblr.com/09e2ceffa994ef2f15f561aa6129eb2b/tumblr_pd3ixdxvQe1qc63pwo1_1280.jpg
The top pic was taken some time before 1950 I believe… the second pic is that same area today.
Yes, ‘modernist’ architecture is a product of our global, capitalist, consumer society. ‘Capitalism,’ and ‘Communism’ are far more similar than they are different. Out with the old, in with the new, progress, and “newness” lie at the basis of both these ‘ideologies.’
Some of the signs and billboards are written in English. I can’t tell you why.
And to think that steaming brutalist turd replaced this
That’s ugly, but I think mine are much uglier.
It’s absurd, because right across the street is an example of what good architecture is supposed to look like (those apartments on top of Pattisserie Valerie store)
Huh, interesting. I’ve been wondering why there are so many buildings in this town that look either half completed or half torn down.
Lol, replace the shiny glass with exposed concrete and it would be indistinguishable from a Soviet era building.
Ugh, no kidding. At least the old building is still intact around the corner, and you can wander by and imagine a better world…
Here in Krakow, and throughout the rest of Poland, seemingly at least 1/3rd of all billboards are in English, more if you count ones written in both Polski and English.
I feel for the older Poles, many who fear that their culture and language are yet once again under attack, not by the Nazis or Communism, but now by unrestrained, relentless consumerism. (95% of young Poles are COMPLETELY obsessed with America and American pop culture, sadly, usually the very worst possible aspects of it)
It’s the same in Romania too. Young Romanians are incredibly “Americanized,” and also often reflect the worst aspects of that “culture.”
It seems like all other countries know how to do is copy America. I like to say that there are only two cultures left in the world- American/Western/consumerist, and remote villager without internet.
During the past couple of years, I have spent time in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Croatia and Lithuania (on top of several other “Western” European countries as well) but I have never met people who as a whole are so incredibly, nakedly, unabashedly admiring of America and Americans as the Poles.
On one had it is great living here, the people are genuinely excited to talk with an American, and are seemingly delighted with my attempts at speaking Polish with them (I am constantly told, with complete sincerity how extremely well I speak Polski, which to my great shame and embarassment after living here for 4 years, is frankly bullshit, I am still nowhere close to even basic fluency) but sometimes I want to tell people who tell me about how much they love America that Poland and Polish culture should be celebrated and cherished, and that 2019’s America is in many ways an unmitigated trainwreck, which is why every day that I wake up here in beautiful, safe, welcoming, historic, peaceful and affordable Krakow I Thank God for my incredible good fortune.
I agree there is a lot of English in mass media (including advertising, of course) caused by the American cultural hegemony, but it’s more than that.
The youth want to distance themselves from what they perceive as conservative generations by adopting Western models, and mass media encourage these ‘young European citizens’ by targeting them with cosmopolitan messages.
On the other hand, people feel that when it comes to business everybody should adopt English terminology to a certain extent. Look at the shops on the first storey of the building: one is named “Big” Commercial Center and the other Exchange, which refers to currency exchange services.
Last but not least, companies that target some of the lower middle class, the upper middle class, and the wealthy in general will always use English messages because (1) they generally sell a lifestyle and therefore imply their clients are educated people who embrace the Western model of freedom and democracy, and (2) a great portion of their clientele consists of foreign people who work and/or live in Romania. The billboard ad proclaiming ‘summer sale’ belongs to Mobexpert, a Romanian company that produces and sells ‘high-end’ furniture, which only the rich can afford (that is wealthy foreigners and people who populate the corporate world).
PhiloAmericanism is hardly a fleeting whim in Eastern Europe. Russia, which remains a de facto empire and has acted brutally toward its neighbors for three centuries, continues to threaten the countries in its vicinity (such as Romania or Poland) after already causing terrible damage to each one of them. Despite getting disappointed by the Western indifference, people here have embraced the Western ideals of freedom and democracy in the hope that the West will come to their rescue if Russia keeps bullying them. Our speaking English probably makes Russia’s cold breath on our neck seem to be a little farther, although it may be actually getting closer.
The ad to the left of the “summer sale” ad looks to me much like one from IKEA.
The ad with the dog wearing a hard hat belongs to Dedeman, a Romanian DIY chain store offering home improvement and cheap furniture, owned by two Romanian businessmen (and former mathematicians) whose family name is Dedeman.
On the other hand, the largest Ikea store in Eastern Europe lies in Bucharest indeed. It was launched only a month or two ago, and it is Ikea’s second store here. This type of stores seem to be thriving, which reflects people’s general urge to upgrade their living spaces.
In several visits to Poland from the early 1990s on, I noticed that many graffiti-writers there, seemed to favour the English language for their activity – graffiti conveying, in English, a wide variety of opinions / sentiments. I recall one which read, “My dear wife Christina” [English spelling] – which I found highly charming.
I usually like Brutalism in general although our examples are below average for uniquely architected examples of the style. I only dislike the good architecture opposite the Metropole because it is so common. But then again because of this, the brickwork building shouldn’t be compared to the Metropole, which you could tell was trying very hard, but still barely managed to surpass the average buildings around it.