Retrotopia – Design for Socialist Spaces

Retrotopia. Design for Socialist Spaces is a collaborative exhibition project that explores the role and influence of design in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc and ex-Yugoslavia from the 1950s - to the 1980s. An innovative network of curators and institutions provides new and surprising insights into the complex layers of the design landscape of a region that is still unknown to a broader and especially Western audience. With their extensive research and investigation, the actors of Retrotopia contribute decisively to an overdue reassessment of global and decolonial design history.

During the Cold War, design and architecture mutated into a mirror of the geopolitical showdown between the two superpowers, the USA and the USSR. But beyond any political differences, there was a commonality: designers and architects of both systems were confronted with the same social challenges, worked on similar design issues and sustainable solutions for the environment, developed comparable ideas and designed visionary projects - which often did not get beyond the stage of experiments or prototypes. In addition, there was a lively exchange through the iron curtain, via a wide variety of platforms such as exhibitions, congresses, workshops and symposia, specialist publications and, last but not least, personal contacts established through a networked artistic practice.