Photographs by Peter Sägesser

Peter Sägesser (CH) studied at the ETH Zurich architecture and since 1988 has been documenting architecture in Eastern and Central Europe. He has written numerous articles on architecture of this region and operates the website http://www.ostarchitektur.com/architektur.html.

Bar Neglected Grassland
Neue Kräme 29 (Sandhofpassage)
60311 Frankfurt am Main
exhibition dates: November 7 – December 7, 2014

Exhibition Opening: Thursday November 6, 2014, from 7 pm; DJ-Sets: Hans Romanov and Oliverse

With a pan-European picnic on a field on the Hungarian-Austrian border in August 1989 fell the Iron Curtain. This was the end of a social, political, economic and cultural experiment. Architecture had been an important part of this experiment. It substantiated the social ideals, but often failed at the economic and political realities. Nevertheless, outstanding architecture was realized during the communist period. The Iron Curtain made it difficult to see this architecture and today it often faces a lack of interest and prejudice. With the political shift Central and Eastern Europe wanted to reorient. With the free market economy also came free ("wild") building, but the level of contemporary architecture rarely achieves that which reached during the communist era.