Utopian models of society have steadily lost popularity since the late 1970s and early 1980s, and their disappearance also meant the loss of social pilot projects which were intended to offer broad access to culture and leisure time. Expansive parks and swimming pools expressed the wish for everyone to have a share in public life and prosperity. Today, only a few of these open spaces remain intact; most of them have simply become derelict.
Isabella Hollauf assesses the disappearance of erstwhile social utopias in her work. She is interested here not merely in post-Communist countries, but also others which were for decades strongly influenced by socialism, such as Austria and Sweden. Her photographic research pursues the evident shifts in value perceptions, shows the ambitions of the former utopias and the dismal reality of the present.