Between 1998 and 2005 I’photographed a certain type of kiosks, which I’ve found in many of the Balkan and post communist countries in Europe: Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia, Poland, Hungary and Belarus. This became a hypothetical work: I called these kiosks Satellites* and considered them as transit objects – objects that in some sense have been portents or that have shown a way to a change of paradigm. A transit object is empty, plain, it lacks all sorts of ornaments and redundancy – it has an elusive simplicity. But by purely emphasizing function a transit object transforms into a highly aesthetic object.

*The actual name of the "original" kiosk of this type is K67, given by the Slovenian designer and architect Saša J. Mächtig in 1966.

(https://www.metropolismag.com/cities/the-enduring-lives-of-sasa-machtigs-modular-creations/?utm_medium=website&utm_source=archdaily.com)

These modules were produced during the Communist era, a considerable amount of them as premises for people’s private companies. A specific physical space was allotted to the market economy, and in this sense the kiosks express control and restrictions. But their daring design and clever modular system simultaneously includes a nomadic quality, which bears the seeds of change. The inherent possibility of expansion of space involves a subversive element. The name Satellite means that I treat them both as satellites of pioneer capitalism in the Communist Europe and flying objects with an uncertain destination.

During the transition period to market economy (and the neoliberal era) their owners often build on to the kiosks and changed them. In the small shopping windows there was often what seemed to be a random selection of objects at display – as if there existed no superior or inferior categories of goods. Side by side on the same shelf there could be a hardcore porno movie, a doll for a child, pencils and biscuits. A shopping window of this kind could be viewed as either a creation of a mind that lacks experience of capitalism or as true and honest mirror of the very nature of the society of consumerism.

The climate inside the Satellites were not the best, as If Buzek explains in the video. And the Satellites has almost disappeared from the cityscapes. From being a virus of capitalism they have been viewed as signifiers of the communist past, although their design and enduring materiality resists time and changes.

"I remember very well at that time certain gynecologists, dentists and people with small business like that who were selling sandwiches, or flowers, were allowed to work and to earn money in a way that was completely legal, which was not possible before. So in another word, some sort of capitalism in that way slowly started to appear in this country. But I think that this happened not only in the kiosks but almost everywhere in the country at the same time."

     Igor Antić

"…they were concerned about the urban space of Ljubljana, but they were looking at it from another point of view. They had this problem, that private business were asking them for new locations and they wouldn't allow them to use any other form of kiosk then this one. But the authorities didn't like any of these kiosks, maybe because it was this representation of the sixties, and the nineties were different politically. Yes, this was in the beginning of the nineties. So they were trying to change, to redesign completely the urban space as well. But not with the idea of using them again."

    Apolonija Šušteršič

The video Satellites (16 min.) creates the context to the otherwise ”empty black space” of the satellites. It's is documenting conversations as well as the seminar I created in Pancevo together with the design historian Helge Kühnel from Amsterdam, where I receive theories, comments, stories and memories concerning the kiosks. I introduce my own hypothesis to the people I meet: that there was a secret revolution with the means of the kiosks, now the governments in these countries want to remove the evidence by removing all the satellites.

Participants:

Sneska Vucetić-Bohm, Zdenko Buzek, If Buzek, Apolonija Šušteršič, Igor Antić, Helge Kühnel, and Branko Franceschi.
The conference in Pancevo filmed by Igor Antić.

Exhibitions of Satellites

Valeurs, Espace Culturel Francois Mitterand, Perigueux, curated by Igor Antić 2005

Delayed on Time, Contemporary Swedish Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (curated by Nada Beros, catalogue available) 2005

11:th Biennal of Pancevo, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Pancevo (Serbia) catalogue available, curated by Igor Antić 2004

History Now, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Passagen, Linköping, Dunkers Culture centre, Helsingborg, Sörlandets Kunstförening. Kristinesand (Norway), Midlanda Art centre Timrå/Sundsvall, Ronneby Art centre (curated by Niklas östlind and Magnus af Petersen, catalogue available) 2003

Satellites, Roger Björkholmen Gallery, Stockholm 2002

2000 ArtAthina, Athens (with Foka Gallery)

At the exhibition Delayed on Time, Contemporary Swedish Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb 2005 one K67 kiosk was place by the entrance to the museum.

All images: 70x75 cm, lambda-print, acrylic glass, mdf-board

Three works from the serie Satellites (together with the video) are in the collection of .
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Reviews:

Wikström, Sanna, ”Rymdlika moduler nära oss”, Gefle Dagblad 15/5, 2002

Ståhl, Lars-Henrik, ”Modified knowledge in the field of architecture”, R – writing papers in Art & Design, (vol 2 2002)

af Petersens, Magnus & Östlind, Niklas, ”The Unforgettable Lives of ”Disappeared” persons – Notes on Photography, Reality and History”, History Now, (catalogue) Liljevalchs Konsthall (2002)

Allerholm, Milou, ”Kiosker med ett politiskt sortiment”, Dagens Nyheter 27/4 2002

Allerholm, Milou ”Magnus Bärtås”, Art at the Movies (catalogue) (1998)