Wojciech Karliński - The Big Dream of Small Towns
Blocks - complexes of apartments connected by a common spatial structure, in larger agglomerations functioning as blocks of flats. Their construction, supported in communist-ruled Poland, was a sign of progress, especially since before the war small towns were most often a cluster of destroyed cottages. In the seventies, these blocks became a synonym of development and big-city success. In small towns they appeared as a sign of striving for something great, they were supposed to be a witness of development and a way to show "we are great too", "the present day also reaches us".
Their construction brought the inhabitants closer to the "big world", the dwellings of big slabs, a kind of "status quo" in the city tissue. Life in the apartment showed a new way of progressing in thinking. When the political situation has changed, the status of these blocks also changed. They started to be more like a relic of the past, an embarrassing thing which will degrade and disappear from town maps. However, that did not happen, people still live there, successive generations adapt the space of blocks in small towns anew. Sometimes patching up the surroundings with arduousness, using any means at their disposal, sometimes thanks to money from the community. Regardless of the method of modernization of the living space and the surrounding infrastructure, it shows the human approach to "home" as a place to live. That’s why, the photo project "The Big Dream of Small Towns" is a story about a place that is so tamed by us that it seems to be ordinary and safe. A space that goes unnoticed because it’s as obvious as our life in it.
