Images by Andrej Balco
“Built with the intention of providing affordable housing for everyone, this industrial mode of construction quickly became synonymous with a highly anonymous lifestyle, devoid of any individuality. This is the point of departure in this photo-essay by the Slovak photographer Andrej Balco. Who are these people in these prefab buildings? Is there a prevailing type, perhaps even a prefab person? These unavoidable questions, automatic reflexes, are a natural response to something as stereotypical as the prefab high-rises, providing a starting point from which Balco undertakes his photographic exploration of these stalls for everyday Slovakian life.  What he brings to light creates a sharp and varied contrast to the serial façades: dreariness has been replaced by individuals, who have rescued their palms, baroque fantasies and eroticism by bringing them into their apartment blocks. A bit of heaven on a flat roof, a hint of countryside in the garage, if only as a pig in the boot of a car.”
— Robert Haidinger, via Lens Culture
