Madonna, Mother and Whore : notes on vandalism at Bulgaria’s most photographed monument

Decades of appalling vandalism nearly destroyed one of the world’s most endangered monuments in Buzludzha, Bulgaria. I draw from my thoughts on politics, culture and the human condition to come to terms with the inevitability of this catastrophe You’ll think I’m dead, but I sail awayOn a wave of mutilation Wave of Mutilation by The… Read More

Climbing up the slide : the annoying slang of architecture

Pierre Szekely

Morphologies, programmatic adjacencies, and spatial compositions : it’s all Greek to me, as I take a long, hard look at architecture’s Rococo lingo To paraphrase a quote from one my favourite artists, J.M. Basquiat, I’ve first learned about architecture by looking at it. My ongoing fascination with architecture, and the research of its forms, history… Read More

Killing him softly : velvet vandalism on Kyjov’s Lenin statue

“Go and look for the dejected once proud Idol remembered in stone aloud Then on coins his face was mirrored Take a look it soon hath slithered To a fractured marble slab, renunciation clad His nourishment extract from his subjects That mass production profile” Bauhaus – God in an Alcove (1980) Eodem Tempore – at… Read More

Peiraiki-Patraiki : the chronicle of an industry’s death foretold

“So many coincidences for the untrammelled fulfilment of a death so clearly foretold.” Gabriel Garcia Marques, Chronicle of a Death Foretold The tall, ghostly tower is a familiar sight at the waterfront industrial zone of Patras, Greece. Visible from the 6 lane motorway upon entering the city from the west, the Peiraiki-Patraiki tower is standing… Read More