(From left) Viktor Feher, Martin Kleibl and Michal Turkovič, sitting under the renewed wall painting in Bratislava's Petržalka. (source: FB OZ Konduktor)
In Bratislava’s Petržalka borough, a third so-called monumental painting – among several that disappeared during the insulation-by-cladding of apartment buildings – has been restored. It is the painting "Signs of Bratislava" on the southwest end of the high-rise apartment building on Blagoevova Street. The photographer and activist Martin Kleibl and the Konduktor civic association were behind the restoration, Mária Halašková, spokeswoman for the borough of Petržalka, said.
The author of the original work, which dates from 1981, is painter and textile artist Peter Günther. His artwork is, according to Kleibl, a simple, almost childlike painting with geometric shapes that symbolise Bratislava. Thanks to its simplicity, the authors had no problem with the approval process.
“It helped us a lot that we had the owners’ consent, which shortened the time for realisation. Then all we had to do was get the money and we could start,” said Kleibl, who has enjoyed exploring Petržalka’s artefacts for years.
The restoration involved artists Viktor Feher and Michal Turkovič painting a replica of the original artwork on the insulated wall.
Thanks to favourable weather and the relatively simple design, they managed to carry out their work in just a few days.
A subsidy for the implementation of the work, amounting to more than €3,600, was provided by the Petržalka municipal council. The project was also supported by the Bratislava Self-Governing Region and the Slovak National Gallery. The latter donated paint.
Eight in total
Eight paneláks (high-rise apartment blocks made from pre-fabricated concrete sections) in Petržalka were decorated with these so-called monumental paintings, which were created by Slovak artists at the time of the construction of the borough's vast housing estate – the largest of its type in central Europe – in the 1980s. They served not only for the artistic completion of the “concrete jungle”, as the estate of often very similar-looking apartments blocks used to be called, but also for better orientation. However, all of them were covered by polystyrene cladding during the insulation of the buildings in the early years of this century.
Kleibl had previously managed, under the auspices of the civic organisation Konduktor, to get two of them repainted: "Peace" on Osuského Streer in 2015, and "Peace’s Song" on Námestie Hraničiarov Square in 2023.
Mixed reactions
“We have also seen negative reactions on Námestie Hraničiarov Square, as some people saw [the renewed wall painting] as promotion of the previous regime,” said Kleibl.
But the latest painting, on Blagoevova Street, is completely harmless from an ideological point of view, he opined.
“One lady who lived in the building opposite told us that she was very happy because she finally didn’t have to look at the red stripes that had been painted on the building and which annoyed her a lot,” Kleibl said.
Kleibl also plans to reconstruct other monumental wall paintings, but exactly when this will happen is still open to question. These include, for example, the work "Joy" (depicting three dancers) by Ján Ilavský on Fedinova Street, the work "Sport" by Oto Lupták on Romanova Street, and two paintings by Ivan Vychlopen. However, these are all “artistically quite complicated”, according to Kleibl, meaning their reconstruction will be more demanding.
