Mosaics – The Forgotten Art of the Socialist Era Experiencing a Renaissance
Many of the mosaics that decorate the walls of both interior and exterior spaces in Bratislava are typical examples of public art from the socialist era.
Ferdinand Restaurant
The mosaic by Ľuba Končeková Veselá from 1979 decorates the wall of the Ferdinand Restaurant in Janko Kráľ Park. But this isn’t a grand, monumental piece or a work with an ideological message. It’s a purely decorative artwork.
Mosaic Fountain
Let’s step outside, into the streets of the city. As you walk through the Trávniky neighborhood in Ružinov and reach Rezedova Street, you might easily miss one of the quiet treasures of public art, Mosaic Fountain.
Created in 1978 by academic painter and sculptor Ladislav Gandl, the fountain forms a colourful chalice nestled between concrete and greenery. Its surface is adorned with mosaic tiles. The colours, often arranged in vertically flowing stripes, give the piece a sense of movement, even though it remains perfectly still.
Mosaic at Vilová Street, Petržalka
The exterior wall of a grocery store is decorated with a faded ceramic mosaic. As time passes, its beauty is slowly being overtaken by surrounding trees and bushes. Pieces of the mosaic are gradually falling off, and graffiti left by vandals has appeared across its surface.
What the mosaic was originally meant to represent is now anyone’s guess. Both the artist and the meaning behind the piece remain unknown.
Facades
Modernist architecture in the former Czechoslovakia often incorporated mosaics directly into building facades. These mosaics served as decorative elements meant to bring life to otherwise stark, utilitarian, and industrial surroundings. They added colour and visual interest, making the facades more appealing and inviting.
Today, more than 50 years later, these facades no longer feel modern, quite the opposite. This impression is largely the result of time and years of neglected maintenance.
Educational Institutions
During the era of Socialist Czechoslovakia, mosaics were a prominent feature of educational institutions. They could be found in student dormitories, at school entrances, inside hallways, and even in dining areas. School facades were no exception, mosaics were an integral part of their visual identity.
So what now?
The facades are faded and crumbling. So what now? Now is the time for change… a complete change. This is the result achieved by street artists who renovated the socialist facade and painted modern elements on the wall that resonate more with today’s youth.
These mosaics, though often forgotten and worn by time, carry a unique legacy of the socialist era and continue to come alive in the modern city. Discovering their stories invites us to reflect on the value of this fascinating public art and its place in our culture.
Text and images by Zuzana Kubalíková
