Disco Polo - photobook by Paulina Korobkiewicz

Disco Polo documents the aesthetics in Eastern Poland after 1989. This project focuses on the mixed influences from East and West, the effects of global capitalism on the Polish landscape dominated by consuming colourful advertising. Lack of experts in local housing associations resulted in randomly chosen shades, turning the streets into a vivid collage of pastel tower blocks. Project presents kitsch of rough-and-ready billboards, suburban night-clubs and bright-coloured concrete blocks. It explores omnipresent visual chaos in the urban landscape and search for a ‘better world’.

Title Disco Polo represents locally popular music genre of the same name, which developed in Eastern Poland around the time of the political transition. The genre created its own aesthetics, from the outfits to the venues where it is performed. Naive lyrics and over-saturated video clips often embody longing for western capitalism and hope for better future.