Ruin porn: the art world’s awkward obsession with abandoned Soviet architecture

Anoosh Chakelian | The New Statesman | 24th August 2016

Images of ruined Soviet era structures -“ruin porn” – are enormously popular. Why? Is it pleasure at the demise of Soviet Russia? Perhaps we are trying to avoid admitting that Western economies have also given rise to “ruins”- for example, Detroit.  Or, perhaps, disenchantment with utopian ideas – “”When there is a visualisation of [utopia], it evokes a response in people … There is disappointment in all utopias.””