eastern bloc grotesque
“One does not have to believe everything is true, one only has to believe it is necessary.” – Franz Kafka Eastern Europe has been a geopolitical buffer zone for centuries, and as a result the people who live here have had to learn to communicate by reading between the lines and laughing at their own impossible situations, which has given rise to an unmistakably unique way of expression, the Eastern European grotesque. Rather than focusing on the differences between the many peoples across the region, and on the East–West divide that has been left forgotten behind from the Cold War and is becoming less and less relevant with globalization, the GROTESK photo project is drawing attention to what connects us, our common values, by showing the best absurd photographs from Eastern Europe, through this publication and exhibitions in Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary in 2025! The region once known as the Eastern Bloc, from the Baltic region to the Balkans, has for centuries been a buffer z