Since the economic crisis, Slovenia, like most European countries, has been dealing with the presence of abandoned construction sites in urban and rural areas. These sites are trapped in the now well-known stalemate that doesn’t allow for the renegotiation of their meaning or for their use through alternative programs developed by local municipalities or national governments. How can failed political and economic systems transform what has been abandoned into a dimension of liberation from efficiency and specialization?

The starting point of the main discourse of the episode Brand New Coexistence is Kiosk K67 that is interpreted as an architectural modern ruin in Ljubljana. Designed in 1966 by the Slovenian architect and designer Saša J. Mächtig, the K67 – easily visible and accessible – inhabited the cityscape and provided different services not only in Ljubljana but also in other cities across Europe. Today, K67 is both a design icon of the 20th century and a derelict and abandoned object scattered throughout these cities. It is a nostalgic reminder of socialism, and a living organism capable of perpetual regeneration through new functions and vernacular mutations. But it has also turned into an obsolete element, reflecting the failure of the precise past for which it was designed.

The act of manipulation turns K67 into a trophy of the past, its purpose shifting from function to memory. The new and more fragile object, which has no purpose or precise function, symbolizes the destruction of the collective interest and its replacement with the individual one. It becomes a distorted icon: namely, a reflection of our distorted modern society.