A Very Concrete Instagram Account. Russian Instagram users have been recently mesmerized by a quite peculiar account. Their tastes can be a little strange, especially when looked at from the all-Western point of view, but we’re sure that the marvels of Instagram’s @saratov_zbs will hook many more. What is it that it offers? Concrete. Just plain concrete pictures.
Some people like to see beautiful landscapes on Instagram. Others are more fond of brilliantly arranged dishes, colorful flowers or the depths of the sea. Then there’s the almost 10K followers of this profile, for whom concrete is, if not a passion, truly a hobby – yet an ironical one.
The profile is associated with the concrete factory based in Saratov, a city in southwest Russia 530 miles away from Moscow. However – things get weird at several levels – such a factory doesn’t even exist. That hasn’t stopped Russian Instagrammers from admiring and praising the amazing (?) pictures this profile features.
Does life imitate art?There are some who just highlight the “drama” of the pictures, while others argue this kind of pictures are masterpieces of post-modern constructivism. There are even people whom this profile helped live better lives. “Your work ‘Mars surface’ gave me the strength to quit drinking, although the earlier works used to please me more,” says one user. Another one says that this kind of work is a reflection of “the fragility of the human soul and the duality of our lives. … People try to be flat and plain, just like concrete, but our excessive needs send us in opposite directions and break the human personality, leaving after no more than the fragments of what we once were.”
Someone must be happy, though, with these nihilist pictures – the city hall of Saratov, which many people have claimed wanting to visit since the account went viral.
