The RodDom exhibition, which is part of the Biennale of Contemporary Art, is the first project of the new VKHUTEMAS gallery, which is located under the roof of the modern Moscow Architectural Institute in the former sculptural class of the famous Stroganovka. The hall was designed for the work of sculptors, therefore its southern wall is entirely glass; in the future, the gallery plans to restore the glass dome for lighting from above. The tall stands with objects placed now in this room are very reminiscent of a sculptural class. All objects of the curator of the exhibition, Yuri Avvakumov, must interpret the theme of "the birth of a new form" and should not exceed a newborn baby in weight and height.
Yuri Avvakumov managed to set a remarkably ambiguous topic for the conceptual exhibition. The first thought after reading the title was - this is a variation on the alma mater theme, because everything is in the Moscow Architectural Institute. Approaching the gallery, the feeling only grows - yes, here it is, the famous building of the architect Kuznetsov, the building of the institute, where new architects are “made”, at the entrance it says “maternity hospital”.
On the other hand, students of the Moscow Architectural Institute during their studies receive different thematic assignments - a year and a half ago this was recalled by an exhibition organized by the Project Russia magazine. The club was designed there. Perhaps, in order for the participants not to think of actually drawing a maternity hospital, the BornHouse manifesto stipulated that they "did not have to design a real maternity ward," although this reassuring remark was preceded by a fascinating story about the fact that the maternity hospital had come up with in the 19th century for the secret birth of illegitimate children.
So, the curatorial idea, voiced in the title-assignment of Yuri Avvakumov, is "a metaphor of a form for the birth of a new form." The phrase is interesting in itself, because a metaphor is such a special artistic container for storing meanings, the author puts another form into it, from which, in turn, a third, new one is born. It turns out such a nesting doll layering, which was realized in the actual Avvakum project, where, however, there were not three nesting dolls, but more, as if many smaller children bred inside the newborn metaphorical form. In nesting dolls, apparently, it's very cool to reproduce, one problem - there is nowhere to grow. However, ideas can jump out of the mother's doll - matryoshkas were discovered. This installation stands among others almost like the logo of the entire project, accompanied, however, by a modest apology that in fact the disc is old, it was bought in 1984 for another project.
The space of the former sculptural hall “holds” the most flexible installation of the exhibition, the object “Art-Bla” (Andrei Savin, Andrei Cheltsov, Mikhail Labazov) - a group of springs set above all, similar to the well-known visualization of this group in the form of blue tentacles moving over the Moscow River … The movement of the springs-appendages catches the eye of anyone entering, unconditionally declaring - yes, something is really being born here, or rather, it is conceived.
Paradoxically, almost everyone ignored the topic of birth, focusing on conception or, in an extreme case, gestation. It is difficult to say why this happened - perhaps due to the fact that the participants perceived their objects as children and delved into the topic - how they are made after all. Totan Kuzembaev, in the explication, honestly wrote that since they were given 6 months to think over, and not the prescribed 9, then the object was premature. Sergei Skuratov turned to the topic of artificial insemination, which is logical in its own way: frankly speaking, the real creation remains the Divine work, and the artist's creation is always artificial to some extent, which is why it is actually called art. Hence the theme of the "possessed doll", which captivated many - in the myths of the golem, in the tales of Pinocchio. Corrugated board Evgeniya Assa, "High-tech Buratino" - the most direct disclosure of the idea. The clay matrix by Alexander Brodsky for embryo casting can be understood in the same vein; as well as the oval incubator for Sergei Tchoban's models - looking at which, it is difficult to get rid of the feeling that there, like ferns in spring, three more, or even four Federation towers are hatching quite.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that in relation to artistic creation, the conception of an idea is, in a sense, its birth. So, the objects shown by eminent authors can be considered in some way an extract of their work - everyone was asked to artistically interpret the process of the birth of his artistic idea, and, accordingly, the "children" turned out to be like "parents".
The work of many practicing architects turned out to be more like houses than others. Sergey Skuratov's “In Vitro”, in spite of the bows towards the first person conceived in a test tube, which are in resonance with the organizers' historical excursions, most of all resembles the “real” buildings of the architect. This is a parallelepiped made up of square-section glass beakers filled with water to different levels - which recalls Skuratov's favorite “floating” windows. Everything shines and refracts, goes into depth layer by layer and combines the rectangular correctness of volume with the asymmetry of smaller motives.
The object of Vladimir Plotkin is also very similar to his architectural projects, but using the free format of an art gesture, which does not have to be built later, the author enhances the mutual penetration of a strict grid-base and the pictorial "liberties" implanted in it. That is why the "grid" cut out of plastic sheets becomes more flexible and complex. Through multiple intersections, it turns into a complex three-dimensional structure, a model of a modern insula, inhabited by colored plasticine people. The theme of conception-birth is quite literally illustrated by the behavior of these figures, which, like artists on stage, work to reveal the idea. The object of Gary Chang is solved in a similar way, but his people are more realistic, and the scale is larger - everything is close to the layout of a large apartment. However, the figures do not stick to one plane of the floor, but also to the walls, like flies.
The Meganoma candle house, on the other hand, least of all resembles a real building. It is a square piece of paraffin wax with windows and pieces of wood fused into it. In fact, the "beams" were not conceived: the bars were inserted during casting to make holes, but not all were able to pull out, which made it even more intriguing, although extra realism was added. The moment of birth, apparently, is indicated here by light. If we accept this explanation, then Meganom's "candle" must be recognized as the exact answer to the name - this is really a house in which something so bright will be born inside; what and how is not clear, but the outside is beautiful. In general, it seems that Yuri Grigoryan turned from megaliths to light: at the aforementioned Club exhibition, his object was a half-burnt paper house.
Totan Kuzembaev also interprets light in his own way: his object consists of six (according to the number of months of "gestation") plastic trays, where various elements were poured from which something could grow: water, earth, seeds … Colored light bulbs, all together looks very rosy and resembles an old tube computer, suggesting the idea of the "Matrix".
One of the most multilayered objects in terms of interpretation belongs to Alexander Brodsky. Two "bricks", molded by hand from clay, represent a matrix (again it) for the manufacture of a small human embryo by casting it from something. For "fastening" the halves, pins and corresponding depressions are provided, for "casting" - a special groove. The halves are large, it is probably convenient to take them with your hands and connect them, but only they will never connect and it is, of course, impossible to melt a sculpture of an embryo using this matrix. Because the surfaces of the bricks are curvilinear, man-made, the clay has shrunk in places and cracked in places, hence the molds are more like a handicraft made by some, for example, an Assyrian or a representative of the "Trypillian culture" who became proud and decided to repeat the act of Divine creation with his own hands, yes. nothing came of it. In this sense, the Assyrian is more suitable, by analogy with the unsuccessful attempt of the Tower of Babel to reach the sky.
As you can see, the difficult task of reflecting creativity as being born in the form of one object weighing 3.5 kilograms and about half a meter tall gave rise to many different options. The topic is inexhaustible, which, in principle, does not exclude the appearance of a maternity hospital-2 in the future.
