The architecture of Alexei Bavykin is called "original" - one can argue with this definition, but it is obvious that this is not quite an ordinary architecture. In the preface to the catalog, Doctor of Art History Vladimir Sedov gave it a special definition - "speaking architecture", and referred it to "the third direction of" paper "architecture" and to the "fourth Moscow style of modern times." Thus, it is obvious that the exhibition that has opened in the museum of architecture illuminates a phenomenon and a direction, even if it consists of one author and his workshop.
The phenomenon has several features. First, it seems to be somehow very closely related to the favorite theme of critics - the "paper" fantasies of concept contests of the 1980s. Actually, one of the iconic projects of this kind - a bronze "imprint" of a Loos skyscraper-column, which took 2nd place in the "Style of 2001" competition, greets visitors entering the first exhibition hall.
At the same time, further, contrary to probable expectations, there are few memories of paper competitions - the exposition is focused on realizations and “real” projects intended for implementation. The exhibition is more like a report of a practicing architect than a retrospective "wallet" - searches of the 1980s are presented very succinctly, with a few drawings, which are even fewer in the exhibition than in the published catalog.
There is no visible division of the exposition into "paper" and "practical" periods, and therefore, there is no clearly established border between them, there are no "left out" of the experiences of youth and "separated" practice. In any case, the watershed cannot be read at the exhibition. This, of course, does not mean that he did not exist at all and does not mean that there is no evolution in the architect's work. However, in the process of development from the imprint of Loos in bronze to the house-column in the 3rd Avtozavodsky Proyezd or from the pine columns of a country house in the 1990s to the tree order in Bryusov Lane, one can trace the integrity and consistency of reflections on the imagery of modern architecture, remarkable for our times.
Perhaps, to summarize, it is even worth saying - the architect Alexei Bavykin, according to experts, did not fantasize much in the "paper" period, but he continued to work "in the same spirit" later, developing the free imagery of "wallets" in realizations. For example, he built a restaurant in the shape of a frying pan, designed a skyscraper that looks like a flying airship and invented columns in the form of trees, which have the moral right to "grow" to almost any height.
On the other hand, the architecture of Alexei Bavykin is characterized by a rare depth of getting used to the experience of the Russian avant-garde. Not stylization, but precisely penetration, study and empathy - which gives rise to a refined play with the plasticity of curved facades, acute-angled interpenetrating forms. On the other hand, it turns into downhole avant-garde rhymes (author's!) Among the bronze pages of realizations - and a warning about the use of profanity on the back of the catalog cover (the catalog was published by Vlad and Lyudmila Kirpichev).
The exhibition is subtly staged; it is laconic - if desired, more can be placed in the enfilade of the museum, but it is full of impressions. In each room there is a large sculptural object, a descendant of a model, aiming to interpret the plastic meaning of one of Bavykin's major projects. Four objects were made in collaboration with the artist Alexander Dzhikia, they are deliberately man-made and painted in two colors to better read the mutual penetration of architectural volumes, for example, a giant fluted column and consoles "grasping" it, or an arch of a ruin and an avant-garde "nose" threaded through it. Thus, "architectural sculptures" simultaneously "hold" the space and interpret the architecture shown on the stands. Two more mock-up objects were made in collaboration with Boris Cherstv.
The entrance is greeted by a hall with golden-monochrome photographs of realizations, presented in such a way that in passing they can be mistaken for monuments of the "historical" avant-garde. Then - large stands with buildings and projects and miniature frames with original drawings and sketches. Moreover, the graphics of the 1980s and the modern ones are mixed, showing that the difference between them, if there is, is not very significant. Among the graphics is another joint work of A. Bavykin and A. Dzhikia, "Greek House", a curved mirror surface with a plasticine lattice stuck on it and friezes of dancing Greeks.
The final accent of the exhibition is the last hall, in it from the orange-and-white models of buildings designed by Alexei Bavykin, a small town is arranged, with its own river, reminiscent of the Moscow Obvodny Canal, but only more curved. In the center, on the peninsula, there are smaller houses, outside, as it should be, high-rise buildings. Everything is called with the humor inherent in the exhibition - "the agreed city", hinting, probably, that the projects inhabiting it have already passed all the authorities and now can calmly "live", having gathered, for clarity, in one place, and gradually waiting for that, about than any architecture dreams - embodiment.
