It should be noted the zeal with which the organizers are holding the ninth International Landscape Art Competition, which remains, in essence, one of a kind. There are no more narrowly focused contests for landscape architecture - which explains the great demand for it from designers and architects from many Russian, and even the closest foreign, cities - it is they, and not Muscovites, who take with them a large number of awards.
This is probably why the organizers complain in the invitation that “the number of those wishing to participate is much greater than the exhibition possibilities of the“House on Brestskaya”site. At the same time, the main, in terms of significance and area, the exhibition hall - the hall of the Moscow model - was still occupied by commercial stands. And if at exhibitions of interior design and architecture these stands, as a rule, amaze with their gloss and brilliance, then here they look, to put it mildly, dull, like the exhibition-fair "my garden". All entries were located in the hall where the Public Council under the Mayor of Moscow is held and in the corridor between the two main halls.
Due to the fact that landscape art is not complete without small architectural forms, and very natural and organic, then at this exhibition there is always an opportunity to see these forms in nature, and not only to study tablets. The highlight of the program, like last year, was the installation by the artist Nikolai Polissky, this time demonstrating the project "Border of the Empire", shown in all its glory this summer at the festival "Arch-Stoyanie" in the village of Nikola-Lenivets. In this case, the feeling of imperial grandeur had to be inspired by three "delegates" from dozens of pillars, towering in a huge clearing near the Kaluga village. Archaic sculptures of two-headed eagles proudly sit on the tops. The project from Nikola-Lenivets won first place in the category “Subject in the Landscape” - although, I must admit, these are very large objects. Polissky's project could seem very weighty among more "frivolous" neighbors - in fact, it can only be called a park idea with a very big stretch. On the other hand, therefore - because of the dissimilarity to most other works with their variegation and scallops - he was provided with an award.
Many visitors to the exhibition were attracted by the bronze sculpture of a graceful girl with an umbrella over which rain was pouring - another laureate of the "Subject in the Landscape" nomination. She did not appeal either to innovation, or even more so to pagan passions, and perhaps she was simply from our common beautiful distant.
The nomination "Household plots" this year, according to the organizers, became the most long-suffering - neither the second nor the third place was awarded in it, but the first two were awarded at once: "Natural Garden" by Yulia Matveeva and "Garden in a modern style" by the landscape company "New shine". No matter how hard the rest of the participants tried to decorate every corner of the land allotted to them with flowers and herbs, the winners looked more fresh and stylish. In the "modern" garden, everything is built on the combination of horizontals and verticals - flat lawns and small reservoirs with pines elongated upward. In "natural" - a complex landscape is formed by some herbs, referring us to an English landscape park.
In the nomination "City-wide territories" in terms of the totality of works won "Minskproekt", which has implemented in the capital of Belarus the reconstruction and improvement of the pedestrian zone in the area of square. Freedom and improvement of the architectural and construction sign "Belarus partisan 1941-1945".
In the nomination "Project Idea", the jury unanimously chose the project "Gospel Path" by students of the Higher School of Landscape Architecture and Design of the Moscow Architectural Institute - "for a rare reading of the Gospel text and respect for the monastery architecture." The path leading to the monastery embodies the path taken by Christ, and the "park ideas" standing on it are designed to figuratively remind the walker of the main Twelve Great Feasts. First, the traveler is greeted by a light gazebo resembling a huge covering leaf, or perhaps the wing of an angel carrying the "good news" … then an amphitheater symbolizing the Transfiguration of the Lord, and a light eastern well indicates Baptism. The only pity is that these delicate, lyrical works will remain on paper.
The first place in the "Project" nomination in terms of the totality of works was won by the Europark company, which presented three works, of which one can single out "Babylon" - the improvement of the stylobate of a residential complex for employees of the diplomatic corps. Behind tall and fluffy decorative trees, new residents will have the opportunity not only to walk, but sometimes to resolve in a relaxed atmosphere this or that issue of national importance.
