The current exhibition has been jointly prepared by the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and the artist Marco Petrus; the Russian curator of the exposition was Yuri Volchok, professor of the Moscow Architectural Institute. As a result, the exhibition acquired three dimensions: the first is the creative biographies of the most famous representatives of the Milan school and a conversation about Italian rationalism in general.
The second is the artistic interpretation of the heritage of rationalism in the project of Marco Petrus. This is a huge map of Milan, on which the artist drew his own route, reflecting his individual understanding of the city in a relatively short historical perspective. In his "walk" the artist included the iconic objects of Milan architects of the mid-20th century. Plates with biographies prepared by the Institute of Milan, in this context, look like a historical basis for the reflection of the Italian artist and serve as a kind of "decoding" of the map.
Finally, the third dimension, resulting from the first two, was outlined in the opening speech by Yuri Volchok. It goes beyond Italian rationalism and directs the conversation to the issue of the value of the heritage of the architecture of this period as a whole. The masterpieces of Italian rationalism were created in the middle of the century, from the 1930s to the sixties - then Soviet architecture picks up the "baton" - many of the Soviet searches of the time of Khrushchev and Brezhnev were inspired by the example of Italian rationalism. Thus, one thing continues the other, our post-war modernism took a lot from Italian rationalism - these two phenomena are interconnected.
But the Italians are very sensitive to their heritage - this, in particular, is indicated by the project of Marco Petrus. And we still cannot get rid of the negative assessment of the period of the 1960s-70s. - behind the forest of panel house building we do not notice unique works that should be preserved. In any case, the buildings of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev times, alas, are still far from the status of architectural monuments, unlike, for example, the works of the classical Russian avant-garde - those supported by the world community are now valued by our country much more.
Yuri Volchok is convinced that the current exposition is important precisely from the standpoint of preserving heritage - presenting a positive example of Italy to Russians. The curator's idea was to show this exhibition in several Russian cities in order to draw attention to the buildings of the so-called "Khrushchev era" and reflect on their fate.
Italian rationalism was, of course, one of the most influential architectural movements of the 20th century, a powerful source of avant-garde ideas, along with the functionalism of the German Bauhaus and Soviet constructivism. However, as the Milanese monuments of this movement demonstrate to us, it sometimes goes alongside, and not contrary to tradition, which is generally not characteristic of the avant-garde as such. Probably, the Italian land itself played an important role here, having absorbed so many classics that Italian architects simply cannot - even if they wanted - to evade the dialogue between modernity and history.
Each of the artists presented at the exhibition embodies this theme in their own way. Ignazio Gardella, who came from the circle of the Italian avant-garde, grouped around the magazine Casabella, combines the avant-garde with neoclassicism and the style of "rustic". Its tower on Piazza del Duomo is reminiscent of the early constructivist projects of the Vesnin brothers, for example, Leningradskaya Pravda. And the complex of the anti-tuberculosis dispensary in Alessandria recalls the interiors of Vesninsky - in particular, the recreation center of the Proletarsky district - by the way, both projects date back to the 1930s. Passion for rationalism, however, did not prevent Gardella from creating absolutely neoclassical houses. Adolphe Loos' student Giuseppe De Finetti turns to the study of "classical" history in his work on the reconstruction of Milan's districts. Giovanni Muzio interprets the "metaphysical component" in his architecture, bringing to mind the painting of Giorgio de Chirico.
Almost all of the architects presented at the exhibition came from the Milan Polytechnic Institute. By the way, he already once demonstrated his projects for Milan at an exhibition in Moscow, and also showed our avant-garde in the projects of Melnikov and Leonidov at home. Today the time has come to reciprocate, and not only because the historical experience of the Italian architectural school of the 20th century is valuable to us, but also because of the significance of the modern experience of Italians in the field of preserving the monuments of modernism architecture.
