This exhibition was exhibited last year in Sofia as part of the "Year of Russia in Bulgaria" and there it was received "with a bang." Needless to say, Europe has always liked our avant-garde, however, in recent years this topic has been investigated more and more actively, and there is less and less new unexplored material. In order not to show famous things the way it has been done many times, says the curator of the exhibition Irina Chepkunova, they decided to present the Moire materials in a different way - to trace how the socio-cultural ideas of the 1920s developed later, within the framework of classicistic style and on a larger scale.
It is quite logical that workers' clubs became the core of the exposition - one of the main themes of the architectural avant-garde, says Irina Chepkunova, who, by the way, wrote a monograph on this topic. The workers' club, replacing the niche of the church, became the main center of culture and ideology, embodying a gathering of "the best people for the sake of better goals." Social pathos inspired the best architects of the 1920s to experiment with this typology. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, their ideas were supported by the state and a whole program was launched to build workers' clubs throughout the country. As Irina Chepkunova notes, one of the objectives of this exhibition is to prove that the social idea of the club did not die with the end of the avant-garde itself. It was just as popular in the 1930s-1940s, but the scale of the buildings and their stylistic coloring changed.
If in the 1920s the club was a nodal, synthetic cultural center, in which the actual club, theatrical and sports units stood out, then the club in the 1930s was already three separate tasks: a large theater, a stadium, a library. Among the early projects is the famous Red Stadium on Vorobyovy Gory, where the performances were staged by Vs. Meyerhold, fascinated, as you know, by the ideas of synthetic theatrical performance. The exposition also includes the textbook club named after V. I. Zuev Ilya Golosov and the recreation center ZIL of the Vesnin brothers. Especially for the exhibition in MUAR, the Vesninsky sketch of the facade of this grandiose complex was restored.
Following the changes in style since the mid-1930s, the scale of the clubs begins to increase, with individual parts becoming cramped within the same complex. By this time are large stadiums - Izmailovsky in Moscow and the stadium. Kirov in Leningrad. The theme of the interior arrangement of the gigantic theater halls was developed mainly during the landmark competition for the Palace of Soviets. According to Irina Chepkunova, the main task of the builders was to get good designs for large auditoriums - for this they gave prizes. The exposition includes an American project that received the 2nd prize (with the participation of Bulgarian architects), as well as a project drawn by A. Deineka, developed by a group of ARU (urban architects).
The development of the third typology - libraries - is illustrated by competitive projects for the building of the Library. Lenin. The drawings presented reflect the style transformation that took place in the 1930s. Although the competition itself was conceived back in 1925 and was predominantly constructivist in composition, the jury decided upon completion to give an order to a group of eminent architects, which included A. Shchusev, V. Shchuko, etc. But even a project brilliantly executed in the "new style" Shchusev was rejected. The final project of V. Shchuko and V. Gelfreich embodies the neoclassical spirit of the St. Petersburg school.
The objectives of the exhibition did not include the problem of the modern existence of these monuments, especially the buildings of workers' clubs, most of which are known to be in a disastrous state. However, it was interesting to know what the curator herself thinks about this. According to Irina Chepkunova, the only reasonable way out is to preserve the monuments and wait until the money for their restoration appears. These are excellent buildings that work, says Irina Chepkunova, and although most of them have not been restored or renovated, many of the clubs are still functioning for their intended purpose. Meanwhile, with rough alterations, these buildings lose their authenticity, because “constructivism is a style of strict details. To change, for example, windows in them means a lot to change …”. These buildings are few, and let's hope that they will survive until the authorities find opportunities to restore them.
