An unexpectedly violent reaction from bloggers was caused by another loud idea of Marat Gelman, who proposed to arrange a new center of contemporary art in the crumbling building of the River Station in Tver. As a successful example of such a transformation, the famous gallery owner cited, of course, the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, created, as you know, in the premises of the former River Station. However, according to bloggers, Gelman's plans for Tver are not limited to the development of another transport infrastructure facility. So, the author of karavan-plus reports that Marat Aleksandrovich planned to make Tver a part of a global cultural project and, on the basis of the city's printing potential, to develop the so-called. "Publishing paradise". In April, the first landing party of contemporary art will land in the city - the festival "Believe in Tver" will be held here. Local residents, however, are wary of these plans and worried about the fate of the River Station: the well-known monument of constructivism, which is in federal ownership and has been in desolation for many years, has reached "an extreme degree of devastation," writes the author of the blog kerlangua.
Assumptions about the future fate of the monument are very different. For example, in the tver community, where the discussion passions have escalated to such an extent that the moderators even imposed a moratorium on comments, blogger alex_tverskoy said: "About two months ago I heard that the River Station is going to be demolished in order to restore the Otroch Monastery." The Assumption Cathedral of the monastery (by the way, the most ancient in Tver, where, according to legend, Malyuta Skuratov strangled Metropolitan Philip) is indeed located very close to the station, but plans for its regeneration are still in question: “About demolition, this is rubbish! - says ale_ku. - I know for sure. They were going to demolish the superstructure on the roof, and then put the light model of the old one after the repair, so that such a weight would not press on the roof. Now, after strengthening the roof structure, we decided to restore everything in its original form, using similar materials."
It is noteworthy that after Gelman's project appeared on the horizon, money for the restoration of the River Station was unexpectedly found. The art critic himself explains this simply: “Culture in itself is not interesting to the authorities, but only when it is part of big politics. The first thing we did was explain that the restoration of the station is not a waste of money, but a step so that Tver becomes one of the generators of cultural events in the country. Tver residents, however, do not believe the ideologue of contemporary art and call him a “great schemer”.
At this time, in the "patrimony" of Guelman himself - Perm, a scandal continues, connected with the criminal prosecution of Andrey Golovin, the head of the development of the Strategic Master Plan for the city. From the text of the accusation, which was analyzed in detail in the blog of Alexander Lozhkin, it became known that Golovin was attracted under the article "negligence" for paying the KCAP bureau to develop a master plan for Perm. The charge was brought forward on the basis of the expert opinion of Sergei Mityagin, an employee of the St. Petersburg RAASN, in which the study of the Dutch was called “unscientific,” insufficiently substantiated and elaborated. Alexander Lozhkin rightly considers such an expert assessment to be absurd, if only because the new General Plan of Perm, approved two months ago, has already been created on the basis of the KCAP master plan. And most importantly, starting the trial, we translate a theoretical dispute between different urban planning schools into a criminal plane, but this is already a terrible symptom, Alexander Lozhkin is sure. He calls for signing an open letter in defense of Andrei Golovin. Yuri Avvakumov, Sergey Skuratov, Yuri Grigoryan, Evgeny Ass and others have already put their signatures.
The Moscow master plan, meanwhile, once again became the subject of a heated public discussion. This time the discussion took place on the Dozhd TV channel with the participation of Grigory Revzin, Konstantin Mikhailov and Marat Gelman. The video can be viewed on the blog of the latter.
A disturbing record about the fate of the club of the Hammer and Sickle plant, built in 1928-1931, has appeared in the “Moscow which does not exist” community. designed by the famous constructivist Ignatius Milinis. Co-author of Ginzburg in the project of the famous Narkomfin commune house, Milinis transferred some of its recognizable elements to the club building, for example, gallery corridors. But the club may soon lose all this, if security agencies do not interfere in its protracted reconstruction. The fact is that since the 1990s the club has been rented out, awaiting restoration with the restoration of the original volumes. Since 2005, renovation work began in the premises of the plant's administration, and since 2008 - rebuilding under the "Diaghilev" club. As the blog writes, in the hall and foyer today, indistinct work is underway, and in the circle zone and the hall, everything is completely abandoned. Continuing the theme of the legacy of constructivism, we also note the post in the community "Konstantin Melnikov", dedicated to the unsuccessful restoration of the famous club of the "Svoboda" factory, during which the club lost its original interiors.
The state of monuments and new threats are also well monitored in the regions, though not in all. In Yekaterinburg, for example, a blog dedicated to heritage sites is maintained by Oleg Bukin, an inspector of the local VOOPIiK. Among his latest entries are posts about illegal construction on the territory of the monument - the Mislavsky hospital, in the Weiner park, reconstruction of the "Passage", etc.
In Rostov-on-Don, the local branch of VOOPIiK also has a "platform" in the worldwide network. In this blog, information has recently appeared that the regional Ministry of Culture has agreed on a dubious project for the reconstruction of the Cathedral Square of the city. Its main task is the construction of an underground parking, and it will be carried out on the territory of protected zones of several monuments at once - the Nativity Cathedral with a bell tower, shopping malls, Maksimov's House (the first "city hall"), etc. However, the project does not say anything about how the construction will affect the foundations of the heritage sites, nor any restoration work on them.
Sad news came from Vladikavkaz: the oldest surviving cinema in Russia, the Pathe Brothers, founded in 1907 and currently a monument of federal significance, is being destroyed there. An open appeal to the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Alexander Avdeev in defense of the building can be read here.
At the end of the review, we will note several interesting posts on the history of architecture. For example, the MGSU blog published an article about exotic Soviet-made building materials, such as reed straw or dried corn, used in residential construction. The blog of the Museum of Architecture, in turn, became interested in plans for the construction of a new building for the Russian State Library on Vozdvizhenka - after all, we are talking about the site adjacent to the museum. The museum has published unique photographs and measurements of the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery, the surviving foundations of which fall into the area of the proposed construction. More precisely, we are talking about the foundations of the main cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, destroyed in the 1930s - one of the last churches in the spirit of the "Moscow Baroque".
Local historian dedushkin1 managed to find much less information about another large church lost in Soviet times - the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Miusskaya Square. The blogger dedicated his post to the 150th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom, since it was in memory of the 1861 manifesto that this second largest temple after Christ the Savior was laid. In the 1920s, attempts were made to convert the giant 21-domed cathedral into a crematorium and radio center; abandoned, it stood until the 1950s, and then it was dismantled.
Another detailed art criticism review - about the so-called. "Russian town" near St. Petersburg can be read in the blog tsarskoye. Architectural samples for this amazing "museum of ancient Russian architecture" were chosen by Nicholas II himself - this is how details of the Rostov Kremlin, motives of the paintings of the Terem Palace and the Faceted Chamber, the temples of Novgorod and Kostroma of the XVI-XVII, ornamental carving in the spirit of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture of the XII century, etc..d. And the blog ru_sovarch published a story about almost the most futuristic architectural object of the 1980s - the "Sun" solar complex, built near Tashkent and becoming one of the last triumphs of Soviet science.
