For the third year in a row, the curator of the festival is Yuri Avvakumov, for the third year, “Zodchestvo” is organized according to the pavilion principle, and the expositions, grouped by 12 cloth “cubes”, are already perceived as traditional. The cross-cutting theme of the show, which the curator comes up with, has also become a tradition. Two years ago Avvakumov was looking for the "Index of Sustainability", in 2010 he was collecting "Necessary", and now he wondered what Russian architecture is, what is its genome and whether there is anything that distinguishes our national architecture from all the others. The philosophical question did not arise by itself, but was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Union of Architects of Russia, which the main trade union of architects celebrates this year.
When Yuri Avvakumov was just coming up with a new structure for the exhibition, he promised that one of the pavilions would bear the proud name “Russia” and show a competitive curatorial exposition “capable of presenting Russian architecture on the international stage”. This description can be found today on the official website of Zodchestvo, but, strictly speaking, it no longer corresponds to reality. Firstly, this year the festival has basically no curatorial exposition - the manifesto is printed in large print on the side façade of one of the pavilions closest to the entrance, and, having familiarized themselves with it, visitors can go on an independent search for the national features of Russian architecture. Secondly, there is no "Russia" either, although the "Regions", in which the expositions of workshops and design institutes from different parts of the Russian Federation are collected, have survived. As for "Russia", then, apparently, in honor of the chosen theme, the curator decided to extend this name to all pavilions - fortunately, it consists of six letters both in Russian and in English, just enough for 12 "cubes".
This year, there is no separate pavilion in St. Petersburg, which has always been a very large-scale presence at the festival before. But the Republic of Sakha (only a small piece had to be given to the competition "House of the XXI Century", which lacked one pavilion), "Krasnodar Territory", "Moscow" and "Skolkovo" had their own "cubes". In the latter, visitors are promised 4D, but there is no need to be afraid of vibration and odors: Skolkovo-style “four-te” is four video projectors that show colorful videos about the future innovation city on all four walls of the pavilion. And for those who intend to watch all the films or just relax under the groovy techno, bright poufs are scattered on the floor.
Krasnodar Krai is a pavilion no less visited than Skolkovo, and the reason for the general interest is about the same: everyone has heard about the Olympic construction site, but no one knows what will actually be there. The Krasnodar exposition lifts the veil of secrecy: in the center of the pavilion there are two large models, on which all the objects of the Imeretinskaya Valley and Krasnodar itself are collected, and tablets of the projected stadiums, sports palaces and ice arenas are hung on the walls. And, by the way, almost all of these objects were created or adapted by Russian architects, and on some tablets the stamp "CAP 30 years" proudly flaunts.
In the pavilion "Moscow", on the contrary, there are very few discoveries: the walls there literally burst with all sorts of general plans and town-planning schemes, and a red carpet runner was launched diagonally, over which the glass stand of the Moscow Architecture Committee rises. This box demonstrates all sorts of socially important objects - comfortable apartment buildings of the new series, for example, typical gardens with a sufficient number of play rooms, a leisure center with a sports block. The question: “And where is architecture?” Is already ready to break off the tongue, but two times back and forth you walk along the scarlet path, and the message of the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Construction becomes obvious: is it about architecture when the city lacks convenient social infrastructure facilities.
Just as indistinct, alas, is the “Urban Planning” pavilion, located at the very tail of the exposition. On the one hand, this is a clear adherence to the trend - that modern cities are inconvenient and need an ambulance from professional and wise city planners, is not said today by the lazy. On the other hand, the following is quite formal - well, tablets are hung on the walls (mainly plans for the territorial development of individual regions and districts), well, in the center of the pavilion there is a huge unnamed model depicting the sea coast, mountains and cozy settlements between them - but after all not a single sharp question is answered. By the way, there is not a single tablet (within the framework of the entire festival) and about "Big Moscow" - now, probably, the most painful question for the two central regions of the country. However, on the weekend the organizers promise to hold a discussion on this topic.
The outer (and, as always, rather thin) exposition layer on both walls of the Manege contains buildings and projects submitted for the competition. True, the exhibition hall, as you know, has a very decent length - for so many meters over the past two years, alas, there have not been any projects or buildings, so they have been completed with all the shows that have taken place recently or are taking place at the moment. This is a series of exhibitions of temple architecture held by the Union of Architects in several cities, and the House of the Year award (due to which many of the presented buildings are repeated twice), and the National Award for Landscape Architecture, and the First Russian Competition Glass in Architecture. In general, such a digest of events for the year is apparently an ideal option for those who come to the capital only for Zodchestvo, but are sincerely interested in “what else they have here”.
This year there were also few participants in the traditional competition for young architects, and architectural schools are somehow ghostly present in the exposition: 21 universities are declared in the catalog, but in reality only 3-4 students show their work. Well, and the apotheosis of modesty was the exposition of applicants for the main award of the festival - "Crystal Daedalus". These are projects and buildings, pre-selected by the jury as the most worthy and already awarded with diplomas of various degrees. And if the "bronze" and "silver" scored three objects required by the regulations (albeit in both nominations due to the restoration of religious buildings), then only one project and two buildings apply for the "gold" this year - Boris Eifman's Dance Academy "Studios 44 ", complex restoration of the Oranienbaum Museum-Reserve (Demetra LLC) and the Federal Scientific and Clinical Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology of Alexander Asadov. In such a meager scenario, the outcome of the struggle for "Daedalus" is almost obvious, as well as the fact that Russian architecture is still going through a grave crisis. It's even a shame that the name “Russian Poor” has already been used by another, no less famous curator.
