According to the commissioner of the Russian pavilion Grigory Revzin, the Skolkovo innovation city project this year turned out to be out of competition. And this is quite understandable, given that nothing more significant has happened in Russian architecture over the past two years. Even the large-scale Olympic construction site and the grandiose projects of the Russky Island do not look so convincing against the backdrop of the innovation city. In addition, Western "stars", even Pritzker laureates, as well as curators of the Venice Biennale (including the current curator David Chipperfield) are involved in the design of Skolkovo. What served as an additional argument in favor of showing Skolkov's projects: everyone knows that the stellar line-up of participants almost one hundred percent guarantees an increased interest in the pavilion.
This year, as in 2010, the exhibition is curated by Sergey Tchoban and Sergey Kuznetsov from the Speech Tchoban & Kuznetsov architectural bureau, which is one of the general designers of Skolkovo.
According to Sergei Tchoban, the structure of the exposition was based on the architecture of the Shchusev pavilion built in 1913: complex, fascinating and unique at the same time. Its spacious, but chambered halls with overhead lighting have no analogues in the Giardini gardens, Sergei Tchoban is sure. But there are also difficulties: as you know, the lower floor, which arose after the Soviet reconstruction, is in no way connected with the upper one, their entrances are autonomous.
“It was impossible not to respond to this architecture with the exposition,” says Sergei Tchoban. “We divided the exposition into two parts. In the lower hall, which in essence and in content is a plinth, the Soviet history of science cities is presented. On this basis, a completely different, modern and innovative city of Skolkovo arose. We will show him in the upper three halls."
Science cities were isolated from the rest of the world, people lived in them as if in a different dimension. This disunity and closeness will be the general line in the exposition of the lower hall. Skolkovo is an active antipode to science cities - an open, eco-friendly, green city in which people can live, work and constantly communicate with each other. Such characteristics of the future innovation city, according to the curator, exactly fall into the theme of the Biennale “common ground”, which means “common interests”, “common views” or “common ground”.
The method of showing Skolkovo projects during the meeting was not specified, but the curators, smiling intriguingly, noticed that it would be quite unexpected.
“We have come up with a new system of knowledge of the world, it will be a kind of progressive process of mastering information with the help of electronic equipment and IT-technologies, - Sergey Choban explained, - be prepared for the fact that when you enter the pavilion, you will see absolutely abstract and at first glance saying nothing, but mesmerizing spaces."
The three upper halls, built one after the other like a suite, according to the curators' intention, will create the necessary atmosphere that encourages visitors to explore the space on their own. Moving from hall to hall, they will reveal all the new features, learn the details of the presented project, becoming infected with the intrigue created around it.
Grigory Revzin confidently stated that nothing like this was presented at any exhibition he had seen before. According to him, Russia has always occupied a rather specific place at the Biennale. The main trends of the exhibition related to modern and innovative architecture, until now seemed inaccessible to the Russian pavilion. As a result, they got out as best they could, presenting all kinds of low-tech, alternative directions or pure hand-made.
“It's impossible to show Skolkovo like that. Skolkovo is a high-tech project, it is all about innovation, about a new standard of living, about how science and modern technologies enter human life. Therefore, our position this year is exceptional. We have created a space that is both physical and virtual,”concluded Grigory Revzin.
The unconventional presentation of the material provided another unique feature of the exposition - the ability to constantly update the content. For the dynamically developing Skolkovo project, where changes are constantly taking place, competitions are held, new specialists are involved - this is especially important. During the three months of the Biennale's work, the Russian exposition will be regularly updated with fresh data from the scene, practically online.
Sergey Kuznetsov explained: “We tried to create a kind of monitor or translator that would allow us to track changes in the project during and after the Biennale. The tool for presenting information created by us can be filled with any content, updated, reflashed and demonstrated in the future at any other exhibition."
Regarding the content of the exposition, the curators mentioned that the exhibition will show 30 winners of the first round of the competition for the development of Skolkovo quarters, and in more detail - 10 finalists who are already designing the quarters of the innovation city.
Having intrigued the audience a lot, the speakers kindly invited everyone present to visit the Russian pavilion in Venice, which is scheduled to open on August 27.
