Soviet people were tempered not only in the flames of battles and the light of the communist doctrine, he was healed in all-Union health resorts. The focus of attention of modern researchers is Evpatoria, Kitezh of Soviet balneology, the city of sanatoriums and pioneer camps with sandy beaches, a warm sea and a healing lake. Today the Soviet sanatoriums, all these "Seagulls" and "Tavria", "Severnye" and "Almaznye", dedicated to the heroes of war and space, have lost their former status: from some barbarously "squeeze" seasonal profits, others are empty in private reservations and are rapidly decaying. Resort "Atlantis" goes into the sand, the memory of it is gradually "nullified".
The Kurortgrad project has three authors: the architect Aleksey Komov, curator of the Arch Evp project, dedicated to the architecture of the Soviet sanatoriums in Yevpatoria; art critic Nikolai Vasiliev and artist Andrei Yagubsky, author of the electronic anthology "Chifan". They decided to collect the lost elements of the ideal city, fix the ones that were leaving, and clarify the plans. We made a "cut" and were convinced: the study and restoration of the Soviet resort Yevpatoria is able to return to the city not only the infrastructure, but also the status of an independent cultural brand with its own routes, expositions, and even festival venues. According to the authors, this is no less, and perhaps even more important than the recently completed restoration of the Karaite Small Jerusalem in the historical center of Evpatoria.
Traveling exhibition “Kurortograd: Evpatoria. Soviet tradition in architectural heritage”is the first sign of the project. We are talking with Alexey Komov and Nikolai Vasiliev: about the exhibition, about the current state and about the value of the monuments of Soviet architecture in the resort of Evpatoria.
Julia Kvasok:
"Kurortograd" is a fantastic word. What does it mean to you? And what does the phrase "Soviet tradition" mean?
Nikolay Vasiliev: "Kurortograd" is the concept of a monotown, but not a scientific or industrial one, or, for example, a residential satellite city, but a city to recuperate. It could manifest itself only under conditions of large-scale centralized planning - or it could grow spontaneously, as tourist zones grow in coastal countries. In the domestic tradition, primarily the Soviet one, this meant a technocratic approach, an approach to mass demand, to the industry - the conveyor started with vouchers distributed by trade unions and other organizations. Further - the way to the station, from where vacationers centrally fell into health resorts with their own, special rhythm - the sea, mud and other procedures, cultural and educational leisure. Children separately - in their children's world. All this, from railway stations to health resorts, was designed by the best Soviet architects, designers, artists, and studied in special scientific disciplines. At the same time, there is no statics - different concepts of "healthy recreation of workers", and with them the architectural styles replaced each other in the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s.
Alexey Komov: In Kurortograd, you can study the history of Soviet architecture: here you can find both the Moinaki mud baths, the Yevpatoria Empire style of Zholtovsky and Turchaninov (little known today), and the Crimean romantic modernism of the sixties, and the megaliths of the eighties … The organism of the whole Union was renewed here - from Kaliningrad to Sakhalin. Therefore, the "era of perestroika" for the city is like a fall from the orbit of a spaceship. A number of interesting projects have remained unfinished, as if destroyed equipment in the "war of the worlds" …
Ancient and pre-revolutionary architecture has long been studied in detail, many books and guidebooks are devoted to it. And next to it is a huge, unique, unexplored layer, which today is either in desolation, or is used purely utilitarian, for the sake of seasonal gain. This is especially noticeable against the background of the long-awaited restoration of the "Little Jerusalem" in the Old City. Before our eyes, not so much the "Soviet", but in general the architectural urban tradition is interrupted. This is what we declare!
Why did you start with Evpatoria? What is its special architectural value in comparison with other Crimean health resorts?
N. V.: Of course, there are many resort towns, there are also Kislovodsk and Gurzuf. Like them, Evpatoria received its first impulses at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, but in Soviet times it was she who became a kind of testing ground for the creation of an ideal, model resort town. This was facilitated by the very spatial structure of the city - a flat area sandwiched between a healing lake and a rapidly warming sea.
Each major stage of the construction of health resorts fell into the pre-revolutionary grid of streets, very successfully laid out, and each such temporal and stylistic layer was a kind of attempt to re-comprehend and find, “manifest” an ideal city in Evpatoria. Just as there is the Small Jerusalem of the Karaites inside the Tatar Gezlev in Yevpatoria, there is also a Jerusalem of its own - the paradise of a Soviet resort-traveler - not a "savage", but a member of a collective - a trade union or a pioneer group. Together, this gives a unique cut of almost all Russian architecture of the 20th century.
A. K.: Evpatoria is insanely diverse, and this diversity contains the “genetic code” of tradition and transformation. Here is a very original, very bright architecture - every era, every style, every house is so impressive! You will not find such a thing either in aristocratic Yalta or in the patriarchal Gurzuf. Some are treated with mud treatments and sunbathing with massage, and me - the local architecture, context. I am here - like a fish in water, I feel these roots, maybe that is why I am so attached to many corners. I look forward to when, after the restoration of the "Little Jerusalem", the turn of the Evpatoria Art Nouveau will come. And there…
It will come to Kurortograd too. The circle of architects of the All-Russian health resort could not do without legendary architects. Who are they?
N. V.: Zholtovsky, Dushkin, Turchaninov - these are only the names of the stars of the Stalinist era, later modernist architecture became more anonymous and is still waiting for its researchers.
A. K.: Boris Belozersky is the first Crimean Soviet architect, the ancestor and devoted adherent of the Soviet tradition of Crimean architecture, the head of the Simferopol Giprogor. This key figure in the history of Crimean urban planning should not remain in the shadows, it is necessary to be known about him outside the peninsula.
In what condition are the buildings today? Can an exhibition project influence their fate to some extent?
N. V.: The last decades of the health resort have been swept by a wave of spontaneous tourism business. Some still work according to the old scheme under the auspices of large corporations, some are abandoned and destroyed, some have not been completed. The materials of the exhibition are a kind of archeology of architecture as material traces of another civilization. We do not create any special illusions about the possibility of preserving such a large volume of buildings proper, but it is important for us to fix them and show the value of these buildings, not only individual ones, but the entire complex, the entire urban fabric of Kurortograd.
Tell us about the concept of the exhibition. What will be included in the exhibition? In what format will the material be presented and where?
N. V.: The bulk of the material is contemporary photographs taken in recent years by Andrey Yagubsky and me on our trips with Alexey Komov. We reinforce, or rather spice up, some architectural graphics that miraculously survived the perturbations of recent decades. Well, there will also be something about resort life in general, although this exhibition is still about architecture, not the anthropology of Soviet life, which in itself can be an interesting development, of course.
To a certain extent, we want to romanticize Soviet architecture, just as the architecture of antiquity was romanticized in painting, photography, and literature two hundred years ago.
What is the proposed (or desired) route of the traveling exhibition? What would you like to talk about with local architects and ordinary visitors in these non-random places?
N. V.: The route, desired and intended, is cities with a strong architectural community and cultural life: start in Nizhny Novgorod - finish in Crimea, and on the way to the capital and just large cities - Novosibirsk, Kharkov, possibly St. Petersburg and Minsk. I would like to encourage them to record the outgoing architecture of the 20th century. To talk about how to understand and perceive it in general - not in the sense of pictures of "terrible" or, on the contrary, "wonderful" Soviet life, but in the sense of a phenomenon in artistic, economic and social life that has not yet been fully appreciated.
Artists are visionaries. Architects are visionaries in a cube. Can you guess what awaits the Soviet architectural tradition? Is “reverse perestroika” coming?
N. V.: I am sure that oblivion does not await tradition. But they expect the loss of hundreds and thousands of buildings - not even from the work of a steam roller of a modern construction complex, but from neglect and misunderstanding. Yes, small-scale imperial ambitions can help preserve the buildings of the Stalinist era, they have already developed their own specific myth. It is more difficult with public buildings and mass housing.
A. K.: How great it would be to come to Evpatoria and go on excursions to the magnificent romantic functions - "The Seagull", "Change", "October"! I would like to help, first of all, the residents of Evpatoria to rediscover the city for themselves and, if possible, preserve it. Ultimately, our audience is not indifferent Crimean youth. We want to look at Kurortograd with their surprised and inquisitive eyes!
The upcoming exhibition has several directions of development. You can continue talking about other Crimean health resorts, filling out the Soviet "resort card". You can fill the existing architectural framework with Soviet history and cultural studies. It is possible to develop the project as an art house project, using the landscape as an artistic testing ground, focusing on the Yevpatoria genius of the place. What are the plans?
N. V.: First, to rent the exhibition so that it is overgrown with the opinions of professional colleagues, and that additional historical and architectural materials could be found in the storerooms and egg-boxes. Experience shows that the first step is needed, otherwise the most interesting things that someone has somewhere will disappear into oblivion.
Secondly, to further develop the Crimea and the Caucasus.
It is known that the fashionable territorial branding today often limps on both legs. On the one hand, it is outsourced to local residents, whose needs and habits are rather conservative. On the other hand, the theme is now and then occupied by the business and art community, focused on selfish motives and borrowed samples. It is even more difficult for Kurortograd: waves of seasonal tourists beat against its walls every year, prompting a momentary reaction - from cheap stalls and attractions to eternal cosmetic repairs. It seems that it is the architect who can say a weighty word about the identity of the place and the prospects for its development. What would you say about Evpatoria?
N. V.: An architect can only offer a certain vision of the future, an ideal city. And everyone will have to embody. In the case of Evpatoria, several extremely interesting futures were proposed, and we can only present their fragments, and which of them will add up as a result is not in our power. But we are obliged to provide the material.
A. K.: The exhibition about the past, present and future of Kurortograd will become the basis of the "data bank" of the architectural guide to this period of the architecture of the Crimean city. On the basis of the post-war general plan, we will create a virtual Kurortograd, where we will show both what was built and is under threat of loss, and what has been preserved only in the drawings. And let young architects think out the rest in the tradition of "paper architecture".
There is also an idea to develop the Arch Evp format within the framework of the Evpatoria Biennale of Contemporary Art. It is architecture that will help develop a universal concept for the development of the city, create a new fabric that will serve as a tug of other opportunities. This can be done through "small forms" - movable sculptures, installations-attractions, interesting viewing platforms. How durable such structures will be is not important, but it is important to arouse the residents' interest in their hometown, teach them to be proud of the wonderful past. It is necessary to continue the tradition of high architecture, not by mummifying the heritage, but by stretching a thread into the future. Kurortograd is a magnificent accord of the Evpatoria symphony, and we want it to become a springboard for the Crimean cultural renaissance.
