An information pavilion dedicated to the Zaryadye park project was opened yesterday. The decision is quite logical: next to Vasilievsky Spusk, if not a fragment of the future park, then, at least, its representative has appeared. Meanwhile, the new pavilion is not some standard information kiosk: thanks to the efforts of the architects of the SPEECH bureau, a copy of the central part of the interior of the Russian pavilion at the 2012 Venice Biennale has been restored.
The Venice Pavilion of 2012, which caused a heated discussion and various responses, but was noticed by absolutely everyone (by the way, it received a special mention from the Venice Biennale), was an amazing hybrid of a classical architectural theme and modern technologies: in its central part of glowing metal squares in QR - the most perfect Pantheon was composed by codes. To put it more precisely, a geometrically generalized image of the Pantheon, cleared of columns and aedicules εἶδος of a Roman masterpiece.
This domed core of the Venetian exposition has now been reproduced (exactly, on a one-to-one scale) in Zaryadye, filling its QR codes with new content: in 2012 Venice showed projects of the Skolkovo innovation city, now fourteen sections are devoted to competition projects of Zaryadye Park and the history of the region, and one, fifteenth, tells about the recreated pavilion and its authors. The reproduced pavilion thus also, and quite rightly, became a part of the exhibition.
This is how it looks - from the outside, the digital "Pantheon", as a valuable exhibit, is surrounded by a stepped glass-metal cover, somewhat similar to the dome of the Reichstag, a modern translucent structure supported from the inside by powerful metal ribs.
The outer shell significantly recedes from the walls of the inner, "Venetian" hall, resulting in a spacious roundabout that serves as a second exhibition hall (there was no such thing in Venice). On the inner walls, briefly, in pictures, the story of Zaryadye is told; on the outer wall, a translucent film is pasted, depicting a park designed by the Diller & Scofidio team. The picture illuminated by sunlight looks almost as if it were alive (especially when viewed from the very center, through one of the three doors) - and enters into a precisely calculated game with the real environment: above the image of St. Basil's Cathedral, through a strip of glass, one can see the domes and towers of a real cathedral drawn the trees continue with branches of the living, in the background - the fact that half of the painted park is winter, half is summer, and outside is spring gives some surrealism to the comparison. It is worth entering the pavilion if only to feel this play of meanings superimposed on each other like onion peels. Outside, by the way, the play of reflections continues: the brilliant environment contributes to this, and the glass edges reflect the cathedral, the Church of Barbara, the tower, or the photograph.
In front of the pavilion, a small square with flower beds and benches is laid out, which maintains the effect of the "incipient park" is present.
The pavilion is planned as a temporary structure, but at its opening Sergei Kuznetsov expressed hope that, perhaps, its architecture will fit into the future park and remain in it. We asked Sergei Kuznetsov, the author of the idea of restoring the Venetian pavilion within the framework of Zaryadye, a few questions.
Sergey Kuznetsov, chief architect of Moscow:
How did you come up with the idea of reproducing the 2012 Venice Pavilion? Why exactly here and now?
- The idea came to my mind when in 2013, celebrating my birthday in Venice (I generally try to be in Venice for my birthday), I drew the domes of San Marco. They are very expressive; then I thought that such a form would be well read in Zaryadye. The dome has a nice feature: it doesn't argue with its surroundings. In relation to the outer space, the dome is universal, but the inside is dramatic … I continued to work with this idea and soon came to the conclusion that if you put one dome inside another, as Brunelleschi did in Santa Maria del Fiore, it would be interesting. About six months passed from idea to implementation.
As you know, a relatively large team worked on the first pavilion in 2012, I was only a part of it: co-curator and co-author of the Venetian pavilion. Then the ideological inspirer was Sergei Tchoban; Grigory Revzin, Konstantin Chernozatonsky - many people participated there, to whom I must say thank you for the fact that this space was born at all.
Well, I proposed to reproduce the pavilion exactly here, since at this stage I am responsible for the implementation of the Zaryadye park.
Wouldn't the classic idea of the dome contradict the modernist idea of the park from Dealer & Scorfidio?
- It seems to me that this dome is an absolutely modern piece. I believe that modern architecture at its best bears the mark of the classics.
- Aren't you, as a co-author of the first pavilion, embarrassed by the very fact of repetition, cloning of the pavilion?
- We emphasize in every possible way the history of the project and the continuity with the 2012 pavilion. One of the fifteen informational sections here is dedicated to the Venetian pavilion. I would even say that we are making from the success story of the Russian pavilion at the Biennale the success story of Zaryadye Park. In my opinion, it is correct when history accumulates in layers - as in Rome.
In principle, I assess the reproduction of the Venetian pavilion as its transfer from Venice to Moscow. Otherwise, it would have survived only in photographs and in literature, but it would have been impossible to see it with our own eyes. It can be put on the same row as the Montreal pavilion, "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" … Now here we are - we have recreated the 2012 Venice pavilion.
How would you, the co-author of the pavilion and the author of the idea of its reproduction, react to its subsequent copies? The one made now, the replica suggests further reproductions or not?
- In theory, you can put another "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" next to an already existing sculpture, and stamp them further, which, incidentally, no one does, because it is pointless. It's the same here. For me this is a piece-by-piece reproduction of a very specific piece. The work, which may well be called original, because all the authors are in good health, they participated in its recreation. We can, somewhere, if necessary, use QR codes differently, but the dome itself is a unique piece of art, it cannot be repeated. It's just that it was in another country for some time, and now it will be with us.
Reference:
The international competition for the development of the landscape and architectural concept of Zaryadye Park ended in November 2013. The winner of the competition was a consortium led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (USA), which also included landscape architects Hargreaves Associates (USA) and Russian urbanists Citymakers (Russia – Denmark).
The information pavilion, where you can both find out details about the Zaryadye park project and see with your own eyes a part of the main interior of the 2012 Venice pavilion, is open on weekdays from 11:00 to 20:00, on weekends from 10:00 to 19:00 …
