This year, the Biennale will be open to the public for the first time from June 7 to November 23 - almost six months, whereas earlier an architectural exhibition, unlike an art one, began only in August or even in mid-September. The event will be attended by 65 countries, including the traditionally presented national exposition in the Russian pavilion, built exactly one hundred years ago by the project of Alexei Shchusev. The Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas was the curator of the entire Biennale, who posed a very definite question to the participants: “How did architecture become modern: 1914–2014”. In the expositions of national pavilions, he proposed to cover a hundred years of architecture development - and not in author's projects, but in full-fledged research. During this century, in his opinion, there was a global spread of modernism, and the architectural diversity was replaced by the "universal language of modern architecture."
Trying to find their own answer to the question posed, the staff of the Strelka Institute and invited experts headed by the director of the institute Varvara Melnikova, culturologist Anton Kalgaev, New York journalist and editor Brendan McGetrick, architect and teacher of the institute Daria Paramonova, as well as director Philip Grigoryan chose an unusual and, at the same time, the most suitable format of the exhibition-fair, because it was from the fair that the Venice Biennale grew, turning into a world cultural event.
The Russian exposition bears the ironic name "Fair Enough", roughly translated from English it means "Quite fair", but it can be interpreted in very different ways. As the curators explain, "the title expresses the recognition by the authors of the exhibition of a certain status quo - both about the complexity and ambiguity of the history of Russian architecture, and about the language that architecture is forced to use." Literally, this translates as "enough" (enough) "fair" (fair). With this statement, the authors take a reflexive position in relation to the fairground character of the Venice Biennale. In relation to the exhibition "Fair Enough" is a fair of ideas, a market for architectural discoveries, where each exhibit marks an important milestone in modern history, demonstrating the role of architecture of the past in solving today's problems.
In a real embodiment, each idea at the "fair" will be presented by a fictional company with a carefully developed legend based on real documents about the history of this or that project. There will even be sales assistants ready to answer any questions from visitors.
Brendan McGetrick spoke about the theoretical part of the Russian exposition. He is convinced that for the last hundred years Russia has been an integral part of the globalized architectural process. And we are talking not only about the period of the Soviet avant-garde, which had the strongest influence on world architecture: Russia's participation in the development of world architecture has always been noticeable. That is why it is so important to once again remember her achievements and analyze the path traveled.
The concept of an “idea fair” was not born immediately. Anton Kalgaev said that the desire to present to the world the history of Russian architecture in all its complexity and contradictions had been looking for an optimal embodiment for several months - in the study of a huge amount of archival and scientific materials, in numerous consultations with Russian and world experts. The result is an interesting concept of the exhibition, which, nevertheless, should not be confused with the historical one, exploring the irrevocably gone past. The most important thing in it is that the Russian ideas that have emerged over the past hundred years have retained their relevance to this day.
The curators of the exposition did not begin to talk about all the ideas that can be seen in the Russian pavilion, but some of them, allowing to get a very definite idea of the nature of the exhibition, were nevertheless presented to the public. For example, Rem Koolhaas's thesis that global architecture erases national features was also topical in Russian architecture at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the period of Russian and neo-Russian styles, which will be reflected in one of the "kiosks" of the exposition.
Another problem of our time - architectural education - will be rethought in an installation dedicated to VKHUTEMAS. According to Anton, today the architectural profession is highly computerized. Architects are no longer "inspired artists at the easel, but sickly looking clerks bending their backs in front of monitors." The memory of VKHUTEMAS, which offered a unique educational method, is capable of returning an architect to the foundations of his profession.
An equally interesting issue is the ever-increasing social role of architecture, a theme that has also been reflected in Russian history. An entertaining subject was chosen for the Biennale, offering a fresh look at the ideas of the talented Suprematist artist Lazar Khidekel, a student of Kazimir Malevich, who in 1942, while working at the metallurgical plants of the Urals, invented the technology of prefabricated structures - the "frame block" construction, which makes it possible to assemble buildings literally from construction waste. Today, there are many non-profit foundations working in areas of natural disasters and military conflicts. Hidekel's ideas could be applied to rehabilitate the affected areas.
Alexey Shchusev will be one of the central characters of the exposition. This was a fundamental moment, since this year the pavilion he designed is celebrating its centenary. The curators tried to identify a special "Shchusev method", which today looks very relevant for large architectural corporations that design a completely different-style architecture for everyone, and these firms, like Shchusev, always work at the highest level.
Most of the ideas that will be shown in the Russian pavilion inspire their application in real life, but there are also those that look like a warning. For example, one of the companies invented by the curators depicts a consulting office preparing arguments for the demolition of architectural monuments. The slogan of the company sounds like "The same thing - only better!" Here, the most revealing examples will be such sad examples from domestic practice as the Voentorg and the Moskva hotel. This section is devoted to the stagnation of historic cities due to strict rules for the preservation of architectural objects, which ultimately lead not to savings at all, but to the loss of monuments and the appearance of pitiful fakes in their place.
Concluding the story about the content of the Russian exposition, Anton Kalgaev stressed that the curators did not have the task of presenting a holistic and consistent picture of the development of architecture in our country. But a person who has visited the exhibition will definitely bring out a couple of stories from there that he will remember for a long time.
Daria Paramonova told about the means by which the concept of the exposition will be realized: “We have converted important ideas of the past into modern mythology, which is formed by three main components - corporate identity, various printed materials, in which all theoretical foundations and their actualization are detailed, and, of course, the architecture itself. We are used to seeing this language every day, but it is difficult to imagine it in Venice. For us, this is to some extent a challenge. But, on the other hand, the idea of a “fair” will make it possible to communicate well with the public”. Interactive show programs and such a new way of presenting material as performance, which is a new way of presenting material for the architectural biennale, will serve to achieve the set objectives.
The performance was prepared by director Philip Grigoryan. The exhibition simulates a commercial fair ("expo"), so during the two opening days (June 5 and 6) and June 7, when the exhibition opens to the general public, "sales representatives" of fictitious companies will work at each stand. As Philip Grigoryan said, when choosing "sales representatives", he immediately refused the services of professional actors. Instead of them, specialists of various professions were invited, able to competently and naturally tell about the stand they represent. These will be architects, architectural historians, journalists, etc.
The new commissioner of the Russian exposition, rector of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (INZhSA) Semyon Mikhailovsky, who replaced Grigory Revzin in this position, noted that the uniqueness of this year's exposition is largely due to the fact that its curator was not one person, but a whole institute - a large a team of young, energetic and very interested people. The very idea of presenting a number of conceptual proposals of the past, according to Mikhailovsky, does not seem unexpected. The rich history of Russia has always attracted the greatest interest from the world community. The idea to demonstrate Russian ideas came to Yuri Avvakumov's head in 1996, but he concentrated on paper architecture, while Strelka deliberately chose exclusively realized ideas. At the 14th Biennale there will be practically no mention of the Russian avant-garde for which Russia is famous, but it will offer a colossal experience accumulated over a hundred years that can be used in modern conditions.
The whole concept of the exhibition is summarized in one slogan - “Russia’s past, our present”. This is a play on words that can be translated as “Russia's past is our present”, reflecting the authors' desire to place ideas from the history of Russian architecture in a modern context, as well as “Russia's past is our gift”, showing a willingness to convey our ideas to the international public in a clear means.
On the very first day of the opening of the Biennale, the exposition website www.fairenough.ru will start working, where it will be possible to read the online catalog of the exhibition in two languages, find information about events in the pavilion, see photos and videos, and learn more about each project exhibited. This site will also publish discussions on the subject of the exhibition, which will be held at Strelka in July this year.
