Archi.ru:
Are all of the above projects your own?
Eduard Kubensky:
- Not really. In some I am presented as an author, in some as a curator and even a manager. The Patterner of the Russian Avant-garde is my author's project. It consists of kaleidoscopes (the word "patterner" is a synonym for the word "kaleidoscope"), intended for self-filling with bulk (a term used by manufacturers of kaleidoscopes: it denotes the various elements that serve as the basis for the patterned kaleidoscope map). The patterners are filled with icons of vivid images of the Russian avant-garde, such as the black square, the windows of the Melnikov house, the grid of the Shukhov tower and others. The viewer is free to choose a set from the 25 elements suggested by the author. As a result, each project participant collects his own set of fillings, receiving a mathematical guarantee of the uniqueness of future patterns for 500 million years. Just think: 500 million years! "URA (Patterner of the Russian Avant-garde), comrades!"
"The Architect's Duty" is my joint author and curatorial project with the editor of the TATLIN publishing house Maria Ryavina, first presented to the public on July 7, 2014 in Yekaterinburg as part of the annual celebration of the World Day of the Ural Architect, or The DURA. The intellectual platform of the holiday, if I may say so, is the current topic of the professional community. In 2014, this topic was the tenth anniversary of the Code of Professional Ethics of Russian Architects. To our surprise, we regretfully found that most of the practicing Russian architects either never read it, or did not even suspect the existence of such a document, while it outlines the fundamental foundations of the profession. We decided to update the provisions formulated in the document in the art project.
The project consists of two parts. The first part - "Tablets" - consists of four "stone" blocks on which the text of the Codex is "carved". The construction is based on ordinary foam, covered with Derufa plaster, on which the voluminous Codex text is printed with a stencil. The key words of the code “The architect must” formed the basis of the second part of the project. We have rehabilitated the shape of the tear-off wall calendar by posting Codex quotes on its pages on Mondays that begin with “the architect must”; on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, there are statements of architects who, at our request, continued the phrase with the key words of the document, on Fridays - aphorisms of great architects, also starting with the words "the architect must". The weekend pages present a brief history of the world's urban development. On the backs of the calendar sheets, there is a dictionary of architectural terms. The calendar is designed to remind its user every day of professional duty, and the tablets, which at first glance seem to be a kind of artifact, in fact turn out to be foam plastic props.
"Porosl" is an exhibition project that tells about the five-year practice of the TATLIN publishing house in the field of children's creativity. Within the framework of the project, more than a thousand children's works performed within the framework of nine competitions of children's creativity were presented. The exposition is a clearing of metal rods, equal to the number of children's works, fixed at the base and holding copies of children's drawings at a height of one meter. A fishing bell is mounted under each drawing. The young "shoots" are pleasing to the eye and jingle merrily when they enter into a dialogue with her. The figurative idea of the exposition was suggested by an old friend of the publishing house, artist Vladimir Nasedkin.
Your installations and graphic projects are well known and appear with noticeable regularity. What connects your art projects with each other? Is there some kind of leitmotif, common thread or goal that you are moving towards?
- The main goal of all projects, without exception, is the search for their own identity. Perhaps that is why our projects are so different. We are equally interested in the history of architecture and modern practice, children's creativity and the work of masters. History for us is part of the process of knowing the world. Working within the historical context and daily responding to the challenges of our time, we generate new forms and approaches. Our publishing activity has long stepped over the pages of traditional publications. Probably, this is the identity of the TATLIN publishing house, which grew out of a small architectural bureau. For us, a book is not a pile of sealed and bound paper, dressed in a bright cover or without it at all, we, following the street art artists, have learned to publish the authors' materials in the city space. A billboard, a tear-off calendar, a street screen, shovels, boxes, T-shirts and even a city master plan - this is the new space for TATLIN books. And it doesn't matter that the listed forms do not have a root, although, of course, the root is a whole genre.
Do you think, just like the curators of the festival, that the study of the avant-garde can lead to a new spurt in the renewal of art - including architecture? If so, then another question - is it really necessary to update it? Isn't it better to limit yourself to progressive development, growth from the roots?
- I think this question is answered by the name of our publishing house. Vladimir Tatlin has always been and remains a symbol of renewal for us. For me personally, constant development is a real tradition. Anything can be the locomotive of such a movement - research into the avant-garde, natural disasters, a broken leg, a punk prayer, a march of dissent, and even … urban studies.
In dictionaries, translational motion is the movement of a system of points, in which any segment of a straight line associated with a moving body, the shape and dimensions of which do not change during movement, remains parallel to its position at any previous moment in time. It seems a little boring to me! I have always been fascinated by non-Euclidean geometry, where even parallel lines intersect.
How are avant-garde and identity connected?
- I will answer this question with one of my curious observations, which eventually turned into a practical plane. A kind of pearl of Yekaterinburg constructivism is the water tower of the Uralmash residential area, better known as the White Tower. The white-stone temples of Vladimir Rus can be called a symbol of Russian identity. If you take a closer look at the White Tower of Uralmash, it becomes clear that the avant-garde is part of the tradition. The White Tower stands on one of the highest points of Uralmash, which were previously used for the construction of temples. The main building of the tower is covered with a dome, just like in churches. The running steps of the technical staircase of the White Tower with lowered passages under its kosoura resemble the spaces of monastic cells - this is realized immediately, as soon as you bow your head while climbing it. And, finally, a cross, formed by the vertical and horizontal lines of the window openings of the stairs and the tank. But only in the White Tower are all these elements associated with purely functional requirements in the spirit of constructivism, and in the temples they are defined by canons developed over the centuries. It would seem that the Temple of God and a tank of water - what can be in common. It turns out that everything! Even the presence of water, in which a person is traditionally dipped at baptism.
In your opinion, do you manage to show something identical or even “original” in your projects? If so, how would you describe this finding verbally?
- I think that the previous example, in part, provides an answer to this question as well. I will only add that two years ago in the project of the light installation on the White Tower there was an image of a cross.
What can the audience expect from your exhibitions, what is their main meaning?
- First of all, we want to inspire the viewer. He will do the rest himself.
Who is your audience, who are you addressing?
- Our audience is ourselves. We have always done and are doing only what is interesting to ourselves. Perhaps I will express a seditious thought, but curating kills art. It turns it into art, where, before buying a product, the buyer must find out everything about it. Curators program the final quality of a work of art, with the exception of cases of forming an exposition with ready-made projects. But the word "art" comes from the Church Slavonic "art" - experience, torture, torture (Latin eхperimentum - experience, trial).
Personal experience is important to us! We are inventors. Even in an attempt to satisfy a client's desire, we strive for experimentation. If the result of our work becomes interesting to our environment, it is good luck, if it is bought, it is success.
Do your exhibitions relate to the theme of "Architecture" this year ("actual identical") and if so, how?
- I hope they do. Each project we identify its own relevance. I think that from year to year we are becoming more recognizable and in demand. Although, perhaps, this answer could sound the other way around and would also not be far from the truth, because the mainstream does not always define identity.
Do you think it is right to look for identity and uniqueness now, or maybe it would be more logical to focus on the quality of life? Or, on the contrary, on common human problems, forgetting about the originality?
- And when to look for it, if not now ?! I cannot entrust this to someone else, be it at least the Asadovs themselves, because this is, first of all, my identity. Therefore, doing everyday life improvement, I, first of all, set myself universal human problems, because a person is the main identity of architecture - like any other kind of activity!
