Despite the short duration of the phenomenon called "Paper Architecture", its cumulative collection is quite extensive. Therefore, curators have a large degree of freedom in combining her works both with each other and with works from other eras. For example, at the next exhibition, which is planned to be held in the Museum of Architecture, the work of the "wallets" can be seen along with the works of their predecessors - Soviet architects of the 1920-1960s. At the current exhibition in the Pushkin Museum, curators Yuri Avvakumov and Anna Chudetskaya placed 54 works of wallets in a "company" with 28 architectural fantasies of masters of the 17th – 18th centuries. from the collection of the museum: Piranesi, Gonzago, Quarenghi and others. To combine in one space two epochs of fantasy-architectural creativity, our contemporaries with their “forefathers”, according to Avvakumov, was the conceptual idea of the current exposition.
Russian paper architecture is a rather specific phenomenon that had historical precedents, but not contemporary foreign analogues. This phenomenon was generated by the special conditions that have developed in Russian architecture in the last decades of Soviet power. Being artistically gifted people, young architects, for certain reasons, did not have the opportunity to realize themselves in the profession and went into the "parallel dimension" of purely fantasy creativity.
The history of Russian paper architecture is inextricably linked with conceptual competitions held by OISTAT, UNESCO, as well as Architectural Design, Japan Architect and Architecture of the USSR magazines. Their organizers strove to search for new ideas, and not to obtain solutions to specific "applied" problems. And the largest number of awards went to participants from the Soviet Union, who were able to draw attention to Russian architecture after a long break.
Unlike their predecessors (primarily the avant-garde artists of the 1920s and 1960s), the conceptualists of the 1980s did not strive to create utopian images of an ideal future. In the works of "wallets" there was no futurological component - their teachers, the sixties, had already exhaustively expressed on this topic. In addition, the eighties is the era of postmodernism, i.e. reactions to modernism, which for several previous generations was the "future". By the time of the heyday of Paper Architecture, the "future" was already here, but instead of universal happiness, it brought disappointment and disgust. Therefore, "paper" creativity was a form of escape from the gray, dull Soviet reality into beautiful worlds created by the rich imagination of educated and talented people.
The specificity of paper architecture consisted in the synthesis of expressive means of fine arts, architecture, literature and theater. With all the variety of styles and creative manners, most of the "paper" projects were united by a special language: an explanatory note took the form of a literary essay, a character was introduced into the project - the "main character", the mood and nature of the environment were conveyed by drawings or comics. In general, all this was combined into a kind of fascination, a work of easel painting or graphics. A special trend of conceptualism emerged with a characteristic combination of visual and verbal means. At the same time, Paper Architecture was associated not so much with parallel forms of conceptual art as it was, in fact, one of the varieties of postmodernism, borrowing both its visual images and irony, "signs", "codes" and other "games" of the mind …
The name "Paper architecture" arose spontaneously - the participants of the 1984 exhibition, organized by the editorial staff of the magazine "Youth", adopted a phrase from the twenties, which was originally an abusive meaning. The name immediately caught on, as it played on two meanings. First, all the work was done on a Whatman paper. Secondly, these were conceptual architectural projects that were not supposed to be implemented.
A special place in the activities of the "wallets" belongs to Yuri Avvakumov, who played a key role in shaping the episode (albeit bright) of the cultural life of the 1980s. into a full-fledged artistic phenomenon. It was he who cemented the disparate participants into a single array. Being an active creator himself, he served as an "information center", a link and a chronicler of the movement. Collecting the archive and organizing exhibitions, he brought the activity of "wallets" to a fundamentally different level, turning it from a narrowly professional to a general cultural phenomenon. Therefore, it would not be a particular exaggeration to say that Paper Architecture is Avvakumov's big curatorial project.
However, there was no movement as such - the "wallets" were too different. In contrast to, say, the Pre-Raphaelites or the World of Artists, they did not have common creative goals and attitudes - the "wallets" were a collection of individualists who worked together or separately. The only unifying theme was architectural fantasy, which makes them related to Piranesi, Hubert Robert or Jacob Chernikhov.
The works of Paper Architecture, alas, are not very accessible to the general public. One of the reasons is the fundamental impossibility of their constant or even frequent exposure: unlike canvas, paper is very sensitive to light. Until a technological revolution occurs in this area, the hypothetical Museum of Paper Architecture will be virtual, which, in principle, is congenial to its very phenomenon.
It turns out that the less frequent exhibitions of Paper Architecture are held, the more valuable they are. In this context, we must also consider the current one, at the Museum of Fine Arts, which occupies a cozy room behind the Greek courtyard. However, despite the chamber nature, the exposition is quite capacious. Collected many works as "hits" ("House-exhibit for a museum of the twentieth century" by Mikhail Belov and Maxim Kharitonov, "Crystal Palace" and "Glass Tower" by Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin, "The second dwelling of a city dweller" by Olga and Nikolai Kaverin), and those that have not been exhibited before ("The Hedgehog House" by Andrey Cheltsov) or have been exhibited infrequently (works by Vyacheslav Petrenko and Vladimir Tyurin). Each exhibit requires careful scrutiny, contemplation, immersion in it; behind each work there is a whole story, if not a whole world. Capriccios of old masters, including the famous "Prisons" of Piranesi, occupy the central space of the hall, while the perimeter of the "wallets" surrounds them. Avvakumov's choice is somewhat subjective - some of the "wallets" are not present (for example, Alexei Bavykin or Dmitry Velichkin), and someone is presented more modestly than he deserves (I mean, first of all, Mikhail Filippov, who, in my opinion, created his best works in collaboration with Nadezhda Bronzova during this period).
Everything is clear with the first part of the name of the exhibition. But how to understand the second - "The End of History"? After all, the "funeral" of Paper Architecture took place in the early nineties. By combining representatives of two different eras in one space, the curators wanted to draw a symbolic line under the five-century era of paper (the massive transition from parchment took place about 500 years ago). Ironically, its final chord was Russian paper architecture. In the nineties, a new, computer age began, which underwent a radical revision not only of the design process, but also of all architectural creativity. So the future paper architecture will be paper only in an allegorical sense. At least until the lights are turned off.
Exhibition sponsor - AVC Charity.
