Archi.ru:
In Nizhny Novgorod, the first in Russia began to celebrate the World Day of Architecture - since 2006. How would you sum up the interim results of these celebrations in the year of the anniversary festival?
Marina Ignatushko:
- Indeed, we were the first to notice that the UN calendar date is a good reason to talk about architecture and the city. Not that we were looking for a long time, where to start - everything happened spontaneously and quickly enough. Although there were warnings, suggestions to make the festival somehow later, to think it over, to build it. But I was fascinated by the street photographs of the American architect Luciane Maya (yes, then I saw a lot of other pictures of New York!) And the fact that her colleague, a former Nizhny Novgorod architect (and for a long time - a member of the AIA) Leonid Kravchenko makes sketches in the subway along road to work. This is how the first exhibition turned out: “New York. Open feelings. And this fall the tenth festival took place already … It had different mottos: “City as a way of life”, “Space of direct action”.
Each time it is an attempt to respond to topical issues and phenomena. So, for example, when they started talking about the project of a new opera house in Nizhny Novgorod, we invited Mikhail Untertrifaller, made an exhibition of his object - a theater on Lake Constance, famous for its summer opera performances on the water (and then we also went there for an architectural trip). It was important to show not just formal solutions, but how the idea arose, developed and transformed, based on the traditions and needs of society among the Austrians. During another festival, we agreed with TC "Culture" to show the film, invited Irina Korobyina with a story about Gary Chang - this is how the Sergei Tumanin Gallery was opened. A young architect from Stuttgart, Lukasz Lendzinski, came to visit us with a lecture “Architecture of Action”, an excellent exhibition of Japanese architecture was held in Nizhny Novgorod, and its curator Anna Guseva explained how architects in this country interact with citizens. Yes, a lot can be remembered. We have had the architectural Pecha-kucha for one season since the festival … But I can't, I'm not ready to summarize. Once, in a program on Public Television, the presenter, not really knowing what was at stake, asked me several times what, in the end, was built? Here I told how, at one festival, artists laid bricks on the stairs in the House of Architects with the words of Aaron Betsky about the fact that "Architecture is a hearth around which we gather to tell stories that weave us into society."
To what extent is the Day of Architecture addressed to professionals, how much - to the general public?
- Exactly to the extent that professionals are interested, important or useful to communicate with the general public. Or the public - to understand what is happening in the city and the world. Yes, there are no narrow specialized events on the Days of Architecture. Such things happen in the city without us: architects, designers communicate with suppliers, potential customers - in a club format. But all of this is essentially based on commercial interest. "Days of Architecture" is about something else … It seems to me that our architects are now in an insanely difficult situation, in which, however, they found themselves voluntarily. In the 90s, they felt freedom, got acquainted with the best world names and achievements, and completely obeyed a private customer in the hope that it was he who would lead them to the stellar path. Well, or at least to the long-awaited new apartment in the center and dacha not far from the city. But, as a result, our architects fell into dependence and subordination, now even in information about new projects you will not always find their names - only developers, not to mention the fact that in the media stories about architecture go under the heading "Real Estate". And the opinions and comments of architects are lost behind the lengthy and regular statements of officials and administrators. In general, architects do not reach the common hearth around which we must gather …
Over the ten years of the festivals, the composition of the participants and spectators has become noticeably younger, inexhaustible recharge - from our specialized university, but at the same time, many heads of workshops, the board of the union ignore the festival, although some of the events are held in the House of Architects. Once upon a time it surprised me, offended - after all, they are not interested in where what comes from, whether it is necessary to help and, in general, why all this is happening. I felt helpless, because when the leadership of the union changed and the former chief architect Oleg Rybin left for Moscow, there was simply no one to turn to. But then I calmly decided that it was important not to leave the "hearth" under any circumstances. Moreover, during the festivals, we managed to get acquainted with a variety of active townspeople: both linguists and cyclists.
We arranged "Breakfasts with an Architect": Viktor Bykov and Aleksey Kamenyuk answered questions in an informal setting, landscape architect Olga Voronina had to conduct an encore excursion in the park on Gorky Square. And this year we made a "Journey through Contexts": it will be a cycle of public meetings with Nizhny Novgorod architects. Since we have been in the city for almost two decades in all councils and boards, the heads of the same workshops sit, architects outside this circle are less known. This is not fair. The first to speak were Zoya Ryurikova and Yuri Bolgov: they have many excellent objects, they have awards, including their buildings won in the Rating of Architecture of Nizhny Novgorod.
In addition to the above-mentioned foreigners, guests from other cities came to visit us. So, last year Sergei Malakhov and Evgenia Repina: they talked about what they teach architects in Samara, what and how important it is to save in the historical center. Daniyar Yusupov - about open urban spaces. Architect Alexei Komov (Moscow, Evpatoria), art critic Nikolai Vasiliev and his colleagues conducted a one-day seminar on the study of the architectural heritage of Dzerzhinsk (this is a regional center not far from Nizhny Novgorod).
The name of the holiday emphasizes its "international" component: how did it manifest itself this year in the composition of the participants and the choice of topics?
“We were very lucky: in the fall, the city hosted a festival of Czech culture, and thanks to this, together with the Nizhny Novgorod center of German and European culture, we were able to host the exhibition“Martin Reinisch. Factory of Architecture”and the author himself with his wonderful colleague Martin Claude. Reinisch is not just an architect, but a great architectural activist - organizer, popularizer, experimenter and artist. He designed the Czech pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2010, he builds not only wooden houses, but also towers. When I first saw the photographs of his objects in the Moscow VKHUTEMAS gallery, I immediately wanted to show them in Nizhny Novgorod.
It's not so much about working with wood: Martin Reinisch has only in recent years retrained to use natural materials. There is always a super task in his projects - to surprise and make people happy. He demonstrated this during the installation of the exhibition: in a few minutes he came up with a lightweight structure to increase the exhibition area. His lecture was listened to in one breath, and it is significant that he was one of the first to show a photograph in which several dozen funny people were posing. “And these are my friends,” Rainisch said. His example is that an architect is always more than a successful designer, he builds meanings.
“The District of My Dreams” is a small photo exhibition about two districts in Helsinki. It hangs in the street, in the courtyard of the Arsenal - there are a lot of people here. We made the exhibition in preparation for the round table discussion: why do Finnish Ruoholahti and Arabiaarantu go to see tourists? And does Nizhny Novgorod have a chance to raise the standards of the urban environment, and then bring them to life?
And what was dedicated to the Nizhny Novgorod, local subjects?
- Every time during the festival there are excursions, and this time we decided to go to Strelka - this territory, as we say, is a symbolic place of the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers for the city. She will have a radical reconstruction with the removal of the cargo port, the construction of a football stadium [for the 2018 World Cup - approx. Archi.ru]. We had an idea of what we wanted to see for sure - among the excursionists were participants in the experiments of the French artist Xavier Juillot - our creative interventions at Strelka in 2011–2013.
And now, as a result of this excursion, the architect Denis Plekhanov made a research discovery: he showed that the openwork structures of old warehouses, one of which is intended for demolition, represent fragments of the central pavilions of the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod, and before the same exhibition in Moscow in 1882 at the Khodynskoye Pole. We have convened a press conference and are thinking about how to further influence the changes to the project on Strelka. It is important to preserve the pavilions: they are parts of one whole that no one spoke about before.
What topics, discussion of what issues found the greatest response among visitors?
- The origin of the port warehouse structures made a great impression on the townspeople. True, the majority is skeptical: they will demolish! Many specialists have already united on the interest in this topic, you can try to preserve these engineering wonders. They also called the "District of My Dreams" a provocative exhibition - and this, of course, is great.
