The authors of the installation “Moscow. Interchange "- architectural group" Citizens / Citizenstudio ": Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin, in collaboration with Natalia Dergachenko
How did the idea of the project “Moscow. Interchange "?
Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin:
- The idea arose from studying the life of our City. As amateur ornithologists watch birds, we also find particular interest in the contemplation of Moscow. Research and biological. And when you notice and feel something, you want to express it. We do this regularly. The feeling of prolonged loss, melting, thinning gave rise to such an image.
What is this installation?
- “Moscow. Denouement”- a manufactory installation about Loss … For many years we have been witnessing the process of blurring the face of the city. Voentorg, Moscow, INION, Dom Nirnzee, Taganskaya automatic telephone exchange, infill development of modernist dormitories and other disappearances and destruction - the essence of irreplaceable losses. Step by step, Moscow ceases to be itself. In its place, another city is born. Better in places, mostly worse, but, most importantly, different. With our silence and indifference, and sometimes with our participation, we, architects and townspeople, bring the "End" closer.
Installation “Moscow. Interchange "consists of six knitted canvases fixed on the wall measuring 1 mx 0.5 m. Each canvas depicts one of the letters of the word" Moscow ". Woven base - homage to the Trekhgornaya Manufaktura weaving factory, where the exhibition is taking place. From each canvas there is a thread to a ball, rotating which, you can dissolve the canvas - thereby destroying "Moscow". On the opposite wall there is a screen with a looped clip showing the unfolding of a canvas with a schematic image of a map of Moscow.
The problem of losing the "authentic" urban fabric - does it have a solution in principle? In Moscow, in megacities in general?
- This is a story rather not about the loss of urban fabric, although this connotation lies on the surface. It is, just, quite difficult to penetrate into it, especially in the center. This is an established network of streets, blocks, houses. Today more important is the loss of the features of the "Face of the City" and the original elements of this urban fabric. Dispelling "Genius of Place". This problem, more precisely, the understanding that this is a problem is the lot of the few. In general, a citizen hardly distinguishes a remake from historical buildings, old houses from new ones, and so on. But the City is losing its aura. That which helps in this city to Write, See, Create, Understand is eroded …
This problem has a simple solution: to treat this urban link - to what the Face of Moscow consists of - as an absolute value. An architect, urban planner, official. And this value cannot be substituted by other considerations and excuses.
