"How to live?" - the question is relevant at all times. How are the way of life, the sphere of human activity and his philosophy reflected on the typology of the dwelling, evolving or, conversely, returning to its origins? The twelfth festival "Archstoyanie" raised this question as a continuation of the theme "Shelter". According to the curator of the festival, Anton Kochurkin, the topic raised last year has not yet been fully exhausted. However, now it has been approached more architecturally. “Despite the traditional multi-genre nature of the festival, genuine architectural objects have appeared in Nikola-Lenivets this year,” says Kochurkin. - These are houses suitable for permanent or temporary residence. They, unlike works of art, which are inherently useless, have a function, purpose and scope. " The authors of the projects tried to present their vision of the space for life, came up with a material shell for their own system of values and hobbies. It turned out a certain slice of knowledge about the lifestyle of individual communities - sports, theatrical, musical.
Indeed, several new houses of various sizes have appeared on the territory of the art park - from the smallest, only suitable for an overnight stay, conventionally abstract, implying that nature is our home, to a full-fledged residential building with sewerage and heating.
The smallest house is the "Kennel", created by Victoria Chupakhina from clay, twigs and dog hair. The volunteers, who were found near the spherical house with a small round opening-entrance, said that the artist was collecting wool in nurseries and zoological gardens. More than two hundred dogs shared the material for the construction, but, as the creators of the art object assure, not a single animal was harmed. The kennel, which can only accommodate a dog and its owner, is covered with hair both inside and outside. The bottom is lined with straw, which makes the house warm enough despite the absence of a door. They say that some of the festival staff have already tried out the dwelling, having accidentally spent the night in the "Kennel" and then admitted that it was quite comfortable to sleep there. Visitors also willingly climbed into the house - some for the sake of a spectacular photo, and some just to warm up.
“House”, invented by the team of AB “Rozhdestvenka”, despite its straightforward name, literally has the least relation to the house. In fact, this is a garden that appeared in a field, on the corner of which birch and alder grow alone. It was proposed to create the garden by the hands of visitors in three festival days. Anyone could choose a seedling and plant it within the boundaries of the allocated area. The result of this performance was a new structure for the festival. The art park, which has been created in Nikola-Lenivets for the twelfth year already, has never before touched the natural environment. The emergence of new tree species that have not previously grown in these places, the centric form of the garden artificially created by man is a new step in the development of the territory - ambiguous, but bold. It is no coincidence that the organizers called this project the most important for the festival, since from year to year it will develop, changing the space around it. Let us remind you that the concept of a "home" garden became the winner of the Open Call 2017 competition, as a result of which it received the right to be implemented. ***
Villa PO-2 is also not so much a house as an installation anticipating the appearance of a house. Anton Kochurkin shared his plans to build a large villa designed by Alexander Brodsky next year. Today's installation is just a reflection on what it will be like. The installation is assembled from concrete slabs of PO-2 fences, which usually enclose industrial areas or the railway. In this case, slabs with cut-out holes in them are placed around a cluster of trees on the lawn. In this way, Brodsky aestheticizes the Soviet past, changes the associative array, makes a blank fence permeable, and cold mechanistic material alive and tactile.
Most definitely the question "how to live?" the house-ramp, created by the young architectural team "Alycha", answers. The authors themselves call the building "Headquarters", and visitors dubbed it a skate spot. A home that illustrates the lifestyle of the skateboarder community is located on the campground, next to a pond. The place is more than lively, but the new building manages to hide among the trees. To the pond, the volume is deployed with a transparent display case. The latter, as it turned out during the skateboarding master class, can be easily removed, turning the house into a stage. Anyone could ride, the organizers undertook to teach beginners the basics of this sport.
One of the authors of the project, Alexei Papin, explained that the idea of creating a secluded skating space had arisen long ago. A new term was even coined to define the philosophy of the project - asceticism. Nikola-Lenivets has become an ideal place for the implementation of the plan. “First we drew a ramp, - said Alexey Papin, - Then we added living quarters - a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room with a hammock. All of this was wrapped in a plywood shell - a particularly significant material for skateboarders. Provided for sewerage, lighting and heating. And we got a comfortable living space”. The idea to wrap a function in a shell, as the authors argue, is borrowed from the constructivists. The shape of the building is also sustained in the spirit of the new constructivism - laconic, but memorable.
In addition to the "Shtab" near the pond, there are two more residential buildings - "Kibitka" by Yuri Muravitsky and Rustam Kerimov, and "House with a chandelier", invented by the St. Petersburg bureau "Khvoya". Young architects from the northern capital had a very correct sense of the place - at the water's edge. Here they built a house without a single window. Light penetrates inside through a small hole in the roof, in the likeness of the Swiss chapel of brother Klaus Peter Zumthor. During the day it is natural sunlight, and at night it is the light of a chandelier installed inside a glass dome. The chandelier illuminates both the interior space and the street, acting as a lantern. The closed volume seems to be opposed to the open spaces of Nikola-Lenivets. Entering inside, the visitor is cut off from the environment, alone with his thoughts. The outer border of the house is resolved differently. Here, on a wooden platform overlooking the water, a full-fledged public space has been created, which allows you to fully enjoy the surroundings, dangle your feet into the water, sunbathe or watch the sunset.
Anton Kochurkin attracted director Yuri Muravitsky and architect Rustam Kerimov, who heads the A-GA bureau, to create the wagon house. In this tandem, a work was created that illustrates the nomadic lifestyle of a person who is not able to sit in one place. The wagon, assembled on the basis of an old bus, willingly demonstrated its passion for movement, rolling along the bank of the pond to the accompaniment of musical accompaniment. Another ideological component of the wagon house is a show-off life. One of its walls, as conceived by the authors, has been turned into a huge glass showcase through which one can observe the life of the actors who inhabit the house. In a sense, this is the usual state of a modern person, daily demonstrating his life on social networks and observing the lives of other people in the same place. But the main content of the wagon is the rehearsal of the play "Three Sisters". During all the festival days, the actors rehearsed in front of the audience, which is why the rehearsal process itself turned into a kind of performance.
Next to the "Kibitka" there is an installation by Alexei Martins "Being Together". This is a continuation of the "Mental Firewood" project, which involves the demonstrative burning of sculptures made of wood. This year, one hundred animal figurines were collected from old boards. Dogs, gophers, deer on wooden fire podiums occupied a large field behind the Ugra cafe. From a distance, the scattered figures resembled the rickety wooden crosses of an abandoned cemetery. The association is probably not accidental, given the fate of the installation.
A different mood was set by the performance of Sergei Katran, who in a playful way invited the visitors to choose their own path in life. The author explained the essence of his experimental project "Children of Geniuses Resting in Nature" using the example of well-known legends about Diogenes, preaching the idea of abstinence and self-restraint. To limit a person Katran suggested quite literally, with the help of a prepared barrel. There were many barrels, each with non-repeating holes. Anyone could choose a barrel to their liking, stick their leg, arm, or put it on their head. Choosing one or another barrel, a person, according to the author's intention, determined his life philosophy and the degree of self-restraint.
In addition to visiting art objects, guests of the festival were offered an extensive lecture program. For example, on July 22, a large round table on the topic "How to live?" with the participation of project authors and invited experts. Pahom conducted his educational program at the Forest School in the Lazy Ziggurat. Young film critics have prepared nightly film screenings. Films from 33 mm film were broadcast in the field on mobile cinema equipment of the last century. Music has become one of the main tools for finding an answer to the eternal question. The Science and Art Center gathered fifty musicians from the USA, Europe and Russia. The guests of "Archstoyanie" did not lag behind, arriving with guitars, drums, jew's harps and completely exotic musical instruments that did not subside until dawn.
As Anton Kochurkin admitted, residential buildings became a real challenge for the festival, because “useful architecture” had never been created within the framework of Archstoyanie. But despite all the difficulties, including constant rains that prevented the implementation of projects, everything worked out. The houses took their place in the park for a long time. And the organic nature of their existence in the natural environment ceased to cause any doubts, when a milky-white fog descended on the pre-sunset Nikola-Lenivets, shaded all sharp corners and erased all question marks.
