The exhibition is called "Avangardstroy" - it really shows exactly what was built in the avant-garde 1920-1930s. More precisely, the beginning of real construction can be said after the end of the civil war, somewhere in 1925; the end of the era was 1932. Although there are much later things in the exposition, such as sketches of the "City of the Sun" by Ivan Leonidov, why - you will return to this later. So - only 10 years, during which so much "new" architecture has appeared in the country that the material will be enough for a hundred exhibitions. Therefore, it is natural that the exposition contains almost no architectural fantasies, works by the Vkhutemas workers - they physically did not find a place - only project graphics, 90 percent of which is constructivism, which is understandable: the most popular of the avant-garde trends gave the largest number of real buildings throughout the country.
The Museum of Architecture, which has been joined by several other museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg and private collections, shows its rich collection of avant-garde graphics in typological order - "hall of clubs", "hall of administrative buildings", "hall of industrial complexes", which, of course, allows evaluate the scale. The short century of the avant-garde gave Soviet architecture dozens of new typologies of buildings, new technologies, hundreds of buildings that determined its further development in the 20th century. And this despite the unpopularity of the avant-garde, the "ban", "poverty" …. The fact is that the avant-garde was a socially oriented project, and this was its great significance for the entire subsequent Soviet architectural history. The absolutely new concepts of a residential complex, a communal house, a workers' club that appeared at that time, as well as housing projects with apartments of various types, clinics, kindergartens, schools, sports complexes became the basis for the search for architects in the 1930s, 1940s and many further.
Now about the second part of the title of the exhibition - "The Architectural Rhythm of the Revolution". Like any grand style, the avant-garde was a fundamental and pervasive phenomenon. Much is called the vanguard, and it really was "fed" from various sources. When there was little opportunity for real construction, and thought was in full swing, especially during the period of difficult reconstruction of the country after the civil war, architects were engaged in book graphics and theatrical performances, drew posters and even sketches of revolutionary chess. The avant-garde set the architecture of the new society, and the architects were universal, like the creators of the Renaissance.
This particular rhythm of the era was “framed” by the author of the beautiful “red” architecture of the exposition, Totan Kuzembaev. “A real architect must be willing to do something new, this is Totan Kuzembaev,” says curator of the exhibition Irina Chepkunova. - He is a creatively very original person and he is able to understand the merits of the projects of other architects, which, by the way, is also a rather rare quality, especially among architects. Architects are very jealous people, in the history of architecture they often destroy their predecessors and build their own, or finish building, or rebuild. There are thousands of examples of this. I really wanted the architecture of the exhibition to be done by Totan Kuzembaev, he is a creator, exactly in the sense of the word, which the avant-garde put into it”.
The figure of Ivan Leonidov can be safely called the quintessence of the creator - and it is clear why this exhibition opens with his hall. Here very n about Shown here is the entire collection of one of the most prominent architects of his era - even the work he did in the 1940s. This is the only hall of completely architectural fantasies."City of the Sun", invented by Leonidov, becomes a symbol of the avant-garde in search of new forms, in indicating the movement, the direction in which the avant-garde was to develop. This is a prologue, and the epilogue is in a small room with a video projector: the film shown here is the result of last year's project by the museum staff to study and catalog avant-garde monuments in different regions of our country, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture. This is a kind of bridge to the present day and an unambiguous message - to think again and again about the fate of the legacy of the 1920s – 1930s.
More than half of the buildings do not have the state status of a monument and the state of the overwhelming majority is quite deplorable. However, the typology of buildings is not lost everywhere, says Irina Chepkunova: “Rather, we are losing such monuments in large cities, in Moscow, St. Petersburg. A club in a small town may even have retained the function of a club, it is authentic. But in order to preserve this layer as a whole, it is necessary, of course, to preserve not just individual buildings, but each part of the typology - there must be at least one social city, one microdistrict, one residential complex, one kitchen factory …”.
The twenties seem distant, but in fact, the avant-garde continues to live in the present. And not only inspiring modern architects to use its form-building techniques: many people, especially in the regions, continue to live and use the buildings of that era, given that in many places, for example, in Chelyabinsk, constructivist buildings are city-forming architecture. Moreover, this is a social architecture - it has proven over time that it is convenient and rational and can successfully “work” further - if it can count on a set of measures to preserve and restore itself.
The author thanks the exhibition curator Irina Chepkunova and the press service of the Museum of Architecture for their help in preparing the material.
