Let us first briefly describe the essence of your concept of the festival.
Vladimir Kuzmin
We have chosen the word "RECONTEXT" as the motto of the festival, which for naz means the specifics of the moment in which we live, when everything around - our context, changes, transforms and requires us to new skills and approaches in work. It is not surprising that words with the prefix "re" are so common today. We chose this word "PE" or the prefix as the key one. And even if it sounds unoriginal and even trite in a sense, we are not ashamed of it. Because PE processes are now the lion's share of what we all do.
Vlad Savinkin:
And, to be honest, the very word "Architecture" is archaic in nature. Therefore, within our team, we think about RE-architecture. It is no coincidence that we are invited every 6 years to take a fresh look at the festival, both from an expositional point of view and from a semantic point of view.
VC.: Find New Development Drivers!
V. S.: But first of all, we think, of course, about the exposition and work with the form. We are still naive to such an extent that we believe that by transforming the exposition, we can transform both meaning and even people. And the professionalism of the work done by us and the accuracy of the documentation provided for the estimate still allow us to hope that everything will be done as we intended.
Is it professionalism in working with the form? Or is it all the same with meanings? Why were you chosen out of 11 projects submitted for the competition of curators "Zodchestvo"?
VC.: It should be noted that all competitive proposals of potential curators were very interesting. There were many young, enthusiastic people who wanted something …
V. S.: But most of them were out of touch with reality.
VC.: And the story with us as the chosen characters is, rather, a compromise with reality. Because "these will do." We were not chosen for our talent, but for what we will definitely do.
V. S.: That is, we want the new, but we choose the old.
VC.: And now every 6 years we find ourselves these “old and proven” ones. Although we never aspired to be curators - we have always been exhibitors. However, the festival has an established ideological and formal framework, which no one is going to, cannot and does not want to change due to objective reasons. Therefore, we are trying first of all to give it a spatial visual quality that is different from what is expected. And thanks to the support of a number of institutions and their curatorial projects, all this will also have content. Actually, we stake on curatorial projects.
So how will the new visual quality be born? What is your main spatial idea?
V. S.: The spatial concept is based on an axis marked by architectons of different sizes. This axis creates a wave-like movement between them to the final part of the hall, which reveals two flanking inverted architectons, placed on the priest and symbolizing the stage. And everything begins with the traditionally large-scale architecture of the reception, which develops to such an extent upward that you can reach it with your hand from the mezzanine of the 1st floor, where the exhibition will be located.
That is, "Architecture" will be held only in the lower hall of the "Manezh"? What's on top?
V. S.: There should be some kind of church exhibition upstairs at this time.
VC.: This is a surprisingly accurate description of the current situation in the country, you cannot come up with such a thing on purpose.
V. S.: Kuzmin and I have known each other for a long time, and everything in our life develops not on purpose, but by chance. Even in winter, when we realized that we would be on the -1 floor, we were surprised at first, and then delighted. I really wanted to turn off the light there and leave only the architectons glowing. After all, we travel a lot around the world, watch various exhibitions, identify trends. And it seems to me that this is such a modern trend: if 10 years ago everything was supposed to be flooded with light, now most of the strong exhibition projects are increasingly disappearing into a kind of darkness and blindness, when a person is already moving essentially by touch. Of course, there is a certain scenario of the passage laid down by the exhibitors, but when you move in the dark along the lighthouses, you lose the sense of the size of the space. And when black walls are combined with a mirror, it is generally not clear how many meters there are: 100 or 1000.
In a dream, I see our exhibition so dark, black, with architectons glowing with a single light, but at the same time with various patchwork planes - mock-ups or information screens. This is such an enduring dream.
VC.: Because no one would have seen that the architects were glowing: it turned out that during the day it was light in this hall …
Have you also been inspired by some world trends for the architects themselves?
V. S.: When we defended our project at a competition in the Union of Architects, we compared it with the film "New Moscow" - with these shots in which high-rise buildings that were just emerging on the horizon appeared.
But later, when we began to refine and develop our bid, another comparison was revealed to me personally. In 1980, at the Venice Architecture Biennale, curator Paolo Portogesi made an exposition "New Road" in the suite of the Arsenal: each participant was allocated a façade plane between the columns.
And all the outstanding architects of that time, many of whom are still working and continue to form the architectural picture of the world, demonstrated their position through the plane, through the facade. And in 40 years, at a new level, we give architects, critics and everyone interested in understanding and developing the urban environment, not a plane, but a volume - and we propose to interpret it in our own way.
Why architecton?
V. S.: On the one hand, it is an archetypal form of contemporary art and design, on the other, it is a well-known, popular and at the same time easy-to-manufacture form, because the economy must be counted all the time. And the most important thing is that these different objects, which, we hope, will be one paper, another metal, the third transparent, the fourth black, the fifth lying, the sixth inverted - they should no longer create a facade, not a volume, but a new exhibition environment. Therefore, even we - people who have made expositions more than once - are now in euphoria: this street of different and differently staged architects should create the visual novelty we have conceived.
VC.: There was another image that inspired us, also from the Venice Biennale, - this is the famous Il Teatro del Mondo by Aldo Rossi, a floating archetypal volume. And in a sense, our architects, placed along the main aisle of the exposition, are such floating ziggurats in the river of Russian later architecture.
V. S.: Note: these our comparisons, prototypes, prototypes - they are from our inner desire to position ourselves as part of the world design culture.
VC.: Yes, some of us have it very strongly developed.
Are the architectons' volumes monolithic or arranged like pavilions?
VC.: Most of them can be entered: inside - a space of about 3 by 3 meters. It is in the "inhabited" architects that curatorial projects will be housed - except for the exhibition of Vladimir Frolov "Ideal and Norm", which has a place next to the stage: it is very consistent with our theme and will be able to come to Moscow from St. Petersburg. But Project Russia magazine will be responsible for the paper architecton: pages from old issues will eloquently demonstrate the entire 23-year history of the publication. At the same time, the next PE-form will be presented - by November 19, the first issue in the new format will be published.
V. S.: We also have a project of the Department of Architectural Environment Design at the Moscow Architectural Institute - "Alpha and Omega of Environmental Creativity" under the supervision of Maria Sokolova and Tatiana Shulika. It is dedicated to two anniversaries at once: 100 years of the founder of the department, Georgy Borisovich Minervin, about whom the film was made, and 30 years of the department itself, where active and diverse teachers now work.
VC.: For example, we are both graduates of this department and current teachers. And this is an important, as it seems to me, milestone, noting that despite the skepticism and snobbery of the architectural workshop, the department of environmental design at the Moscow Architectural Institute has graduated several hundred specialists during this time, without exception, each of whom is in demand and works. And the issue that she raised during all these 30 years has now become almost the most discussed issue and federal program. Who would have thought of this in 1992, when it all began!
V. S.: At the Department of Environment at the Institute of Business and Design, I also managed to gather 5-6 graduates of DAS MARHI, who work there together with me. So the exposition of the Institute of Business and Design at Zodchestvo will also be presented.
VC.: And more "Plastic miniatures", I hope. Casting is in progress now.
What are these plastic miniatures?
V. S.: The Institute of Business and Design has several areas: graphic design, fashion design and environmental design. And the department of fashion design conducts castings all the time. I saw it once and said: I will have it too.
VC.: We really hope that I will also be at the casting. Meanwhile, the Institute of Business and Design will show its rather interesting business program. On the one hand, it continues and develops the program of the Department of DAS Moscow Architectural Institute, and on the other, it contains a number of author's methods, which, having a rigid structure, allow each teacher to act in an absolutely unique way and independently within the framework of the task that he sets for himself.
V. S.: As my teacher: he himself usually dealt with poor students, and he gave me complete freedom. In general, freedom in life is the most important thing.
VC.: This is another epigraph to our exhibition.
And one more architecton is our retrospective: “2006-2012-2018. The unlucky "Architecture". We will take out the archives and show how it was: we will wrap some of it with orange tape, of course, and we will make some of the woods. And most importantly, we will show how it could be.
It seems that you have not yet described all the declared architects …
VC.: The remaining ones are specific, because they are largely associated with the personalities of their authors. Narine Tyutcheva is one of the few actual architects in the top twenty, who is very consistently and profoundly engaged in heritage, preservation, transformation and, in general, work in a complex landscape that has a protected status. The most important thing here is the ability to solve the problems of actual and form formation, and environment formation, and at the same time comply with all the requirements and norms and concepts of preserving and saving meanings and forms. In her book, Narine called it an "environmental palimpsest." And we consider it very important to show the work of her "Re-school": it fits perfectly into the context of our concept precisely as a new form of education for specialists in this field.
In addition, the Agency for Strategic Development "Center" will present its comprehensive study "MOSCOW RE: INDUSTRIAL", which analyzes the features of almost all industrial zones in Moscow: their urban development potential, the presence of heritage sites, opportunities and scenarios for their redevelopment and conversion.
Another important project that we are demonstrating is a politically justified gesture, "RE-Action". Alexey Komov will show his experience. The wooden structures with which he works - in a situation where nothing else can be done, become a kind of panacea. And this is a very interesting and objectively growing ideology of revitalizing the environment in such situations. Alexey is very convincing in this. And we, as curators, must show different aspects of solving the problem.
Alexey Komov with his tactical urbanism has already become a regular at Zodchestvo …
VC.: Yes, as well as another sparkling character personifying alternative urban planning - Ilya Zalivukhin and his "Re-glomeration", the concept of the development of cities, megalopolises and buildings. And although she may not be very close to us, we pay tribute to her integrity. And, by the way, the sequence of Ilya's participation in such forums, and the change in his status over time, indicate that the water wears away the stone, and efforts are not in vain.
And what kind of personality is responsible for the next architecton?
VC.: This is Svyat Murunov with his Center for Applied Urban Studies. He will show how to solve problems at the micro-targeting level in direct interaction with residents and users. Up to the point that he and his team will build their architecton during the exhibition - together with the visitors.
What will it be called? "PE-participation"?
VC.: We have written down - "RE-comprehension of urban planning approaches."
Will there be anything besides the architectons?
VC.: Of course! They are only an image axis that decides the public space of the exposition. In fact, all the necessary and familiar sections of the Zodchestvo festival have not gone anywhere. There are giant walls for hanging entries in the Projects and Buildings nominations, there are pavilions of the regions and various structures that support the festival - they run in two rows. There is a children's section, a section of materials and technologies. Another very interesting topic is the creation of a gallery of cities: provincial and small towns will be able to exhibit their projects not at some large stand, which may be too expensive for the budget, but in a specially organized space.
So we talked about how you can do RE: Architecture. More broadly, what kind of architectural festivals are needed in Russia?
VC.: “Zodchestvo” and various forums related to architecture and urban planning are definitely needed: they allow collecting, showing and, in general, reflecting the state of Russian architecture. But this is less important than the fact that they show the attitude of society and government to architecture. And our architecture festivals are the way the society sees architects and their activities. Therefore, we are sitting in the basement under the Russian Orthodox Church.
V. S.: But at least in the center of Moscow.
Will you go to Manezhnaya Square?
VC.: We want. We even had a conversation at the Ministry of Culture about the construction in front of the Manege facade, which can theoretically be agreed upon - another architecton of considerable size, carrying information about the ongoing festival. 97% chance that we will be refused, but - who knows …
And what is the internal motivation for participation in such events on the part of the architectural community?
V. S.: If it were 5-10 years ago, we would, of course, say that this is a get-together, this is a kind of positioning yourself next to others and a demonstration that you are alive. But I want to get away from this. I would like to look for weighty arguments. But all these collaborations with developers, manufacturers of materials and sanitary ware interfere. It seems to me that it is already impossible to discern the position of the architects there: behind some meters, models and films, the act of creativity, a new vision is leveled.
So, architects don't need exhibitions?
It is for creative expression that they are very needed. Exhibitions provoke you. I even did a special course for students - "Exposition Design". About how an architect should make exhibitions and how to position himself through them. Working with a form cannot go only into numbers and planes. At least once a year, you need to exhibit and show what you want to wander around and get reactions.
Zodchestvo, by the way, is to a lesser extent replete with products from manufacturers …
VC.: There is another problem - that it, like many other Russian architectural festivals, is organized by official organizations. That entails "earrings for all the sisters", by all means a positive image of the participants, the absence of qualifications in the choice of works, and so on. But everything would be fine, it would even be possible to put up with the necessary honoring, if the festival determined its quality status. However, when we see everything that was sent without a minimum selection and expert opinion, this, of course, is also a kind of demonstration of the available cut, but it is not clear why. Wouldn't it be better to exhibit not 400 works, but 50, but those that are interesting to look at and from which you can learn? But here we are faced with the policy of holding such competitions and the imaginary need to show everyone who submitted applications. Unfortunately, this is a reality with which nothing has happened for 18 years of our participation in Zodchestvo. And the efforts of the curators, who periodically change, make this picture a little more attractive only cosmetically. Our next attempt is aimed at somehow changing this situation. The RE-volition may not happen, but we hope.
