What will your installation be like within the framework of the Contemporary Theater of the Interior exhibition project?
Oleg Klodt: The conceptual interior, developed by our team - Oleg Klodt, Alexandra Klodt, Anna Agapova - is a discourse on the theme of boundaries in love. At the same time, we tried to get away from a purely gender perception and philosophized on this topic within the framework of a universal human scale, as well as in a modern technological context. The idea was born very quickly from a simple opposition: a world where there is a place for feelings, a familiar, good old world, and a world of loneliness, where technology reigns and new virtual reality throws up its own challenges. We have embodied this opposition in two zones: black and white.
Tell us about the content of each of the zones?
OK.: White space is a metaphor for emptiness, life without love, where everything is faceless and soulless. The projection of an iPhone screen on a white wall with an open messenger is a symbol of the modern world. Today we are all at arm's length from a smartphone. Numerous messengers create the illusion of emotional closeness, they supposedly fill the void, but do not solve the main need - the need for love and human warmth.
The Black Room is a world filled with feelings that live in letters, literature, history, living people and fictional characters. Here, on a black and white screen, a selection of old films, documentaries, film adaptations of great works is shown, the heroes of which wrote letters and talked about love. We tried to show how love passes through time and space, echoes in our hearts through cinema, novels, diaries, memoirs. There is life here. The man in the black room is a writer, screenwriter, director. In fact, he is a creator who compares other people's stories and his own experience, rework them and creates something new out of it. Something that gives hope, food for the mind, strength to go forward and faith in the best.
What is the main idea of the project?
OK.: The idea is that there is no black and white. There is a problem - we do not know how to live in this new world of technology, or rather we feel fear. It worries me both as a professional and as a parent, because my children do not know the world before the Internet.
Once I took part with the director Timur Bekmambetov in a public discussion on the topic of "cities of the future", and Timur said that the scariest film would be a film about the day when the Internet is turned off. And the point is not only that we will not know how to get home, because we are used to navigators, and not that we cannot find each other, because we do not remember phone numbers. And the fact that we will not know how to get acquainted, love, make friends and express feelings. Today the message is unified, words express everything at once and nothing. You can fall in love on the Internet, get married on the Internet, and then delete each other from life by clicking on the block button.
Is your stand nostalgic for the past?
OK.: Rather, it is reflection. We wanted to show that all value is in uniqueness and individual purpose. This is what is lost today and replaced by SMS and emoticons. We no longer have the right to anonymity. Everything is stored somewhere on the servers. Moreover, when you send a message, you can no longer be sure of its privacy, because it is so easy to press the forward button, take a screenshot and turn deeply intimate things into the public domain. The boundaries are blurred.
The theme of the festival is announced as "Overcoming". And we built our concept on the opposition of two worlds, both of which exist here and now. The question is how to integrate them, take all the best from the old world and bring it into the new one. This is the overcoming, the daily choice of every person. The task of us, creative individuals, is to find these ways of integration.
What can you say about modern interiors in the context of new technologies?
OK.: I will give an example of an interesting project. Exactly a year ago, as part of the London Design Festival, together with contemporary artists working in VR format, we presented an exhibition project called After Space. It was an attempt to philosophize about how VR is changing our homes and minds. We often provide our clients with services for the selection of art objects, and today VR is becoming more and more in demand. It is a new form of art that people are buying for their homes instead of traditional painting. And it's not just about fashion, it's about a new consciousness. These are works of art that you can always take with you. A person is moving more and more, there is no longer a need for large houses filled with expensive items. We opened an office in London two years ago and felt it especially. People began to treat their homes and interiors in a completely different way. Expensive things are still there, but the interior is built differently.
Why is it important to attend the festival?
OK.: The BIF festival today is the only festival in Russia that works as a large information, exhibition and educational platform. This is a snapshot of what is happening in the profession. We spoke on a topic that worries us, but this site also contains many valuable statements and thoughts from professionals who work here and now and shape our future.
The II All-Russian architectural festival Best Interior Festival will be held from November 19 to 22 at the Central House of Architects (Granatny lane, 7/1). You can find detailed information about the event and register for the festival as a guest on the official website interiorpremia.ru.
