From 11 to 13 November, the XXVIII International Architectural Festival "Zodchestvo" will take place in Gostiny Dvor. This year, the largest architectural event in our country will be held under the theme "Eternity". What should be architecture, for a time or for centuries? Is the architect the master of time or just a resigned observer? Here are just a few of the questions the curatorial manifesto poses.
The curator of the festival, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the TATLIN publishing house Eduard Kubensky told us about his difficult relationship with Eternity and why this year “Zodchestvo” will become not just a show of regional achievements.
Why is Eternity chosen as the theme of the Zodchestvo festival?
In ancient Greek mythology, there are three types of creatures: people, heroes and Gods. The life of the first is finite, the second is capable of gaining immortality, the third is eternal. Otherwise, these three entities are very similar: they drink wine, have fun, compete, love and hate. If one of them is not able to do something, then he can always learn it. An example of this is our beloved Daedalus (Crystal Daedalus is the main award of the Zodchestvo festival - ed.), Who has comprehended the art of flight. I don't want to die, I want to be like God!
The other side of this matter lies in the fact that a person loses the sense of time in moments of love, inspiration, and creative impulse. Only by being in the process of creation, you can feel the fullness of being. No wonder they say: "Happy hours are not observed", because happiness gives eternity. I will tell you more - I would rename the Zodchestvo festival to "Eternity"!
What kind of eternal can we talk about in the era of "disposable mentality"?
Disposable is no less material than reusable. The bones of dinosaurs, conceived by nature for a single use, are much older than the Egyptian pyramids, erected by people in the hope of immortality. Plastic cutlery may well be the artifacts of our era, not diamonds.
Architecture, being a material art, may well achieve immortality. However, it is possible that "soon a comet will arrive and then we will all die," as Mike Naumenko sang. I refuse to believe that the world we live in has only a material component. I think there is something more that we are not yet able to grasp. Agree, it is difficult to imagine that people have comprehended absolutely all the secrets of life, have reached the very end? After all, there is no end, just as there is no beginning - this is called eternity. We are part of a world in constant motion and creation. And as long as the creation does not stop, we are eternal.
I think this is the highest purpose of any architect, and not at all in the author's plate on the building. Why shouldn't we be content with the act of creativity, discarding vanity? What we have built will inevitably turn into sand, just as the fork with the word "eternity" will only become an echo of our history that has been sounding for centuries. As the architect Ilya Chernyavsky said, “Architecture is not materials and not a building itself, but only the highest quality of what is being built. Its meaning is how to build, not what and from what. " I completely agree with him!
In what ways can an architect, if not reach eternity, then at least approach it?
To get closer to eternity, it is enough to pick up a pencil. And in order to find it, you have to become free from all kinds of "-isms" and borrowings. Our consciousness is clogged with cultural ballast. We constantly compare ourselves with Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, and some still call themselves modernists … Trying to repeat someone else's success, we involuntarily turn into imitators. And you just need to give a pencil in your hand the opportunity to draw what "will come to him in the lead."
The only chance to break out of this paradigm is to stop working and consuming. As soon as we no longer need to sell, we begin to create things not for someone else, but exclusively for ourselves. As an idealist, I dream that one day humanity will turn into unemployed idlers, into a civilization of artists. And if billions of people float along the river of creation, one day they will surely be carried out into the sea of eternity. One can only guess what place architecture will occupy in the new world, but I think the estimate will cease to play a decisive role.
How will the theme of the festival be reflected in the exposition and business program?
As a superstitious person, I have noticed more than once that the announced plans tend to fail. I can only say that Zodchestvo will have a lot of texts. Perhaps due to the specifics of my main activity, or perhaps because the architectural pictures for the most part have ceased to inspire me. I believe that the festival should be primarily a manifestation, and not a listing of the achievements of the industry, no matter how impressive they are.
And yet, let's put aside superstition. Tell us about the curatorial special project
Persuaded! Many people remember the disposable plastic fork with the inscription "Eternity". It all started with her. This image was born from the background of my participation in the competition of curators and the theme of the 2019 festival "Transparency". By the way, the aforementioned fork was presented to one of the curators of last year's "Architecture" Vladimir Kuzmin.
While honing my manifesto, I revisited my favorite films about architects. Imagine my surprise when I found that very fork in one of them! At the 51st minute of the painting "My Architect", dedicated to Louis Kahn, the "Book of Crazy Ships" suddenly appeared on the screen, and with it - "Ship of Forks", "Ship of Cookies" and even "Ship-sausage with stuck in her with toothpicks. " "Eureka!" - I exclaimed, sitting at the dacha in the wilderness of the Urals. Having received a worthy excuse for my madness, I decided at all costs to build my own "Ship of Forks" as an illustration of the theme "Eternity" declared in the manifesto.
Later, during the discussion of the concept of the festival, the first vice-president of the SA of Russia, Viktor Logvinov, jokingly painted on the word "eternity" four more letters, receiving "(forehead) eternity." "Brilliant!" - I exclaimed, sitting this time in the Union of Architects in Granatny Lane, and decided at all costs to build my own "Ship of sausages with toothpicks stuck in them" as an illustration of the "Humanity" theme.
And then the pandemic began. Everything around me went into hibernation, and even I took a little nap. I dreamed that I was sailing on my "crazy ship", and my favorite architects were cutting the waves nearby. Sergei Tchoban celebrates the 300th anniversary of Piranesi on a schooner named after him, Vladimir Kuzmin controls a huge paper frigate and many, many others: some under sail, some on oars, and some in a "broken trough." I woke up and invited everyone to build their own "crazy ship". To my great surprise, almost everyone agreed. Is it enough?
No, go on! What else interesting is expected at Zodchestvo 2020?
Okay, I'll tell you about the finished one. The performance "Single Picket", which is quite in keeping with the spirit of the times, will acquaint the guests of the festival with selected statements of prominent Soviet architects. Quotes printed on A1 sheets will be held by architecture students at a safe distance from each other. The photo exhibition of the necropolises will be presented by Yuri Avvakumov. The theme of permafrost will be revealed by the architects Asadovs through the work of the Soviet architect Alexander Shipkov. "Eternal" youth will be "supervised" by Vladimir Kuzmin and Vladislav Savinkin. The thoughts of Alexander Rappaport will turn into an endless wave of paper, from which everyone can cut off the part that will most affect him.
In general, an abundance of texts should become a distinctive feature of Zodchestvo this year. Previous curators worked with forms, but I decided to focus on the content. In a way, my Zoom conferences with Evgenia Repina and Vladimir Kuzmin became the intellectual platform of the festival. Within the framework of these virtual meetings, a proposal arose to focus on the reactions of visitors: the projects presented should change the expressions of faces. It's time to change. It's Spring Time!
What do you have in mind?
I have a theory of the seasons. It is based on the fact that there are certain thirty-year periods that coincide with certain historical and cultural "seasons". The next "spring" took place at the peak of the technical revolution of the late 19th century, in 1895-1925. This is the era of the Russian avant-garde: the flowering of crazy ideas, "Black Square", revolutions, cars, airplanes. "Summer" fell on the period from 1925 to 1955: "harvest" on the facades, "harvest" in the subway, "harvest" in the cinema, the bloodiest war, the biggest bomb. Then came the "autumn". The fight against excesses in architecture is nothing more than falling leaves from trees. And what is commonly called the "thaw" is the traditional "Indian summer".
"Winter", which began in 1985, is postmodernism: the same vegetables, only in pickles, the same berries, only in preserves. Again, as at the end of the 19th century, the technological revolution gave the world new inventions, all kinds of gadgets, the Internet and much more. And what else to do while sitting in the hut on the stove in winter? These postmodern freezes continue to this day, although, according to my theory, they should have ended in 2015. Winter in Russia is always long, but it cannot last forever. Therefore, as the curator of the main architectural festival in Russia, I consider it my duty to return spring to the agenda of modern architecture.
How did you become the curator of the Zodchestvo festival?
Participation in the competition for curators was the third competition in my entire creative life and a real test of strength. After reading once the statement of Frank Lloyd Wright that "a competition is when one mediocrity judges another," I have long tried to avoid participating in such events. Yes, and my teacher, artist Vladimir Nasedkin once told me that you need to participate in the competition only when you know the chairman of the jury well (laughs).
In general, participation in such adventures was not typical for me, but this time it was like “the devil pulled”. “Ah, - I think - was not! I know the chairman, I'm just a mediocre architect, and my Moscow business trip coincided with the defense of curatorial projects. I was sure that the victory would be mine, it's not for nothing that there are so many coincidences! And then it happened, I won.
In general, "Zodchestvo" is my home. I have repeatedly done festival special projects and, I will not hide, every time I tried on the role of a curator, especially since I managed to accumulate a lot of experience in holding such events in the Ural region. In the end, I even got into the list of members of the Union, having become a laureate of the competition for young architects of the Zodchestvo-99 festival. It's time to return the debt.
What do you think about the unification of the Zodchestvo and Best Interior Festival festivals on one site?
For me, there is no contradiction in this, since I do not see the difference between the exterior and the interior. I would say that these are two sides of the same wall, the difference is only in the ambient temperature. I think Maria Romanova and I (curator of the BIF festival - ed.) Were very lucky. Whatever festivals we have this year, they will still be remembered for a long time: if they turn out badly, they will understand, if they turn out well, they will be praised. Eternity is a changeable thing …
