Repressed Architecture

Curators: Anke Zalivako and Irina Chepkunova

April 17 - April 17, 2006
Aptekarskiy Prikaz

The exhibition is a part of the international project "Preservation of 20^th Century Architecture and World Heritage". Its aim is to present various approaches to the preservation of architectural heritage of the Russian Avant-garde demonstrated by the constructivist monuments in Moscow and buildings of the Modern Movement from 1920s in Germany.

The Russian Avant-garde's international status and the historical creative interrelations between Russia and other countries pay testament to the fact that this is not only Russia's heritage, but at least part of it belongs to the world community. Such important buildings as Le Corbusier`s "Centrosojus", the "Narkomfin" house and the Melnikov-house or Alvar Aalto`s Library in Vyborg are considered some of the most important representatives of the 20^th Century Modern Movement. There are also quite a number of buildings from the soviet period of the 1920s - 30s in Russia that must be considered as potential monuments of the 20th century for the implementation into World Heritage - an issue that has been discussed within heritage preservation circles in Europe for quite a while now. However the Soviet architectural heritage of the 1920s - 1930s together with its historical destiny over almost 80 years of existence now is still not very well known.

This fact appeared to be the main reason for composing the photo-exhibition of 24 pairs of items, each presenting the same function, such as settlements, schools, garages, scientific institutes, etc. They are shown in their original appearance after being built together with the historical floor-layout, interiors as well as photos of their condition before and after a substantial restoration in case it had been carried out. It is the main aim of the exhibition as well as of the catalogue to point at the current situation of Modern Movement buildings in two countries, Germany and Russia, which seem to have a lot in common with regard to the history of their Modern Movement heritage up to 1990. The chosen 48 examples illustrate the development within searching for an appropriate approach to the conservation of Modern Movement buildings. In Germany it started from the first attempts that were done while restoring the Bauhaus school in Dessau in 1976 or the first restoration of the Weissenhof-settlement in Stuttgart (1981-87) - were a lot of original and authentic substance of the buildings were lost - up to the latest restorations, such as the Einstein Tower in Potsdam (1995-1999). Here the main aim of the restoration was to preserve as much of the original substance as ever possible. For Russia the chosen examples, from Moscow, show the development within the last fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The exhibition also wants to invite to think about what can to be done in favor of this architecture in Russia, because in our country today this is still "Heritage at Risk". It is not a matter of coincidence that the opening of the exhibition is in Moscow on 18th of April 2006, within the annually celebrated International Monument's day.

In fact the Russian Avant-garde or "Constructivist" architecture of the 1920s - early 1930s made one of the most important contributions to the International Modern Movement as well as to the 20th Century historical and architectural heritage. This is the reason why quite a number of art historians and specialists of architecture and history from all over the world already came, come and will always continue travelling to Russia to investigate this fascinating period of our country's architectural and art history.

The exhibition is a display of the monuments of constructivism in Moscow, their critical, often wreck condition and ways of search for solution of this grave problem. These are the student dormitory in the Ordzhonikidze Street by I. Nikolaev, the "Narkomfin Building" in the Novinskiy Boulevard by M. Ginsburg, and the "Kauchuk Club" in the Plushikha Street by K. Melnikov, and many others.
Besides, we would like to introduce to Russian architects and restorers the experience of German specialists using examples of their renovation works at the buildings of the "Neues Bauen" - "Einstein Tower" in Potsdam, the Weissenhof settlement in Stuttgart, the Bauhaus complex in Dessau.

For presentation of the architectural monuments of both countries the single scheme has been worked out:
- facts about the project, its architects, construction date, technology and materials;
- history of the monument's further existence (renovations, conversion, reconstruction, restoration)
- images: historical photographs, modern day pictures
Materials of the exhibition bear evidence that monuments of the "Neues Bauen" in Germany were in the same grave condition as many Moscow buildings from 1920s, but during last ten year German restorers had managed to "resurrect" their monuments. That gives us hope that the problems of preservation of the Moscow avant-garde's heritage could be successfully solved.
At the exposition original drawings from the collection of the MUAR are presented for the first time: project of the Palace of Culture of the Proletarskiy district of Moscow by the Vesnin brothers (1931-1935) and the "Narkomlegprom" project by Le Corbusier (1928-1938).

Russian version