Love for oranges

Despite public protests, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed an order to demolish the building of the Central House of Artists. The territory will pass to the Moscow government. The State Tretyakov Gallery, which occupies half of the building, will be given new premises. Recently, there has been a feeling that the idea of ​​demolishing the Central House of Artists was abandoned, but no: the government chose to ignore not only indignant cries and responses in the press, but also the work of the Public Council for the Protection of Cultural Property, specially created last year. Putin’s order became known at the end of last week, but it was signed at the end of November at a meeting where Elena Baturina, the wife of the Moscow mayor and the head of the Inteko company, was present. Inteko announced in March 2008 the idea of ​​replacing the Central House of Artists with a multifunctional complex designed by the most modern architect Norman Foster. Thanks to its shape and color, this complex has already been dubbed “Orange”. Now they don’t talk about “Orange” anymore, and what the Tretyakov Gallery will receive and what will appear in place of the Central House of Artists is still unknown. It is not even known when and who will pay. Gallery director Irina Lebedeva believes that the project of the new building will be private, but this means that the investor will still need to be selected on a competitive basis, and then an architectural competition will be held. Let us remind you that the Central House of Artists, no matter how you look at its architectural features, is one of the centers of contemporary art in Moscow; a huge number of exhibitions take place here; a wide range of unique musicians prefer to perform with new programs here.