Monumental fever

The competition for the design of a monument in honor of the 300th anniversary of the city, organized by the Public Council of St. Petersburg, ended in complete failure. Only the rules of good manners and the traditions of such competitions did not allow the jury to declare that “there will be no cinema.” Five teams that advanced to the second round have been named. They will try to save not even their own, but the public face. But now no one would dare to say that the monument will certainly be installed on an unnamed square near the Birzhevoy Bridge.

From the very beginning, the competition looked like a poorly staged performance. It was announced with pomp by the Public Council (PC) of St. Petersburg in October last year. Even then, it was clear even to a non-specialist that in the two years remaining before the anniversary, it would not be possible to come up with anything useful. If only because several necessary steps were missed. No work has been done to select a location for the monument: should it be installed in the center or on the outskirts, or perhaps on the seashore? The concept has not been worked out, because it does not necessarily have to be a bronze or stone statue; it is possible to create a public center, an observation deck, etc. Finally, a multi-level selection is required - first to collect ideas, then sketches and only then - a competition. But it was clear to the OS functionaries that there would be no other similar chance to slip into history, and at the same time rise in the political rankings. Therefore, the idea of ​​jeweler Andrei Ananov, a member of the OS, was accepted with a bang. The governor's order on the competition was quickly prepared, and the machine started spinning.
Here is the time to say a few words about the OS itself and its chairman Alexei Kozyrev. This obscure structure, consisting of hundreds of St. Petersburg “VIPs” - from writers to bankers - was created in the fall of 2000 with an obvious aim at PR support for the tercentenary of St. Petersburg. And before the announcement of the competition, and even later, the council did not show itself to be particularly interesting. As for Mr. Kozyrev, he appeared on the public horizon in the summer of 1999, when he became a candidate for the post of governor of the Leningrad region. Then he held the posts of general director of the Transat-1 enterprise and general director of the Leningrad Regional Television. Having miserably lost the gubernatorial elections, he moved to the chair of the president of the regional cable television association and became the chief adviser to Vladimir Yakovlev.
But let's get back to the competition. The OS Foundation took upon itself the financing of the competition of artists for the tercentenary monument. The cost of the future monument itself was estimated at 5 million rubles, which should be raised from donations. You have to understand that these are the same founders of the OS and others like them. Their names must be engraved on special plates provided for by the projects.
The desire to immortalize oneself in the historical center of the city led to the first strategic mistake. They decided to erect the monument on the Petrograd side at the exit from Birzhevoy Bridge. There, after dismantling the sewer tower and the surrounding concrete fence, a small area was formed. The place provokes it to be filled only at first, superficial glance. In fact, it is very responsible and “airy” - the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island and the Peter and Paul Fortress are nearby.
The second mistake of the OS was that the competition was made open, that is, accessible to everyone. Despite all the apparent democracy of this procedure, firstly, it takes too much time, and secondly, it almost never gives a good result. For the simple reason that artists who value themselves and their status rarely express a desire to compete with a motley crew of those hungry for fame. Most often, the competition is organized differently. Through extensive discussion, several authors who have already proven their worth are selected. They receive an order and a decent reward even before the start of the competition. The winner gets even more laurels and awards.
26 teams took the risk of participating in the competition for the design of the monument to the tercentenary of St. Petersburg - not a lot at all, considering that there are several hundred architectural bureaus in the city alone, and several thousand professional artists. An exhibition of projects, which ran in February at the Znanie society on Liteiny Prospekt, confirmed the worst assumptions. Even if we discard frankly amateurish and cost-prohibitive projects, the artists did not come up with anything other than angels, colonnades and portraits of Peter.
The jury, led by the city's chief architect Oleg Kharchenko, tried to save the situation by expanding the number of first-round winners from three to five. But even Mr. Kharchenko, who is usually reserved in his assessments, noted that the projects are frankly weak and conservative. They say that people in Smolny were also not delighted with what they saw. But whether the townspeople will be delighted - unfortunately, it will become clear only when it is too late to change anything.

Maxim BUGROV
Photo INTERPRESS