| The legendary studio of Italian conceptual architects visited Moscow The studio is called "Labyrinto". It was founded in 1969 as (quote from the manifesto) one of the projects of “total renewal associated with the political culture of youth student movements.” The ideologist of the “Labyrinto” was the now practicing architect Paolo Martellotti. The group broke up in 1979, at the peak of fame and international recognition. Today, the impressive Labyrinth archive is exhibited at the Moscow Museum of Architecture (the main patron of the expensive tour was the Keramos company).
Getting to know the “Labyrinth” makes you think about the similarities and differences in the conceptual architecture of Italy and Russia in the last third of the 20th century. We all know very well that the architects who rallied in the 80s in opposition to the Soviet system were called “papermen.” The first collection of the Labyrinto group, released in the mid-70s, was called “Paper City”. In both cases, people fought for freedom of creativity, and the only space friendly to them was the space of a parchment sheet or tracing paper. It became a sublimation of creative daring, ambitions, and exploits. Sublimation of life itself. If you play association and think of the word “paper”, what clue words come to mind? Drawing, drawing, graphics and, of course, writing, words. Both Italian and Russian “paper” design are distinguished by this talkativeness and sociability. In both cases, the verbal context of the visual image turns out to be fundamental for a full understanding of the “paper project”.
The exhibition of the Labyrinto studio in Moscow allows us to understand how different the mechanisms of this verbalization were, how different the texts were in the end. The Labyrinto studio was fascinated by a kind of global letter-message, constructed according to the laws of intertextuality. We look at the works of the Labyrinth participants. They are all similar and all seem to be materials from a single laboratory experiment. Cells-cells - cells - font - alphabet - semes. The shelf sticks move out somewhere. Balconies hover over the desert. Shelved paragraphs - indentations. Hyperbole, alogism. Such a box-trap is made from shelf sticks. The mesh cells are woven into a snare. Is it a trap or a snare throwing itself into space? Oops! And it's in your pocket. And what is caught by this force - the natural landscape, the old city, the Suprematist volume of the early avant-garde - is not important. The main thing is that the old text (historical topography) sounds like a quotation in a new linguistic labyrinth. The intertextuality of the Labyrinto studio’s projects is confirmed even by the names of the buildings. For example, in 1977, Pia Pascalino conceived and painted “The Intermediate Building.” It is like a multi-span bridge stratified in space. Everything shines through and shimmers through it. A home is an ideal frame for contemplation and meditation. In general, it must be said that the revolutionary nature of “Labyrinth” does not lie at all in the fact that they were allegedly inspired by rebellious themes and images of the Russian avant-garde, but in the fact that they foresaw the development of humanitarian culture ten years in advance. They foresaw both postmodernism and deconstruction and perfectly rhymed with the “golden grids” that enclose space by Dominique Perrault.
That's not how it was with us. Already in the 80s, Russian “wallet” people were still under the hypnosis of the romantic project (with some convention it can be called modernist). The fundamental ones were existentialism, melancholy, shabby texture, ruins, Piranesi, and, in contrast, Malevich, flying cities, Leonidov and Chernikhov. And, of course, the proud figure of an artist rejected by the crowd, not understood by anyone, is always relevant. Our “paper” architecture was deciphered in the language not of scientific literature, but of fiction, from the Gothic novel to Zamyatin’s “We” and further to the Strugatskys.
Both the romanticism of the Russian “wallahs” and the deconstruction of the Labyrinthians are equally charming and dear today. By the way, now there is much more in common between them than before. After the collapse of Labyrinto, Paolo Martellotti and Pia Pascalino created the Laboratory studio, which designs real buildings, as well as restoration and design of large exhibitions. At the same time, the Italians do not change their principle of intertextuality. Today, the majority of Russian “paper workers” also either successfully design public and private buildings, or design prestigious exhibitions. And to the best of their ability they remain faithful to romantic literary and artistic dreams. Sergei KHACHATUROV |
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