Elena Pushkarskaya looked around at the Architecture Biennale in Venice

Russia's past is the best gift, including for the centenary of the Russian pavilion in Venice

"Monditalia" is the name of the exposition of the Italian pavilion. It's almost "Made in Italy" - everything it's rich in

Elena Pushkarskaya, Venice

The Italians began announcing the Architectural Biennale, which opened on June 7 in Venice, with the prefix “super” long before the vernissage days. If only because the most prestigious world show of architecture, culture and urbanism opened this year three months earlier than before, and accordingly will last not three, but six months. This will finally equate it with the Biennale of Contemporary Art, from the depths of which the Architectural Biennale, in fact, sprouted and with which it has been alternating ever since. And all because the curator of the current architectural review, the famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, decided: architecture is as interesting as contemporary art. Koolhaas himself and his architectural achievements were awarded the Golden Lion back in 2010, and since then the biennale has tried in vain to get him as chief curator. And it happened! For the first time, the curator formulated not only the general theme of the exhibition - “Fundamentals” (Fundamentals), but also determined the theme for the national pavilions. Koolhaas gave all countries participating in the biennale a task: to fantasize on the theme “Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014”. In other words, to demonstrate how over these 100 years architecture has acquired its modern language.

To prevent the public from getting lost in the whirlpool of architectural ideas, the biennale space is divided into three sectors. This is the main pavilion located in the Giardini di Castello park (in the old days it was the Italian pavilion), where the imagination of the main curator of the exhibition reigns. Next door in the Arsenale there is a modern Italian pavilion. Numerous national pavilions - there are 65 of them at the current Biennale - are scattered throughout the city. Among them, it is difficult to ignore the Russian pavilion designed by Alexey Shchusev in the neo-Russian style, which celebrates its centenary this year. Legend claims that the Russian pavilion owes its prestigious position on the main alley of the Giardini to the friendship of Nicholas II with the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III. From where far away, it turns out, do the tender relations between Russia and Italy originate, which, by the way, are undergoing a strength test in our difficult days. So in the motto of the Russian exhibition “Russian past - our present” (“Russia’s past is our present”) one can also see political and historical allusions. And you can enjoy the play on words if you translate “present” as “gift”.

The title of the exhibition, “Fair Enough,” adds sophistication to the exhibition, which looks back into the past, and even partially smooths over the scandal associated with the unexpected dismissal of the commissioner of the Russian pavilion, Grigory Revzin, three months before the start of the biennale. The new commissioner Semyon Mikhailovsky (who is also the rector of the Repin Russian Academy of Arts) has completely preserved the concept of his predecessor, assures Varvara Melnikova, who heads the Strelka Institute of Media, Design and Architecture, from whose depths the project for the Russian exhibition came. Melnikova approved the curatorial staff of the exhibition, consisting of young Strelka graduates Anton Kalgaev, Brendan McGetrick and Daria Paramonova.

The concept of the 2014 Biennale - “a project about architecture, not about architects” - also suited the Russian curators

The concept of the 2014 Biennale, declared by Rem Koolhaas as “a project about architecture, not about architects,” was generally close to Russian curators. Of course: the Dutchman gave lectures at Strelka, and all three curators of the Russian pavilion were his students and even employees! Here are some happy coincidences, including the theme “Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014”, as if specially set for the anniversary of the Russian pavilion.

The Russian exhibition, as its curators explain, is intended to show the influence of the Russian tradition of the last century on today's architectural thought. The exhibition reflects the process of searching for a new style in the architecture of the early 20th century, namely the creative method of Alexey Shchusev, the exhibition architecture of El Lisitsky, the educational program of VKHUTEMAS, the technology of prefabricated structures of Lazar Khidekel. There are also recognizable references to such iconic buildings of Soviet architecture as the house of Narkomfin Moisei Ginzburg, the Palace of Pioneers on the Lenin Hills, and the Moscow Metro. The exposition is built in the form of a fair, in which 20 fictitious commercial companies participate. Moreover, the activities of each are based on the architectural ideas of the past. You believe in the reality of these phantoms all the more when you approach the stand of a fictitious real estate agency that specializes in the demolition of architectural monuments and the creation of their clones from modern materials. The sad history of Voentorg and many other Moscow buildings make this crazy business project absolutely viable.

Having sent the participants of the biennale into the past, Koolhaas himself focused on the present, and the most everyday thing. The components of the urban space - toilet, staircase, elevator, wall, ceiling, roof - were the focus of his attention. These objects are packaged by the master in so many cultural readings and neurotic associations that it seems that if there were no balcony, a favorite podium for speeches by dictators of all stripes, history would have gone differently.

“Monditalia” is the short and clear name of the exhibition of the Italian pavilion, which is the third component of the Venetian architectural show. "Monditalia" is almost "Made in Italy", a phenomenon that everyone in the Apennines hopes will save, if not the world, then Italy itself. The 44 expositions of the pavilion cover almost all the best that the country has - from a furniture showroom to a state-of-the-art hospital, from a disco to a library, from Pompeii finally put in order (this is clearly from the future) to mozzarella and lemons that have preserved the original taste. And let someone already call all this Disneyland in Italian. The fair scent inherent in the biennale is precisely what attracts those who are called the ordinary public to it. And if we eradicate it, why then stretch out this pleasure for six months?

A look through a century