Frightened architecture. "Putin's Palace" through the eyes of an art critic

479 photos of the Palace of Putin were published by the team of Alexei Navalny a year after the appearance of the sensational film on the construction of a grandiose estate on the Black Sea coast. After the release of the film, Vladimir Putin said that the Palace does not belong to him, and the president’s close friend, businessman Arkady Rotenberg, said that the palace is his property. However, the financing scheme of the facility located under enhanced state security confirms the conclusions of the Navalny team. The construction and reconstruction of the main building alone is estimated at 100 billion rubles. Due to the mistake of the designers, mold appeared in the palace, and the object that was planned to be completed to the 59th anniversary of Putin in 2011 had to be completely remade.

A year ago, federal propagandists in every possible way convinced the citizens that the palace did not belong to Putin, now a new tactic was chosen: the media under the threat of blocking forced to remove old publications about the palace and other investigations of the Navalny team.

In the film about the palace, which more than one hundred million people watched on Youutube, the interiors of the building were shown in the form of 3D visualizations. This raised the doubts of some commentators that the interiors are really the same as the investigators claimed. Most photographs that have appeared now are similar to previously published visualization. They differ in details - in reality, gilding and other jewelry (including stylized Russian coats of arms) was even more than plans.

The art critic Nikolai Ivanov decided to study these photos and found a lot of curious, including the secret joke of the designer of the luxurious pool. He shared his observations with the audience of his YouTube channel.

Nikolai Ivanov told Radio Liberty about why he wanted to study and comment on these pictures.

- I decided to analyze them, because I realized that the Navalny team, despite the fact that she is doing a great job, does not really understand that they have before her eyes, what styles are used, what furniture is copied. Therefore, I decided to help them in a proactive way, telling what styles play the main role in the design of this palace. This is such a help to the person who is in prison now, and his team.

- It is customary to make fun of this imitation of the luxury of the former centuries, the Navalny team does this. Do you also think the idea to arrange Versailles in Gelendzhik is funny?

Classicism serves bureaucratic buildings and state institutions

- I tried to approach this as a specialist who is most abstracted by the emotional assessment of what is before my eyes. I just told where that came from, what legs grow at which chair, which styles correspond to one or another period of government, depending on the aspirations of the ruler. I wanted to reflect on this. Why should I laugh at the Italian furniture, who honestly completed his work at a high professional level? This is really excellent furniture. Another thing is that in combination some nuances arise, we can evaluate how this is invested in the traditional representation of the Russian authorities about how the interior should look, how it should be filled, what attitude, what the currents that pass in the air corresponds. That is, to describe the fashion, try to explain it. Of course, I can laugh, but it’s more interesting for me to try to reach out to each subject, to its origins, to how we can determine the artistic taste of the customer. The evolution of beauty logic is what interests me.

- You draw two conclusions: one that classicism won in the decoration, and the other that there is nothing Russian in the palace ...

They want to copy what is adopted by respected people, those who, according to their thoughts, leads Western Europe

- The most significant thing that catches the eye is, of course, classic trends, they are present both in architectural appearance and in the design. Their origins are ancient Rome, then the most manifested images that developed at the end of the XVIII century and later, in styles that can be called neoclassical. These styles are not new, with Catherine classicism serves bureaucratic buildings and state institutions. It can be noted that the highest, most stringent stages of classicism, which correspond to the word "Empire", are combined with the periods when the country fought, when it in such a triumphant way reported on its victories. In the ornamentation, the classicism and the Empire burst the attributes that are characteristic of the country that defeated is the first half of the 19th century and the stage, which was shortly after the Second World War. Here, of course, these trends are also noticeable, which classicism emphasizes and which are associated with state aspirations to correspond to this style - such strictness is deliberate. This is a style that corresponds to the adoption of state decisions, conversations with officials, a tough hand demonstrates its will. This is a style that emphasizes geometry, vertical, horizontal. This is a style that actively uses gilded overlays. Surprisingly, I did not notice any traces of the Russian style. Although now the Russian style is very popular in Russia in connection with the declared trends about contacting the roots, albeit often mythically. The Russian style undergoes one of its most powerful revives. The fourth wave of the Russian style is now in architecture and in applied art is fixed. But there is not the slightest trace of this style - it surprised me. As if the palace is created in Russia for the first person of the state, and nothing, not a hook.

Palace in 2011

- But what about the eagles in all rooms? The Navalny team paid attention to the flocks of these eagles.

The person who floats in the pool will constantly tease this woman who allegorically associates with America

- Yes, eagles in round wreaths, driven into horizontal panels, there are really a lot of them there. I also think that this style of classicism is connected with the fact that it reminds of the aristocratic houses of Europe, it may indicate the traction of the Russian rulers to these houses. They really want to be inscribed in the same interiors, they really want to correspond to what is called the old elite, the highest light of Europe, to be somehow approved. These interiors, by and large, correspond to this attitude. They want to copy what is accepted in a large light, among respected people, those who, according to their thoughts, leads Western Europe.

- What premises of the palace seemed to you the most curious?

- The pool seemed to me the most curious. I decided to make this video when I drew attention to the headdress of one Herma, which is located on the pilasters of the pool. This is such a very specific headdress, it looks like an Indian headdress made of feathers. In the XVI, XVII, XVIII centuries, when in the visual arts it was a question of an allegorical representation of the continents, it was this headdress that was responsible for America, plus the bare chest of a woman. It seemed to me partly a humorous move, such a joke of the designer that the person who floats in the pool will constantly tease this woman who allegorically associates with America. It seemed to me that this move needs to be voiced, he pushed me to make me record this video. In the same interior, there are a lot of mannerist trends that send us to the second half of the 16th century, somehow encrypting jokes - this also seemed very interesting to me. In general, there is a mix, like most interiors of this palace, but there are features that were pretty to me as an ornamentist. Because I saw respect for the ornamental objects of the 17th century, they were reproduced here.

- What do you say about the famous hookah room with a sixth?

A very cautious attempt to adapt to the tastes of a person who has power and pays money

- It is a mix of two styles - classicism, which passes through the entire building with a red thread, and the style that has been associated with the east since the time of the Russian aristocracy of the 19th century. Hangans, a relaxed atmosphere, ornaments that are not here, but which are often present in oriental styles. A person who smoked a hookah feels in an imposing state, he is pleased to look at the nets of ornamental stripes, which often cover the walls and ceiling in the oriental styles. But here they are eliminated, we only see a reminder that this is the East, in the profiles of such structures standing along the walls, and they resemble Mihrab - a generalized image of the dome. This interior is a mixture of classicism and oriental style, which obtained from Italian designers, as far as they could imagine a relaxing atmosphere, which should accompany the striptease and smoking of the hookah.

Mihrab in a hookah room

- Have you noticed the miscalculations of architects and designers?

We must talk about the artistic taste and fear that forms it

- My colleague from St. Petersburg Maxim Atants, a professor at the Academy of Arts, a specialist in classicism, and detailed the miscalculations in architectural design. Somewhere, some element was underlined in accordance with classicist representations, some part was excessively issued, even during visual inspection, it leads to overload, to imbalance. A miscalculation-this means that I should keep some perfect building in my head, think that it is one hundred percent completely, and all that we see in the buildings that are trying to copy it are some kind of branches that seem to be not correct. In my opinion, if everything stands and works, then okay, it is fixed in this form. I am trying to analyze what was in the head of the architect and designer, how deeply he penetrates the history of arts, how important these traditions are, how he combines them with the tastes of the alleged customer, how he analyzes what will be before the eyes of the person who paid for this interior. He should not annoy the alleged tenant of this building. I would also say that here we should talk not so much about the artistic taste and beauty that forms it as an artistic taste and fear that forms it. Somewhere I met the idea that the artistic taste in the authoritarian states is primarily the fear of the architect to do something wrong. This is what they are most afraid of when they make buildings, come up with their filling: how to please, how not to be repressed and receive in the future the equally powerful orders. I think that it is not about enjoying beauty, but about avoiding fear.

Today we posted 479 photos of the Putin Palace. I already learned them, a lot struck me there - gold, marble, bad taste, but most of all - endless stamp eagles. They are everywhere - from stripnik to casino. I can’t keep it in myself anymore, I want to show you ↓ 🦅 Eagle thread 🦅 ↓ pic.twitter.com/bjqhmtbzp5

- George Alburov (@alburov) January 20, 2022

- Can we talk about such interiors in terms of good or bad taste? Is the Kremlin St. George Hall of the Kremlin? A meaningless, absurd question. Where is the criterion here?

“I am not an archecritic, I am an art critic, I am following them.” Critics of architecture, holding some model in my head, are trying to talk about whether it is good or bad. I am already analyzing what I see before my eyes, trying to highlight the logical chains, try to understand what is behind this taste. It is not good or bad, but what logic was in the head, aware, unconscious, simply copying or reasonable introduction of some element into the interior, I am interested in this. This building only appeared, we need to collect as many points of view as possible about this building in order to understand how beautiful it is. I do not think that it is directly masterpiece, because here I did not notice any new bursts and original solutions. This is a very cautious eclectic mixing of various styles, which is based on a little classicism, a little baroque, a little “Bel Epem”, a little east, a little mannerism, but at the basis of classicism. There are no original moves here. If we determine the taste through what is called novelty, what is actually an invented architect and designer by the output of some kind of ideas, then here we have nothing of the kind. It is in principle ordinary. If I passed this building somewhere in Italy, I would not pay attention to it, because it does not please the eye with something new, extravagant, outstanding. Here is a very cautious attempt to adapt to the tastes of a person who has power and pays money.

Pool

-The official version is that this is not a palace, but an apart-hotel. In fact, you can see the elements of an expensive resort hotel?

- There are no noticeables of the hotel here: a lobby, division into rooms, a dining room, where you could eat more than one person, but several equally, only two bedrooms under the later Baroque. This architecture does not comply with the principles by which hotel buildings are built. Sometimes, of course, you can find such buildings that are entirely surrendered, some French chateau of the XVIII-XIX centuries, but this is not hotels in our usual modern sense-this is a house, one of the heirs decides to earn extra money, handing it over. Although, of course, the interiors are similar to hotel interiors in Turkey, Greece, in Italy. Many hotels have a special idea that the interiors correspond to the average taste of a rich person. Often they are furnished precisely in the classicist way that we see here now: a couple of chairs, a pair of chairs, a chest of drawers for classicism, some historicism of the late 19th century. So the rooms of expensive hotels are filled in cases where hoteliers do not want to cause displeasure of visitors.

- I remembered your remark that genuine furniture is cheaper than an imitation made for Putin's palace.

People agree to overpay ten times, but receive secondary copies

- Yes, that's right. It always amazes me. On the one hand, it is clear, because the word "second-hand" scares people who are in power. They need to flaunt every day with an expensive dress, do not wear it twice, as the great Catherine bequeathed. But in fact, of course, the prototypes of these things that appear in the frame regularly go. Almost every day in Europe, furniture auctions are held, you can buy many times better and older than the thing. If I had stuffed my palace with furniture, I would buy a genuine antiques that stores traces of existence on myself. But here is a completely different approach. People agree to overpay ten times, but receive secondary copies. This behavior is easily explainable: it is shameful to have things in the house that some dead man owned.

Bedroom

- You predicted my question. I wanted to ask: if you were extremely rich and you got a palace in the form of a concrete box, what would you suggest making architects?

People who were customers were afraid to get into trouble if they hired some modern architect

- I understand that the customers of this palace were completely free financially, they had the opportunity to choose any architect of the world, invite any design bureau, put any furniture inside. Thousands of modern designers work, from which we do not see a trace, no hint in this palace to modern architecture in its natural development. I think that again we should use the word "fear" here. People who were customers were afraid to get into trouble if they hired some modern architect. I would choose some French studio, or Italian, or American, or even Latin American, they are now flying up, or China. I would just choose the best. There are a lot of them, to list now, highlighting someone, it is pointless, because these are thousands of teams, none of them will fail, they are all professional. As we see in our case, they did not call any of these people who really track current trends, called those who flirting with the past, trying to reproduce classicism, so beloved by the state of Russia, trying to reproduce some “Bel Epem” on the coast of Nice, their interiors, what they are clogged.

Candidate of art history Nikolai Ivanov

-Of course, the owner of this palace did not choose every goat and did not evaluate every ornament, but still the imprint of its taste lies on everything that is present there, more precisely, was present, because, apparently, there would be something else after a tremendous repair. What can we say about the taste of this customer whose name we know?

They chose what was before his eyes daily, so as not to overestimate him too much, they repeated these interiors

“It seems to me that he doesn’t care where he is.” I think he has never rolled tantrums about why neo-barroaches, and not neoclassicism or something else. I think that he is completely insensitive to what surrounds him. The only thing you can talk about the habit. I think that designers, architects primarily thought about his habits and what interiors he used to be, where he was used to sitting, where he used to go, where he took the most important cones of this world. They went through all these interiors, where he was comfortable, collected such a mix of this. In the frame, when we see the head of state, we have before our eyes and the chair where he is sitting, and the backdrop of the room where he is located. Я думаю, они выбрали то, что есть перед его глазами ежедневно, так, чтобы не слишком его перевозбуждать лишним, повторили эти интерьеры, слегка варьируя их. Потому что, естественно, он не выбирал ни один из этих предметов, я думаю, его не спросили. Администрация президента, которая отвечает за то, что он надевает, что он ест, на каком белье он спит, не спрашивает великого мастера "как вам лучше?", она примерно представляет, что ему подсунуть, чтобы не вызвать его неудовольствия.

– Не хватает только комнаты в ленинградской коммунальной квартире, где он провел значительную часть своей жизни.

– Совершенно верно, и "запорожца" ностальгического. Да, я удивился, что не было советских интерьеров. Но я списал отсутствие этой тоски на классицизм, потому что кремлевские интерьеры классицистические, и я думаю, что в мышлении хозяина советское время ассоциируется с классицизмом Кремля, поэтому его так много.