- Narkomfin narratives We are honoured to reblog here the essay by Vladimir Paperny originally published in the book O’NFM_6: Narkomfin, edited by Danilo Udovicki-Selb, published by Ernst Wasmuth Verlag Tübingen, 2015, given the kind permission of author, editor and publisher. Apart from being flattered by our film Dom Novogo Byta quoted in it as a source, the piece […]
- From Disurbanisation to Hyperurbanisation “Following the Marxist theory of cancelling the difference between city and countryside, de-urbanization called for the abolition of cities in favor of “field urbanism” an evenly distributed industry intermingled of agriculture and residential areas. First imagined by Soviet Constructivist avant-garde in the 1920s, de-urbanization was the red, communist version of Ebenezer’s Howard Garden City.” (Mihai […]
- On the preservation of Modernist Heritage Since our involvement as invited artists with the Moskonstruct campaign, and later with RKM, where we took care of the communication and graphic design of the EU funded cooperation project, we have found ourselves involved in the issue of preserving the heritage of modernist architecture. Our project and blog have also become a sounding board for campaigns and petitions. This […]
- R:CP – Considerations after the two first episodes With the screenings in Berlin and Prato we had the opportunity to see for the first time in sequence the two films we realised under the Re:centering Periphery label. We found ourselves together with a great number of friends, whose feedback has been very helpful to reflect on the outcomes and gave us the opportunity […]
- Dom Novogo Byta / trailer Dom Novogo Byta is a new step into the investigation led by Ogino:knauss on how Twentieth century’s modernist principles shaped the everyday life of urban dwellers, and what is their heritage in a global urbanisation perspective. In 2009 we were invited to produce a video installation for the art exhibition “Moskonstruct”, part of a campaign […]
- Artists vs. Residents Artists have always inhabited the Narkomfin, and are among those who struggle for saving its architectural heritage. Nevertheless their role in the Narkomfin story is also ambiguous, as possible agents of gentrification and displacement. MIAN is allowing some artists to use the spaces of the building as studio, but the residents react against the artists, […]
- Moisei Ginzburg Moisei Ginzburg was one of the most active members of the constructivist movement, and a leading figure in many groups and institutions, from OSA which he founded together with Aleksander Vesnin to the Russian Academy of Arts and Sciences. The author of numerous theoretical texts, such as ‘Old and New’ and ‘Contemporary aesthetics’, he is often […]
- Narkomfin by Rodchenko After being expelled from the October group in 1932, Rodchenko was commissioned to take pictures of Moscow. Out of this series Varvara Stepanova, his wife and colleague, compiled a narrative sequence of eight-nine gelatin silver prints adding to it some photographs from the October period. The photos of street parades, housing projects, technical buildings, new […]
- The Milyutins’ Penthouse interior from Milyutin family archive With courtesy of Ekaterina Milyutina – NLO Publishers, Moscow
- Moskonansledie The main goal of our third and conclusive visit to Moscow was to meet and interview some representatives of Moscow Government, and namely Moscomansledie, the municipal agency in charge of preserving cultural heritage in the Russian Capital. It is the only relevant actor in the story of the Narkomfin, which we did not have the […]