rally for house of artist and tretyakovka 2009 02 24. Naum Kleiman speeks
The Moscow Times » Issue 4092 » News
print
Vladimir Filonov / MT
Artist Nikolai Moskulov building a snowman Tuesday as part of a rally against plans by the Moscow city administration to demolish the Central House of Artists, background. A flash mob also gathered at the building during the day and planted lipstick kisse
Protesters Assail City Hall Plans
25 February 2009By Anna Malpas / Staff WriterA flash mob planted lipstick kisses on a wall and snowmen brandished placards signed by artists at a protest Tuesday against the planned demolition of the Central House of Artists building on Krymsky Val.

The boxy building houses the Tretyakov Gallery's collection of 20th-century art, including Kazimir Malevich's "Black Square," and a separate gallery complex called the Central House of Artists.

Moscow city government wants to demolish the building and move the Tretyakov Gallery and the Central House of Artists to separate buildings beside the main road. Thei building then would be replaced with a 17-story development that could house a hotel.

The plans come after Inteko last year presented an avant-garde design by Norman Foster called "Orange" to replace the Central House of Artists. It was to include offices and a residential development.

Inteko is headed by billionaire Yelena Baturina, the wife of Mayor Yury Luzhkov.

The Orange plan is still being worked on with Foster + Partners, Inteko's press office said in written answer to questions Tuesday.

The central area is surrounded by construction sites, including Capital Group's Impersky Dom, and protesters on Tuesday accused the city of putting commercial interests first.

"It's all aimed at freeing up the site for commercial construction," said Alexei Klimenko, an adviser to Moscow's chief architect, who went to the protest.

Art historian Andrei Yerofeyev organized a protest featuring Nikolai Polissky's trademark snowmen sculptures. The snowmen held placards with messages signed by artists such as Konstantin Zvezdochetov and German Vinogradov.

"Mine is an anagram of Yury Luzhkov's name: uklyuzhy vor, or nimble thief," Vinogradov said.

Vinogradov's first exhibitions took place at the Central House of Artists, and his work is now included in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, he said.

Other artists at the event included Boris Orlov and Alexander Yulikov, as well as architects Yevgeny Ass and Yury Avvakumov and actor Boris Shcherbakov.

"The Central House of Artists is the biggest exhibition space in Eastern Europe," Polissky said, calling the plans "quite strange, if not to say stupid."

The building should only be replaced by a work of "genius," he said. "This is just a crude raider seizure."

"It's a strong, good building, and it has plenty of resources," Ass said.

A young flash mob planted red lipstick kisses on a wall of the Tretyakov Gallery. Ponytailed Georgy Tikhov said he has spent much of his childhood at the Central House of Artists. "I'm skipping school for the sake of this," he said, asking a reporter to paint his lips.

Even the administration of the Tretyakov Gallery is in the dark about the function of the huge building that would take over the site.

"We don't know. We asked several times, but we didn't get an answer," said Tretyakov Gallery deputy director Irina Lebedeva.

She said the Tretyakov Gallery needed a new building, but it should be built on the site of the current one.

The building on the site of the Central House of Artists is for "public use," said Natalya Klimova, spokeswoman for City Hall's Architecture Committee. "It cannot be offices or residential. It could be a hotel or an exhibition hall."

The Architecture Committee is currently asking local residents and workers to approve a plan that outlines the proposed buildings and names their function and maximum height.

Such a public discussion is the first to be held under new legislation implemented in December, and it's unclear what the effect will be.

It is a complex legal situation since the Tretyakov Gallery and the land under it is federally owned, while the Central House of Artists is owned by Moscow -- even though both entities are in the same building.

Any decision on the Tretyakov Gallery has to be made by the federal government, Lebedeva said. Nevertheless, she praised the idea of public hearings.

"The question is being discussed publicly. That's very positive," Lebedeva said.
[ Ссылка ]

свернуть