One of my goals for my visit back home was to take in as much of the cultural life here as possible. I grew up in a big city and, although I’ve always longed for a more simple and slow lifestyle, I’ve realised that some things you simply cannot change about yourself when it comes to habits and way of thinking. One of such things being the ability to visit museums and exhibits pretty much whenever, for an affordable price, too! Everyday there’s always something happening and you don’t even have to think how you’re going to entertain yourself this time. Of course, with work and life happening you can’t go to those places every day, but it’s always nice to have the option.
So, naturally, I having missed that, I decided to live in hamster-mode this week and juggle work, spending time with family and friends and going to some of the new exhibitions that popped out while I was gone.
With this impossibly long intro we move on to my first entry in this community about my visit of Schusev State Museum of Architecture in Moscow. Since we work in architecture, me and my colleague were invited to the official opening of their latest architectural exhibition “Museum loci: The View of Architects of the XXI century”. It was a good coincidence since I wanted to visit it anyway, but now I got to do it as a part of my job so I didn’t have to try and fit it into a very tight schedule.
The main idea behind the exhibition was relatively simple: in honour of the museum's 90th anniversary over 50 modern architects and architectural bureaus from different cities and of different level of acknowledgement in the industry were tasked to "rethink" the idea of a museum and present their own interpretation of what a museum really is, and therefore what its architecture represents. Some took a very straightforward approach, whereas the others tried to dig dipper and through their observation of the society, how we work as a species and interact with each other and our surroundings, study the phenomenon of human condition.
Although the architects didn't have any restrictions on the medium and the format they use to express themselves, there were a few common concepts in the art-objects:
- The Museum as an Archive and Collection of Artefacts, reflecting the content and meaning of the architect's profession.
- The Museum as an Incubator of Ideas that can inspire modern architects to bold creative searches and experiments.
- The Museum as a Space of Memory, a place where information about the works of architects is preserved for future generations. Here the architects reflected on the fate of preserving the architectural heritage of different eras.
- The Museum as a Collective Image of the People who create the museum and those whose memory is perpetuated in it. The theme of the importance of identity of architects, museum staff and, of course, the people for whom this memory is preserved and continues to live.
I personally liked the works that touched on the last two topics I mentioned. Mostly because as a regular person who interacts with architecture on a daily basis, but also as someone who researches the "human" side of architectural thought and how we as a society not only depend on architecture, but also shape it and transform it, I find the last two points more significant and important.
A museum is not only a form of entertainment, it's a very powerful tool of educating and influencing how a historical fact is perceived, whether it's a painting, an archeological artefact or an old book. And very much like a museum any building you walk past everyday is a historical event, a moment from the past preserved for us to see and feel its effect in the presents. Some architecture makes us feel fascinated and in awe, some — completely crushed by it's powerful atmosphere.
Architecture isn't just a pretty (or sometimes ugly) building. When done correctly, how it should be, it's able to tell you a story of those who lived there, what kind of lives they've led, what it's future has become and what it will be in the next decades. It's history that unravels in front of you almost unnoticed, until one day either it or you completely disappear.
That's the beauty of art, but more specifically architecture. It's a place of memories, that were passed down from one generation to another. And that's why it's so important to keep and preserve those memories, no matter how good or bad they are. After all, there is no us without our past, it's what has shaped us as individuals and as a society.