Pavilion of the Russian Federation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia VKhUTEMAS Training Anna Bokov VKhUTEMAS Training Pavilion of the Russian Federation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia Curated by Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Anton Kalgaev Brendan McGetrick Daria Paramonova Comissioner Semyon Mikhailovsky Text and Design Anna Bokov With Special Thanks to Sofia & Andrey Bokov Katerina Clark Jean-Louis Cohen Kurt W. Forster Kenneth Frampton Harvard Graduate School of Design Selim O. Khan-Magomedov Moscow Architectural Institute MARCHI Diploma Studios Moscow Schusev Museum of Architecture Eeva-Liisa Pelknonen Alexander G. Rappaport Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Larisa I. Veen Yury P. Volchok Yale School of Architecture VKhUTEMAS Training VKhUTEMAS, an acronym for Vysshie Khudozhestvenno Tekhnicheskie Masterskie, translated as Higher Artistic and Technical Studios, was conceived explicitly as “a specialized educational institution for ad- vanced artistic and technical training, created to produce highly quali- fied artist-practitioners for modern industry, as well as instructors and directors of professional and technical education” (Vladimir Lenin, 1920). VKhUTEMAS was a synthetic interdisciplinary school consisting of both art and industrial facilities. The school was comprised of eight art and production departments - Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, Graphics, Textiles, Ceramics, Wood-, and Metalworking. The exchange between the departments was facilitated by the core curriculum that consisted of four preliminary courses: Graphics, Color, Volume and Space. 4 VKhUTEMAS Training | Russian Pavilion | Venice Biennale 2014 Anna Bokov 5 ARCHITECTS SPACE DOKUCHAEV KRINSKY LADOVSKY (1891 - 1944) (1890 - 1958) (1881 - 1941) SCULPTORS VOLUME KANDINSKY BABICHEV KOROLEV LAVINSKY (1866 - 1944) (1887 - 1963) (1885 - 1963) (1879 - 1940) CONSTRUCTIVISTS GRAPHICS WORKING GROUPS GROUPS WORKING THE WORKING GROUP OF OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS OF OBJECTIVE GROUP THE WORKING GAN MEDUNETZKY G. STENBERG STEPANOVA RODCHENKO (c. 1889 - c. 1940) (1899 - c. 1935) (1900 - 1933) (1894 - 1958) (1891 - 1956) V. STENBERG (1899 - 1982) OBJECTIVISTS COLOR DREVIN UDALTZOVA POPOVA A. VESNIN (1889 - 1938) (1886 - 1961) (1889 - 1924) (1883 - 1959) INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) 1920 - 1924 VKhUTEMAS (Higher Artistic and Technical Studios) 1920 - 1930 The courses were initially lead by those faculty members who had At VKhUTEMAS a mosaic of progressive and conservative faculty con- joined the Group of Objective Analysis at the Institute of Artistic Culture tributed to a vibrant diverse environment where new ideas were forged (INKhUK), an organization established concurrently with VKhUTEMAS in heated debates. The school’s faculty counted such pioneers of Rus- in 1920, and led by Vasily Kandinsky. The principal goal of INKhUK was sian Avant-garde as Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, Al- to systematize the emerging modern movement into a scientifically exander Vesnin and Lyubov Popova, Boris Korolev and Anton Lavinsky, based program, known as the “objective method,” that could be used Nikolay Ladovsky and Vladimir Krinsky, El Lissitzky and Vladimir Tatlin, for educational and research purposes. The INKhUK –VKhUTEMAS Gustav Klutzis and Moisey Ginzburg. Their pedagogical contributions conglomerate formed special research “laboratories” within the made VKhUTEMAS an important center of modernist movement, en- school’s departments for exploring the “objective method” and devel- gaging pedagogy as a mode of experimentation. VKhUTEMAS teachers oping the primary “elements” of their respective disciplines – Painting, and students saw design education not just as a process of knowledge Sculpture and Architecture. transfer but as a vehicle for design innovation. 6 VKhUTEMAS Training | Russian Pavilion | Venice Biennale 2014 Anna Bokov 7 1/2 year 3 years 2 YEARS RSE PREL OU IM V O C IN E L Y IN STU A C U N S D ARCHITECTURE R L R 3 YEARS IO OO Y O A A CT T F Y M U & N S R S A P T N T L T C N E I S IA U E N R R O S M M I E E WO E T T ON O U R I A T D A S E L M R E P CERAMICS E S S D E S R R C SCULPTURE U U M I T R E O O M E E Y C BUILDING C E METAL T C P A PRACTICAL BUILDING S DIPLOMA D A Y H Y L L EXPIRIENCE - A R L P R N A & C C PROJECT I BUILDING EXPERIMENTS A R A I A R R C O N THEORY COURSES N E I A E D I P U DESIGN T M & L R I M BUILDING AND A C I C L PRACTICE E ENGINEERING T O M E L S G G WORKSHOPS I WOOD O E E N R SCIENCES F L N N N I P S O R A T D E T V PAINTING P A S S R A E T S I X P P U E S I C A P O C W Y O TEXTILE N T L R E H T IO COLOR A O M R N N S E S I A N K L T M S E R O C T , O GRAPHICS N HE O ACE I T CO R Y OF SP N W R S E LOR ITIO Y H L , COMPOS M R W E R A P P IT ME FO N A H NT OF I I A M AR Y THE OR Y LIM N R ATE R E TI G R IALS IN THE P NG Bauhaus VKhUTEMAS Teaching Program Diagram, W. Gropius, 1922. Teaching Program Diagram, 1923. BAUHAUS VKhUTEMAS The historyTeaching of VKhUTEMAS program is closely diagr linkedam, G withropius that ofW the., 1922 Staatliches Like the Bauhaus,Teaching VKhUTEMAS Program was an Diagram, interdisciplinary 1923 school that Bauhaus in Germany. The two schools conducted student visits and consisted of both art and industrial departments. It also had a well-de- exhibitions, exchanged ideas through publications and correspondence veloped preliminary course. The interdisciplinarity and the core curric- and shared foundational values, disseminated by the key avant-garde ulum made VKhUTEMAS similar to the Bauhaus. Unlike the Bauhaus, protagonists, in particular, Vasily Kandinsky and El Lissitzky. How- which did not have an architecture department for the first eight years, ever, while both schools aimed for a new unity of art and technology, VKhUTEMAS trained architects from the very beginning. The schools VKhUTEMAS aimed to create the proletarian version of that unity, even- also differed greatly in size. The number of students and faculty at tually resulting in an ideological gap. VKhUTEMAS compared to Bauhaus exceeded roughly tenfold. 8 VKhUTEMAS Training | Russian Pavilion | Venice Biennale 2014 Anna Bokov 9 VKhUTEMAS Historical Timeline 1749 1825 1843 1918 1920 1924 1926 1930 Palace School of Architecture Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture SGKhM 2 founded by Prince Ukhtomsky MUZhVZ Free State Art Studios 2 VKhUTEMAS VKhUTEIN Vysshiye Khudozhestvenno-Tekhnicheskiye Masterskiye Vysshiye Khudozhestvenno-Tekhnicheskii Institut Stroganov School of Applied Arts SGKhM 1 Higher Art and Technical Studios Higher Art and Technical Institute Free State Art Studios 1 INKhUK Institut Khudozhestvennoi Kulturi Institute of Artistic Culture 10 VKhUTEMAS Training | Russian Pavilion | Venice Biennale 2014 Anna Bokov 11 VKhUTEMAS: Development of the Preliminary Course 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring fall spring N. Ladovsky, V. Krinsky, N. Dokuchaev N. Ladovsky V. S. Balikhin SGKhM 2 OBMAS (United Leftist Studios) (1881 - 1941) Free State Art Studios 2 S. V. Glagolev M. P. Korzhev K. Melnikov SPACE SPACE Architectural Design I. V. Lamtsov Department Architecture V. A. Petrov I. Golosov Theory of Architectural Organisms M. A. Turkus A. Lavinsky A. Lavinsky (1879 - 1940) N. I. Goldman B. Korolev Volume Studies R. R. Yodko VOLUME E. K. Murovtseva VOLUME Sculpture A. Babichev Deparment Sculpture Studies A. I. Teneta L. Popova, A. Vesnin L. Popova N. T. Fedorov Color Construction (1889 - 1924) A. Vesnin S. V. Kravkov (1883 - 1959) G. G. Klutsis COLOR STUDIES A. Osmerkin Articulation of Form and Color A. A. Alabas A. Drevin COLOR Synchronism of Color K. N. Istomin I. Klyun A. D. Drevin Color on Plane V. L. Khrakovsky PAINTING A. Exter V. S. Toot Color in Space N. A. Udaltsova Painting V. Baranov-Rossine Department Color Breakdown A. Rodchenko L. A. Bruni SGKhM 1 (1891 - 1956) Free State Art Studios 1 N. Udaltsova P. Ya. Pavlinov Volume in Space GRAPHICS S. V. Gerasimov DRAWING A. Rodchenko Construction M. S. Rodionov ONE-YEAR COURSE TWO-YEAR PRELIMINARY COURSE ONE-YEAR PRELIMINARY COURSE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRELIMINARY COURSES ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CORE DEPARTMENT WITHIN THE THREE DEPARTMENTS 12 VKhUTEMAS Training | Russian Pavilion | Venice Biennale 2014 Anna Bokov 13 VKhUTEMAS Philosophy: New Approaches for a New Society VKhUTEMAS was not simply an educational institution, but an agent of social change. It aimed to bring education to the masses and the masses to the growing industrial production. This could only be achieved through radical educational experimentation: the old peda- gogy no longer worked, as the influx of thousands of students from the countryside could not be trained using bespoke apprenticeship or elitist academic methods. The situation raised fundamental questions about design education that continue to resonate today: Is there an alternative to the academic and apprenticeship models? How can one teach something that has not yet been done, something that has no precedent? How do you teach that to hundreds of students with diverse backgrounds? In response, the teachers and students of VKhUTEMAS developed an approach without precedent in which the process of teaching and learning served as a vehicle for venturing into the unknown.