Art installation in Russian Pavilion on Venice Biennale of architecture 2018 from Citizenstudio

The installation theme corresponds to the general theme of the Biennale – Freespace. As a part of Russian pavilion – “Station Russia”, this installation has an intention to affect the sensitive questions about the future of free space in our cities. It shows the physical and metaphysical role of the railway system in the process of development of the free spaces, a role of a physical and metaphysical bridge between the cities and people.

This work shows railway as a backbone of the vast space of Russia. This space is mostly empty and consists only of nature. It was important to stress the vital role of these connections for the future live of Russia.

This work emphasize contradiction between the connecting role of the railways and the actual alienated spaces that it brings to our cities. It raises the question of the future of this spaces.

Citizenstudio present a vision for Moscow developed for the Russian Pavilion in Venice Biennale this year. The whole project consists of two parts. The first part is called – The Great Russian River and the second – Dichotomy of free space.

In the second part of installation – Dichotomy of free space the future is divided in two. Two speculative options of the future are proposed – Absorption and Sacralization. Two narratives are meant to trace the hidden opportunities and dangers. The danger is that these new free spaces could be treating as a springboard for spatial experiments, which becomes a form of practice nowadays. These two narratives show fundamentally different scenarios.

The transportation infrastructure occupies the vast territories in our cities. Our cities still lives in the transportation concept of the 19th century and we are expecting the inevitable change of the course, caused by a technological breakthroughs. As a result of these changes a huge amount of free space is expected to be released. The aim is to find tools to foresee the possible ways of future development.

The site of Square of Three railway stations in Moscow was chosen as a perfect site for examining the process of potential release of the free space on the place of existing transportation infrastructure.

First scenario is named – “Absorption” and is based on the current process of growing density of our cities. With the growing demand, growing gravity and lack of free space big cities tend to over-densify.

Cities are transforming into a vertical structures, while being a part of the planetary scale megastructures. The everyday-life basic processes are being automatized, from food delivery to goods delivery, to people movement.

The second narrative called “Sacralization” describes a completely different scenario of preservation and controlled use of the strategic free space in the cities previously occupied by the transport infrastructure.

The term “Sacralization” is used in a broad sense; it can be religious, ideological, historical or symbolic. Think of the Roman forum, Times Square in New York, Red Square in Moscow, and Palace Square in St. Petersburg. 

The main goal of “sacralization” is to give to a released free space an ability to withstand a growing pressure of the real estate market and to turn them into a green frame inside our cities.

The growing speed of intercity transportation, resulting of introducing the new means of transportation such as HSR or Hyperloop, could lead to a weakening of the large city gravity.

Cities are about to form in structures of a linear character, - linear agglomerations.

Moscow is becoming a part of the system, which consists of the 600 megacities that tend to replace the existing 200 countries in the future.

The installation consists of two parts, that corresponds with the dual nature of the artwork.

The first part of installation is seven round white segments of Russian cities with the subtracted territories covered by railway infrastructure mounted on the wall

The second part of installation is two columns that embody both speculative scenarios of the future for the given part of Moscow. Each column consists of five layers, five different periods of land transformation - from the beginning of the 19th. century in the bottom to the distant future at the very top. White round segments hang on the thin Kevlar straps covered with the brass-like paint.

Part of this project, - physical models, was exhibited in Russian Pavilion on Venice Biennale of architecture 2018. The other materials were developed in form of graphic essay.

Biennale in Venice is coming to an end and the art installation will be moved to the place of its origin, to Russia. The whole project will be exhibited in Moscow, on Kazan station after the end of the Biennale

The installation is by Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin, Citizenstudio architectural studio.