It was the year of 1925. Summer in Paris. The Soviet
Union took part in “the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et
Industriels Modernes” and should have projected an image of itself as civilized
and utterly progressive government. Some exhibits included Konstantin
Mel'nikov's Soviet pavilion and displays of crafts, graphic design,
architectural drawings, and works created at VKHUTEMAS. But one of the most remarkable
and impressive exhibits was “Workers club” created by Russian respectable artist
and photographer Aleksander Rodchenko.
“Workers club” was a place for leisure where bourgeois comfort was
replaced by geometric functionalism. The main purpose of the club was reconceiving
of workers’ leisure from passive and solitary to active and collective. It
included a removable chess table, pull-out projection screens for showing
presentations, a rostrum, some bookcases and movable display cases for
documents, maps and photographs, a large table for reading and “Lenin corner”
embellished with documentary materials about the life of the leader recently
deceased. Each detail of the club was speaking of a new Soviet ideology.
“..The club is finished, I am sending some photographs to you. It
turned out so simple and bright, and clean that you will never want to make it
dirty. It is all shining “Ripolin” (Ripolin is a brand of paint. It was the
first commercially available brand of enamel paint. - wikipedia), much of
white, red and grey… Russians penetrate into the club every day and read books,
browse magazines... notwithstanding
the fact that the entrance is hanged with a rope…” (from Rodchenko’s letter to
his wife)
What I really like about “Workers club’’ is perfectly clear
idea and how A.Rodchenko expressed it. Each element seems to be on its own
place and serves for its particular, well thought through function.
I presume that this exhibit has almost no chance to inspire
somebody of today Russian society, probably owing to tremendous popularity of projects
of that kind among Soviet Union architecture and design. Nevertheless, the ‘Workers
club’ project seems to me one of truly masterpieces of the beginning of Constructivism
style.
Valeriya Nikonova
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