1st Edition

A History of Russian Exposition and Festival Architecture 1700-2014

Edited By Alla Aronova, Alexander Ortenberg Copyright 2019
    328 Pages 72 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    328 Pages 72 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This collection of thirteen vignettes addresses several important episodes in the history of Russian temporary architecture and public art, from the royal festivals during the times of Peter the Great up to the recent venues including the Sochi Winter Olympics. The forms and the circumstances of their design were drastically different; however, the projects discussed in the book share a common feature: they have been instrumental in the construction of Russia’s national identity, with its perception of the West - simultaneously, a foe and a paragon - looming high over this process. The book offers a history of multidirectional relationships between diplomacy, propaganda, and architecture.

    Part I (Prologue): 1700-1775. Westernization of Russia

    Chapter 1

    Peter I: The Celebration as an Architectural Object

    Alla Aronova. Translated by Dasha Ortenberg

    Chapter 2

    Architecture of Death: The Funeral of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna

    Alla Aronova. Translated by Dasha Ortenberg

    Chapter 3

    The Post-Petrine Metamorphosis of Triumphant Military Celebrations

    Alla Aronova. Translated by Dasha Ortenberg

    Part II: 1829-1901. Industrial Revolution and Search for the Sources of Russian Exceptionalism

    Chapter 4

    Kremlin on the Trocadero: The Unexpected Claim to Modernity in

    Russian Architecture at the World’s Fairs

    David Fisher

    Chapter 5

    Russian Domestic Expositions, 1829-1896, Through the Lenses of Domestic Critics

    Alexander Ortenberg

    Chapter 6

    The "Russian Street" at the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition

    Wendy Salmond

    Part III: 1925-1940. Revolution as Rapid Modernization

    Chapter 7

    Objects-Organizers: The Monism of Things and the Art of Socialist Spectacle

    Alla Vronskaya

    Chapter 8

    Between Vanguard and Establishment: Boris Iofan’s Two Pavilions—Paris 1937 and New York 1939

    Danilo Udovicki-Selb

    Chapter 9

    Temporary Architecture and Life-Building, 1925-1940

    Vladimir Paperny

    Part IV: 1958-1978. The Cold War and Westernization of the USSR under Khrushchev and Brezhnev

    Chapter 10

    The Soviet Pavilion at Expo ’58 and the Search for a Modern Socialist Style

    Susan Reid

    Chapter 11

    The 1967 World Exposition in Moscow: In Search of a Project

    Olga Kazakova. Translated by Dasha Ortenberg

    Chapter 12

    The Soviet Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal: The Power and the Limits of a Symbol

    Alexander Ortenberg

    Epilogue

    Chapter 13

    Ancient History and Present Day Politics in the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics

    Alexander Ortenberg

    Biography

    Alla Aronova is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, State Institute of Arts, Moscow, Russia. She earned her Master of Architecture with specialization in restoration and historic preservation from the Moscow Architectural Institute in 1980, and her PhD from the State Institute of Art Criticism, Moscow, in 1993. Alla Aronova's research interests are directed towards Russian art and architecture in the end of the 17th and the 18th centuries, with special focus on the history of Westernization of Russia under Peter the Great and his immediate successors. She is a leading expert on the subject of Russian festivals and festival architecture, has published a large number of articles in major Russian art history journals such as Isskustvoznanie (Art History Review), contributed chapters to edited volumes such as Moscow Kremlin in the 15th Century (Moskovskii Kreml’ XV stoletiia), Moscow: Volkhonka, 2011, and runs scientific seminar, "Arts and Culture in the eighteenth century," at State Inst. She is a recipient of numerous grants, such as Russian State Foundation for Humanities Grant, Deutscher Akademischer Ausrauschdienst Grant, and Swedish Institute Foundation Grant.

    Alexander Ortenberg is a professor at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, USA, where he teaches architectural history and theory, and design. He earned his MArch from the Moscow Institute of Architecture, Russia, in 1980 and his PhD from UCLA, USA, in 2004. His research interests include the history of architectural practices, the history of representation, and the history of exposition architecture. His publications include 'Joy in the Act of Drawing: Maybeck’s Palace of Fine Arts,' published in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH) in March 2011 and The Architecture of Great Expositions (2015) which he co-edited.