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Architecture & Power in Putin’s Russia
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A series of lectures organized and chaired by Michał Murawski, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London; and Clementine Cecil, Director of Pushkin House and founder of the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society (MAPS). Supported by the Department of Russian, Queen Mary; Pushkin House; and the Leverhulme Trust.
The lectures will be diverse, provocative and frank in character, and the theme of each is inter-related. The first three speakers are Vladimir Paperny (25th April), the leading historian and theorist of 20th and 21st century Russian architecture; Yuri Luhzkov (11th May), the controversial Mayor of Moscow between 1992-2010 and one of Russia’s best-known political figures; Anna Bronovitskaya (TBA), architectural historian, Director of Research at Moscow’s Institute of Modernism, head of the Russian branch of DOCOMOMO and professor at the Moscow Institute of Architecture.
Vladimir Paperny
Tuesday 25th April 7:00-8.00pm
Architectural historian and designer, author of the groundbreaking book Culture Two: Architecture in the Age of Stalin (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and several books and collections of essays in Russian, including Culture Three: How to Stop the Pendulum (Strelka Press, 2013).
CULTURE TREE: Moscow’s Zaryadye Park and Architecture in the Age of Putin
Vladimir Paperny will discuss the new design for Zaryadye Park in Moscow, based on his interviews with architects Elizabeth Diller and Charles Renfro; and will evaluate the park’s role in the political and aesthetic landscape of post-1991 Moscow under Mayors Yuri Luzhkov, and post-1991 Russia under Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Dmitry Medvedev. The title of his talk, Culture Tree, is a pun on landscape urbanism and on the titles of Paperny’s books Culture Two and Culture Three.
A Q+A session will follow the lecture. Book tickets here (student prices available).
Yuri Luzhkov
Thursday 11th May 6.30-8:00pm
Politician. Mayor of Moscow, 1992-2010
MY MOSCOW: Past, Present and Future
Yuri Luzhkov was Mayor of Moscow for 18 years during the Presidencies of Yeltsin and Putin. He was among the most popular and powerful politicians in Russia during this time, often touted as a possible contender for the Presidency. He was responsible for the radical transformation of Moscow after 1991, even being credited as the inventor of the so-called ‘Luzhkov Style’ of bombastic architecture. Controversially, many historic buildings were demolished during his tenure as Mayor of Moscow. He was dismissed as Mayor during the Presidency of Dmitry Medvedev and has not engaged in open political activity for several years, although he received a high state decoration from President Putin in September 2016. During this lecture, Mayor Luzhkov will talk frankly about his vision of Moscow’s past, present and future.
This lecture will be in Russian, with simultaneous translation. A Q+A session will follow the lecture.
*This event has now sold out, but will be video-recorded*
Anna Bronovitskaya
DATE AND TITLE TO BE ANNOUNCED
Architectural historian, Director of Research at Moscow’s Institute of Modernism, head of the Russian branch of DOCOMOMO and professor at the Moscow Institute of Architecture.
Charles Renfro
19 MAY (POSTPONED)
(Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, partner). Architect and urbanist, author of many award-winning urban projects, including New York’s Highline and Los Angeles’ The Broad. Lead designer of Zaryadye Park in Moscow, due to open in September 2017 in the shadow of the Kremlin.