ArchiMeter
The A.V. Shchusev State Research Museum of Architecture presents an exhibition of the latest works by Moscow and St. Petersburg artists of decorative arts "ArchiMetre".
Two renowned schools of decorative arts - Moscow and St Petersburg - have united in this project. The core of the exhibition is made up of works by teachers and staff of the Department of Art Ceramics and Glass at the St. Petersburg State Academy of Arts and Industry named after A.L. Stieglitz, who have been organising exhibitions of their works in the square metre format since 2019. Moscow artists supported the concept and created a series of works on the given format and theme.
The history of the project began in 2021 during the second One Square Metre Biennale, for which curator Mikhail Kapustin invited two Moscow ceramicists - Natalia Bodrikova and Alexandra Stvora - to create their own compositions. Working together inspired Natalia Bodrikova and Mikhail Kapustin to prepare an exhibition of works inextricably linked to architecture. The selected works were shown in St Petersburg at the III Biennale "One Square Metre" in the Great Hall of the Stieglitz Academy in spring 2023, and in September 2023 this collection of works, supplemented by works by 24 Moscow artists, will be presented at the A.V. Shchusev Museum of Architecture.
At the ArchiMetre exhibition, viewers will see more than 50 works of arts and crafts, including reliefs, hot enamel on metal, tapestries, mosaics, combining traditional and modern types of processing and decorating techniques. The artists were given a non-standard task: a large-format work, clearly inscribed in certain conditions, but completely free choice of theme, style and material.
The works reveal a wide palette of technical possibilities of ceramics and porcelain: moulding, hatching, coloured masses, glaze decoration, underglaze and overglaze painting. In the field of art glass - complex techniques of modern studio glass - milling, sintering, colouring and others. Textile objects combine man-made weaving, multi-layered decoration in tapestries. Moscow artists demonstrate their skills in mosaics and enamelling on metal.
The concept of the compositions traces the connection with the themes and images of architecture in different perspectives: some of the authors refer to the themes of architectural history, some - to architectural fantasies, some - to modularity, architectonicity. Others chose abstract objects in designated materials, reminiscences in the field of interior or exterior decoration, metaphors of space in the conventional plane of objects. In works of arts and crafts, subject matter is an optional facet. Many works richly reveal the theme stated in the title, without referring to pictorial motifs, focusing on the visual qualities of the material: composition, colour, texture.
The participants of the project are absolutely free in their choice of subjects. In their works they turn to images that reveal the themes of architecture and space from completely unexpected sides. Anton Kovalev's "Garden", Natalia Bodrikova's "Oasis", Lyudmila Nazina and Sergey Rusakov's "Irregular Park" are not just landscapes, but decorative formulas that each author composes with the help of ceramic materials. Allegories in the works of Igor Vasiliev and Marina Gronina, Nadiya Miniakhmenova, Yulia Chirkova and other authors continue the themes of metaphysical images and philosophical generalisations characteristic of the Russian school of ceramics and glass.