LAB #6(45) 2008

KUKU DESIGN _ URAL BAROQUE IN THE FRAME | Authors of Project Tatiana and Eduard Kubensky | Photo Robert Pomorzev | Text Anna Lengle | The beauty is out there, the great things are in small things. In the small things that still remain from the initial deco- rations of barocco-styled Urals churches one can feel the great idea of beauty and spiritual power of Russian culture. Ural is rich in architectural monuments from different ages. Some of them still look as they looked back then, others are unfortunately destroyed and need reconstruc- tion. The historical buildings that are not that visible to the unsophisticated eye are known as the cultural significance sites only to few people. Forgotten even though they did not deserve it, they were and still are the basis of architectural value of cities in the Urals. Palaces and cathedrals of late 17th and early 18th century deserve special attention among those. Most of the buildings of that period are built in the style known as Moscow Barocco. The colorful splendor of decorations of white stone fa ç ades is combined with stringent logic of multistory architecture and elements of order archi- tecture that found their way into it. The most wonderful barocco monuments in the Urals, the churches of Perm, Solikamsk, Usolye, Cherdyn, Nyrob and Verkhoturye, have been the foundation of the photo project titled Ural Baroque in the Frame, which opens a new view on the architectural heritage. It has been implemented with the financial support of the Rich House interior center. Using the ‘perspective frame’ technique, invented by the Renaissance artists, Tatiana and Eduard Kubensky, the authors of the project, emphasize compositional peculiarities of fa ç ade building and speak to the past using abstract art devices at the same time. The many ways of perception of the exposition shows both variety of the architecture itself and the complexity and depth of Russian cultural traditions.

27