TATLIN NEWS №37

of life as it is”, creating true images reflecting real moments or whole processes – these are indisputable advantages of documentary photography. A renowned photographer Michael Collins has presented his recent work – a series of photographic reports documenting construction, which changed the face of Manchester. Along with exhibiting this works the Cube gallery will present reports of various times, which are kept in archives of construction industry. Using a modern camera and the digital printing technology Collins applies a method of “photo capturing” architecture. This method has been used by architects and construction engineers since 1843, but the photographer does not leave his works for private use, but offers the viewers a chance to admire this neutrality. Generally speaking, the approach used by Collins cannot be referred to as artistic photography, it is more of a emotionless documenting. The details and perspective are applied just to be able to create a picture that would be as realistic as possible. The emphasis is placed on the reporting function of the works instead of explanation or interpretation. This results in the fact that “pictures” are not connected to the personal experience of the author, therefore viewers free and revive the images and study the photo in their own frame of reference. INDIAN ENERGY 14.02.07 – 29.04.07 Exhibition of Subodh Gupta “Silk Route”, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Great Britain www.balticmill.com Great Britain is a country where about 90% of the population comes from immigrants. Subodh Gupta is originally from India, and the name of his exhibition which would be better suited for someone of a Chinese origin, is an indication of the artist searching for identity through absorbing different cultures. Through his

humour and irony one can see his attitude to the slowly developing Indian society. The artist believes that conservation of an ancient culture cannot be a synonym or even an alternative to progress, it is a special way, which does not lead to any interaction with the outside world, creating a vacuum. And no society is able of developing in a vacuum. Sculptures out of bronze and aluminum representing a skull put together out of utensils, or trunks tied up with ropes are a way to think on further path of India and its national colouring. All in all, household essentials become one of the most powerful conductors of potential energy contained in culture for the artist, which he believes has not yet found its way outside; these are steel and bronze milk pitchers, plates, walking sticks. The sentiment of his works is paid off with usury by the national specifics of an interesting and still mysterious country. And after all it is a matter of a point-blank question, if the country enters the global system of values, what would remain in it that would still be authentic? THE COSMIC CONTEXT It is a very difficult and virtually unsolvable task. It is about finding a balance between architecture and the society. It is common that speculating about their interaction the theoreticians forget to ask the both parties what they actually think about it. I cannot but again quote one of Moscow- based architects who answered my question about importance of how people perceive his objects with a question why it should be of any importance to him. And this is not an idle question, since an architect is first of all a maker, just as an artist, a director and a composer are, and it is important

for him to express his artistic will, just as it is for representatives of other fields of the “non-scientific knowledge”. But it is also true that there should be some critical mass of people’s – common people, not of art and architecture critics – ideas of architecture. And while some arrogant architects assert themselves using the client’s money, others who are more politically correct (and mostly live in Europe and the USA) conduct various polls to know what kind of transformer unit should be installed in the yard of a high-rise residential building. In general, this question could be debated at some length, until we talk ourselves hoarse, which is what our literary editor and I do from time to time. But numerous European contests show that even if there is no direct contact, even if the client is an architectural foundation, when there is no real socialization, the architect has to interact with the society via context. But it is evermore difficult when it is not social mechanisms that constitute the context, but the natural details, the landscape in other words. In that case should the author limit himself only looking back to the nature or entame it with technogeneous means? The contest conducted by the Steedman Fellowship foundation is dedicated to modeling a landscape or, rather, to its correct usage when creating an image of a site. And the first words the organizers addressed the participants with were “In the contemporary landscape there is no single detail that would come solely from man”. It is a fresh new idea, taking into account that discussions about the technogeneous landscape and its improvements have been going on for quite a while, but here the basis is the idea that public space is not just sites where people can be themselves, these are places to combine the human and non- human, a sort of a cosmic forum with several dimensions, some of

which have not yet been explored. In such a cosmic context the physical environment is the major task, which is not easy to predict in contemporary architecture. The pavilion that participants were to design could be located at any place of their choice, but that place should not be the most favourable site from the architectural point of view. Though in this case this fact turned out to be quite appropriate, provided that we take into account that the experience of perception should not start with a visual contact, but should occur empirically. The direct contact in this case symbolizes the culture in every person, the degree to which the so-called “cultural” part is revealed in every personality is higher, if the contact with the world is done both through seeing or hearing and touch. Every visitor therefore should be left alone to create his own context. Every person already embodies the collective memory comprising sky-scrapers, museums and castles. We just need to let the earlier experience to interact with nature, in order to create a cosmos in every person. THE CREATIVE PRISON The life of those on the other side of prison walls is not finished, they remain a part of the society and also want to work and be useful. An exhibition entitled «The Creative Prison» admits that the large majority of our prisons were built for an earlier idea of criminal justice in which punishment was everything. But along with this statement the exhibition presents projects of prisons created by an architect Will Alsop, artists Shona Illingworth and Jon Ford in the cooperation with the Rideout organization (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation). This team researches the potential of jails to make changes to them with architectural means, reports on their efficiency and challenges the attitudes to the rehabilitation of prisoners. The project is unique with respect to the cooperation with the HMP Gartree prison in Lestershire, its employees and

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