21st century Noah arks on display
Published 21 July, 2008, 13:32
The festival of landscape objects, Archstoyanie, has taken place in the Kaluga region, south-west of Moscow. The event's theme was ‘Noah's Ark’ and designer rafts were in the spotlight.
Noah and the animals entered the Ark, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth. This Bible story was repeated as heavy rain fell just as five rafts were launched into the Ugra River.
While some may have said it was divine intervention, others, who saw a helicopter in the sky just before the rafts' appearance, said the rain was a deliberate ploy by the rich sponsors.
But even with the decreased visibility, the artistic value of the floating houses was clear to see. Each was built by Russian, French or Finnish artists, almost all of whom at some time have had their work showcased at the prestigious Venice biennale.
“Our concept was to build a raft and a house as one object, but to divide them at the same time. The raft space is meant for spending time in during the day: to party, sunbathe, have barbeques and jump into the water. While the upper side, the house, is for rest during the night,” architect Vladimir Plotkin said.
While some tried to make it as practical as possible, others concentrated more on the artistic value of the construction. The raft built by French architects reminds one of a whirlpool. And the house by Totan Kuzenbaev has hundreds of storage boxes.
“Our raft is a humorous technological object, which was built using ‘stealth’ technology. Have you heard of it? It's the technology used to build stealth vessels and airplanes. So we believe that our raft is invisible for the strangers' eyes, and it's meant for special secret meetings,” artist Aleksandr Ponomaryov said.
How ever light-hearted the ideas were, there was a serious side too. The organisers also wanted to raise awareness about man's contribution to natural catastrophes and to be wary of how we deal with nature.
“Here we demonstrate how relevant ideas of contemporary art and architecture can interact with nature. The main principle is to use only environmentally safe materials, to communicate with native villagers and use their labour. It is also important that all the objects should merge into nature without doing any harm to it,” curator Yulia Bychkova said.
The water crafts are not the first objects of the project. For several years artists have been working with the inhabitants of Nikolo Lenivets village on various landscape constructions.
After the festival the rafts are to join the unusual display by the Ugra River, where they will be both permanent museum exhibits and guest houses.
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