In front of the wall. Unrealized museums of Ivan Marchuk

/ Interview /

"I'm glad and sorry” — the ambivalence of Ivan Marchuk's feelings, who responds to behindthe question about his museums is quite understandable. The artist was promised three times that Marchuk's personal museum would soon appear in Kyiv, but each time the story turned into a scandal, and the projects froze at the concept stage.

Intro

The basis of our article was two interviews - with the artist Ivan Marchuk and the architect Viktor Zotov. And in order not to interrupt the live broadcast with informative remarks, let's first try to present the "museum" history in a concise form.

Victor Yushchenko was the first to announce the creation of the Marchuk museum literally immediately after his victory in the presidential elections. On April 18, 2005, he signed the decree on the creation of the "Cultural Center of the Artist Ivan Marchuk", and already in September a solemn ceremony of laying the first stone in the foundation of the future building took place.

Visualization of the project of the Marchuk Museum on Andriyivskyi Uzvoz, presented at the Urban Planning Council of Kyiv Head of Architecture in February 2006.

Visualization of the project of the Marchuk Museum on Andriyivskyi Uzvoz, presented at the Urban Planning Council of Kyiv Head of Architecture in February 2006.

The main lobbyist for the construction of the cultural center on Andriyivskyi Uzvoz was a person from Viktor Yushchenko's closest circle - Volodymyr Shulga, the founder of the Foxtrot network, an admirer of Ivan Marchuk's work, the founder of the charity fund named after him, and the husband of Ivan Stepanovych Bohdana's daughter. He also promised to finance the construction of the facility. (In March 2008, the businessman died of heart failure, but his entourage believes that Shulga was the victim of a contract killing.)

And if the strategy was chosen without fail - the creation of a named museum as a tribute to the recognized genius of modernity, and not with budget funds, but at the expense of patrons - then the choice of the place for construction turned out to be a tactical failure. A three-story building with a height of 14 m and a total area of ​​almost 10 square meters. m was planned to be built into the mountain just below the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the section of the alley leading from Andriyivskyi Uzvoz to the funicular line, i.e. on the territory of the "Ancient Kyiv" reserve.

And it turned into a flurry of negative feedback from the people of Kyiv. And since the very idea of ​​the Museum, it seems, first arose as a political PR with a commercial basis, the appearance of the object did not really bother the initiators. It would seem that it was possible to attract star architects to the realization of such an ambitious goal, because the name of Ivan Marchuk is known on all continents...

The choice of the site for the construction of the Marchuk Museums is a systematic error and a tactical failure

In 2005, during the capsule laying ceremony, journalists were presented with visualizations of the future cultural center without any indication of authorship. It was hinted that Marchuk himself was the author of the project, although he himself never claimed such a thing.

In the published minutes of the meeting of the Urban Planning Council of Kyiv Head of Architecture on February 15, 2006, the name of the architect is missing, and only in June 2006, according to the results of the project review, it was stated that the customer of the project works of the building at the address: Kyiv, Mykhailivska ploshcha, 1 was the KP "General Directorate of service of foreign representative offices", and the chief architect of the project was the little-known Ilya Khomenko, PE "AR-Studio". Both versions of the project were rejected, after which the idea seemed to be forgotten.

Visualization of the project of the Marchuk Museum on Tryochsvyatitelska Street, 4d by Zotov&Co architectural bureau, 2011.

In 2008, the Zotov&Co architectural bureau received an order for the design of the Marchuk Museum on the Dnieper slopes. It became known that the idea of ​​the Museum is back on the agenda, because the project of the building sunk into the hill won the prize of the prestigious international competition of the World Architecture Community.

Despite the aesthetic appeal and compliance with modern urban trends, the project froze at the concept stage. However, in 2011, Viktor Zotov created a new version of the Marchuk Museum at 4d Tryokhsvyatitelska Street. But again everything remained at the level of visualizations.

Visualization of the Marchuk Museum project on the Dnieper slopes by Zotov&Co architectural bureau, 2008.

So what is really behind the loud idea "Marchuk Museum", which because of the scandalousness of each new project has already grown a beard of negative connotations?

We talked with Ivan Stepanovych about unrealized museums, about museum architecture, about the architectural page in the work of Marchuk himself during a leisurely walk through the alleys on Tarasova Gora. As soon as the summer heat descends on Kyiv, Ivan Marchuk leaves for Kanev, where the proximity of the Dnipro brings coolness to his workshop.

 

Ivan Marchuk: an artist without rules about architecture without rules

PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: Ivan Stepanovych, what do you think is the reason that none of the projects of the Museum named after you were ever implemented?

Ivan Marchuk: There is a lot of talk about my museums. They even joke. For example: "Ivan Marchuk accuses President Yushchenko of placing a capsule in the foundation of the museum and then deceiving the whole world. No, it's not true. When placing the capsule, President Yushchenko was sincerely sure that he was hiding it." And the idea of ​​the museum on Andriyivskyi Uzvoz was not Yushchenko's, by the way. There was a philanthropist with whom we became very good friends, and he promised: "When Yushchenko becomes president, you, Ivan, will have a museum. I will build a museum, not a state." And so with pomp, I remember, this capsule was laid, the president was present and the mayor of Kyiv, Omelchenko at that time.

Ivan Marchuk
The founder of the artistic technique Plontanism, a native of the village of Moskalivka, Ternopil region. The author of more than 4 thousand paintings, most of which are in private collections. In 1989, due to the impossibility of realizing himself creatively in the USSR, he emigrated to Australia, then lived in Canada and the USA. He returned to Ukraine in 2001. Ivan Marchuk is one of the 100 geniuses of our time according to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph

But in fact, 30 years ago, people began to talk about the need for a Marchuk museum, and, like walkers to Lenin, they went to the authorities, to the offices. This one was pinched, that one, but they need a museum like a dog needs its heel. So, this whole story has been going on for half a century. It didn't even start with Omelchenko. Although, I think, if he remains mayor, the museum would still be built.

When Popov became the mayor, at the official reception in honor of Kyiv Day, he and I greeted him so ceremoniously, and right at the entrance he told me that, they say, in a year there will be a museum. We discussed it in the city hall and found a place - also quite controversial, I think people would be against it. This is the area above the Ukrainian House, where the alley goes to Volodymyr. Then, a year later, nothing happened, and the architect Zotov planned everything in another place.

But that territory (on Tryokhsvyatitelska Street. — Editor's Note) already belongs to Sofia of Kyiv (a historical zone protected by UNESCO. — Editor's Note), and a special permit had to be obtained. My interests were then defended by Mykhailo Pozhivanov. He promised that he would build. He punched and punched, and then he said: "That's it, I'm giving up, I can't do anything."

And I decided myself: this territory is disputed, and I also don't want them to build there using my name. I liked Zotov's project, it is as if it does not exist from the outside - somehow it looked like that. There was supposed to be my apartment, a workshop, a place for master classes, a hall and some other premises.

Ivan Marchuk
Ivan Marchuk
Ivan Marchuk

PM: Apartment й a workshop on the slopes of the Dnieper — would this be your ideal home?

I. M.: Apartment? Unlikely. I love the fields and the garden that slopes down to the water. This is my ideal. When I worked in Sednev (Chernihiv region. — Editor's note), huts were built there along the Snov River... It is a wonderful river. It has so much iron that if you look at your body in water, it looks orange.

Gardens and orchards slope down to the river, and each has a small wharf where boats are moored. Many people from St. Petersburg and Moscow used to come there, on Snov, to rest. Here in the village there is everything I like: the river, fields, meadows, hills - all the components that a person needs to relax.

For me, the most important thing is that there is an easel, a canvas and paints. And where I am is not so important

There is also a wooden Cossack church of the XNUMXth century. There was a palace of the family of landowners Lyzogub. Well, what a palace - a huge, one-story house, a majestic chestnut avenue leads from it over a cliff. If you have heard the song "There is a high mountain, under the mountain is a grove", then this song was written by Leonid Hlibov exactly where the gazebo stands. The manor house has already sunk half a meter into the ground, and nature is taking over and entwining everything... This is a piece of heaven on earth.

And there, on the territory of the estate, there was a separate house - one-story, with a basement. There are huge vaults in the basement! And I thought then: this is my palace, my home, my museum - let me not travel, let the whole world come to me here on the Snov River... And some relatives of this gentleman, the heirs, lived in Kharkiv and agreed to sell this house for 8 thousand rubles.

PM: So why didn't you buy it? Now we would come to you on Stоa.

I. M.: Now I don't even know if anyone is left and what happened to that house. I wanted to buy, but... Because I don't know how to arrange my life. I can not. For me, the main thing is that there is an easel, a canvas and there are paints. And where I am is not so important. I didn't have my workshop in Kyiv for many years, until a good person was found and built a workshop for me on Pushkinska Street. And this man, a philanthropist, built me ​​an apartment next to the Lesya Ukrainka museum.

At first, this apartment also seemed like a paradise to me. The architect offered to remove the partitions so that I would have some space. But I still have a huge number of paintings, and they are hung all over the walls - from floor to ceiling, and I have given up on rearranging. It's an old building, without an elevator, and now it's hard for me to go up: the 5th floor is actually the 7th, because the ceilings are 4 meters high. So it's time for me to change location, but I haven't figured out where to move yet.

"Eva", 1993. Canvas, acrylic, 91x91 cm

PM: Speaking about the role of walls, you almost literally quoted the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - he built glass and open-plan buildings, and he himself lived among walls, and when asked, why, the architect replied that it needs walls for a collection of paintings!

I. M.: The walls are the whole point. In our galleries and museums, there are 5 windows on one wall. I swear at the gallery owners: close those windows like this, I say, and you'll have a wall for expositions! And daylight will not interfere with artificial light. You don't need to build walls, I closed the wall for myself temporarily. But no one listens. Museums don't need windows - they need walls. Well, unless the staff room could have windows to breathe.

In Ukraine, during the years of independence, nothing was created in terms of architecture for art

PM: And which of the Western museums do you consider ideal із look an artist?

I. M.: The Museum of Modern Art in New York, MoMA. A huge collection goes without saying, but there is a very large space set aside for temporary exhibitions. And this is already important for artists. "Metropolitan" is a classical museum, like the Hermitage... And in Thailand, in Bangkok, there is a museum of modern art, which is one of the best in terms of planning.

I was allocated two floors without windows. You know, I don't even remember the museums themselves so much as how exactly my paintings were hung. In Belgium, in Bruges, I exhibited in the art center on the town hall square, in a historical building of the XNUMXth century. — and a huge number of tourists came there.

PM: You listed three ingredientsNicky of an ideal art museum — the presence of galleries not only for the permanent collection, but й for temporary exhibitions, correct with look planning lighting й popular у tourists and visitors passable place. And which of the Ukrainian museums meet these criteria?

I. M.: In Ukraine, during the years of independence, nothing was created in terms of architecture for art. Nothing All the galleries are in adapted old buildings... And there are windows, light, as I said.

"Requiem", 1993. Canvas, acrylic, 100 x 91 cm

PM: That is, a request є — is there still a need in Ukraine, in Kyiv, for a large modern art museum like MoMA?

I. M.: Ideally, yes. Needed But we are simply afraid to do something, and I, as an artist, think that architects are also afraid. Black envy eats the best projects. All these questions - why him and not me? Do you even imagine what the creative intelligentsia really are, creative clubs - musicians, artists, theatergoers - what is the black envy between them?

I did not know how long I lived in Australia, Europe, America. Although, maybe that's why he didn't know that he didn't know the language and didn't read those newspapers? But it seems to me that the one who lives on the granite will not envy the one who lives in the palace. I would like to live in such a society.

PM: And in the history of the Museum there is envy із sideways your colleagues played a negative role?

I. M.: Not without it. Somehow I turn on the radio. And now you have to get there already - at this very moment, the presenter asks a question to a person who was well known to me: do you need, say, the Marchuk museum? He shouts: "What museum? What, have the court artists already appeared?".

Black envy eats the best projects

PM: As far as I remember іwas it about the fact that your Museum will not be built with budget funds, but with the money of patrons?

I. M.: I mean, from the very beginning there was a person who was ready to build a museum at his own expense! The state has nothing to do with it. All that was needed was a presidential decree and a construction permit. There was a decree, permission was not given. Who knows what will happen tomorrow.

PM: Regarding your exhibition in the capital's TsUM, which opened in May: did you like the exposition, the conditions?

I. M.: The exposure is small, but it turned out beautiful. Each wall is properly decorated. My paintings come in cycles, and each cycle is the same size. I don't like this variety, I don't have a single cycle in different formats, and here the exhibition at the Central Museum of Art had a perfect look. And the light is good. Natural light from the dome did not interfere... And there are many people.

Ceramic panel "Yaroslav the Wise" in the interior of the Bogolyubov Institute of Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

PM: Continuing our conversation about walls... There was a period when you worked for a short time in the genre of monumental art. How valuable a contribution to architecture do you consider your panels to be, there aren't that many of them, apparently?

I. M.: Very little. For the Institute of Theoretical Physics, I made a large mosaic on the end of the building and two ceramic panels in the interior. The panels "Yaroslav the Wise" and "To distant planets" were created using completely non-standard technology. "Yaroslav the Wise" is assembled from old fragments, they look as if they themselves are from the era of Yaroslav.

Before that, I made small sculptures in ethnic style - they were similar to those found by archaeologists during excavations. And when I made a panel with Yaroslav, I performed it in this pseudo-archaic technique. You know, I made the most mysterious pottery, and no technologist can guess how I did it. But I myself don't remember anymore.

I came to a store where reagents were sold and asked: give me something for coating that can withstand a temperature of +800 °C. And they gave me something, with which I began to create miracles - each layer turned out to be unpredictable, all different. I pulled the red shards out of the oven, because I couldn't wait to see - well, what turned out this time?

Sketch of the panel "To distant planets", realized in the interior of the M.M. Bogolyubov Institute of Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

"White vases", 1993. Canvas, acrylic, 76 x 76 cm

PM: The newspapers wrote what exactly via це the panel with Yaroslav the Wise й fell into long-term disgrace. It's true?

I. M.: No, Yaroslav Mudry has absolutely nothing to do with it! All because I do other art. From this point of view, everything I did was considered treason... All artists painted milkmaids, tractor drivers. They all worked in the same style — realism, social realism. And I intervened as a destroyer of this entire system. Those were years of crazy creative freedom for me after graduation. There is no professor behind my back, no one is grading, and I do what I want. I don't know who led my hand.

This is how the series "Voice of my soul" appeared - intuitively, subconsciously. And this cycle over time became like the basis of me, like the trunk of a tree that grows and sends out branches, and each branch is another Marchuchok. Today, Marchuk is in thirteen different guises... And about my first paintings-parables, art critics keep asking what code is encrypted in them. In the Soviet Union, such independent thinking, independent vision was considered sedition: someone wrote something incorrectly - already sedition.

P.M.: Were you looking for a hidden ideological meaning?

I. M.: And they are still looking. They dig and find things that I didn't think of myself. But there was no sedition in paintings, and in monumental works. Yaroslav the Wise is not sedition, but history. So, the main reason for my downfall is what I did on paper.

P.M.: But now we hear calls to remove it from the walls усі mosaics of Soviet times. Because there are symbols of totalitarianism and communism. How do you feel about this?

I. M.: The search for ideology is also a mental legacy of the Soviet Union. In this sense, Ukraine has changed little. But for the most part, mosaics have no special value. Then they just sculpted. There was a whole industry: where there were empty walls, there was molding. This is how artists made money and thought they were decorating the walls. Now it's much more pleasant for me to look at an empty, clean wall. On architecture. And with these mosaics, they only spoiled the architecture.

I'm much more comfortable looking at an empty, clean wall. On architecture

Ivan Marchuk in his workshop in Kanev, Cherkasy region.

PM: That is, if your mosaic is destroyed at the Institute, you will not feel sorry for it at all?

I. M.: And this is completely different - it is not a decoration, but a work of art that reproduces an era. You understand, with your forms, your creative content. This is creativity. I can't say that I created masterpieces, but the mosaic on the end of the Institute of Theoretical Physics is 100 square meters of pure abstraction. I then made 100 sketches and could not choose for a long time. But even if they beat her, I won't get hurt.

PM: There are absolutely no buildings in your paintings. More precisely, practically none. Are you completely indifferent to architecture?

I. M.: There are none in the pictures, because I primarily love the land, not architecture. Architecture can only be photographed, not written. I only wrote architecture in Lviv. I studied there for 11 years and every time, walking through the already familiar streets, I noticed something new - stucco, cornice... And when I came to Kyiv, I started working in the technique of plantanism, and since then I have been painting only earth. I am not an urbanist.

"Awakening", 1992. Canvas, acrylic, 100 x 120 cm

This does not mean that I am indifferent to architecture, I admire it. When I was in Paris, I didn't go to museums, but walked the streets and just admired. Gothic fascinates me, I'm always going to Cologne, there's no way I'll make it to see the cathedral. But I lack variety in Kyiv. Foreigners are coming, and where are they being taken? In Sofia, but how much can you look at Sofia?

Compared to European cities, there is nothing to see in Kyiv. And I do not consider housing to be architecture at all. Here is a terrible residential building of Soviet times. It just needs to be demolished with an excavator. Nowadays, they have already learned how to build quality housing, but this is not architecture either. And what you call "new architecture" is actually a conjuncture, look at these black cubes - they are all the same.

For me, the main thing in architecture is individualism. A painting is a work of art if it is in one copy. If it is copied, then it is already a reproduction. I am an artist without rules and only accept architecture without rules.

"A fortune teller prophesied to me", 1995. Canvas, acrylic, 101 x 81 cm

Ivan Marchuk

Interlude

Can Peter Zumthor's thermal baths in Vals, which blend into the alpine landscape, or Bjarke Ingels' submerged World War II museum in Denmark's Blavand be considered "architecture without rules"? By Ukrainian standards, definitely. The project of the Marchuk Museum by Viktor Zotov on the slopes of the Dnieper is an example of mimetic architecture in a square: the building is not just sunk and hidden in the hill: its reflective facade practically merges with the grass cover.

If realized, it would become not just a home for a collection of paintings by a famous artist, but also one of the rare objects of modern architecture in Kyiv. And also, perhaps, popular public spaces, which are critically scarce in the Ukrainian capital, judging by modern urban standards. How it was planned and why it did not come true, we talked about it with the architect Zotov.

 

Viktor Zotov and his policy of non-interference in the sacred context

Viktor Zotov
In 1986, he graduated from the architectural faculty of the Kharkiv Engineering and Construction Institute.
In 2004, he founded the Zotov&Co architectural office.
In 2008, he founded the CANactions International Architecture Festival.
In 2015, he co-founded the CANactions School of Urbanism.

PRAGMATICS. MEDIA: Bureau Zotov&Co created two projects of the Ivan Marchuk museum — in 2008 on the Dnieper slopes and in 2011 on Triochsvyatitelska...

Viktor Zotov: I will immediately say the main thing, without even waiting for a question!

It seems to me that our country in recent years is specific in that everything is built on lies, especially now. Perhaps these are the rules of the game, with hypertrophied compromises. Ivan Marchuk's name was used for commercial purposes as a label - in both projects. About 10% was allocated to the museum and Ivan Marchuk's apartment. For the customer, it was a reason to get permission to build in such a difficult place, because both sites are not scandalous, but very responsible.

There are a number of super location-responsive objects. And every time a customer comes to you with an offer to design something on a similar site, you are faced with a choice - whether to take such an order. And every time you hope for a miracle, you want to find some move that will allow this object to be realized, and at the same time you will at least not be ashamed.

Public space. Visualization of the Marchuk Museum project on the Dnieper slopes by Zotov&Co architectural bureau, 2008.

The task before us was to make the house as hidden as possible in both cases. Not "secret", as they often build now, in order to later surprise with a surprise, but modest, tactful, respectful, without disturbing the landscape.

For me, there is a great value in architecture — when it is not visible, even more so in the historical center. Now we pay a lot of attention to the form, icons — you need to surprise someone with another bright beauty. I don't remember when we set ourselves a similar task.

And the project on the slopes is a classic example of how a building mimics nature, becomes invisible, because it was not bad here before. Yes, the building can be cool from the point of view of design, but the super task is to delicately integrate into the urban fabric.

Ivan Marchuk's name was used for commercial purposes as a label

Visualization of the Marchuk Museum project on the Dnieper slopes by Zotov&Co architectural bureau, 2008.

PM: Both Marchuk museum projects from your office are a certain hybrid of a cultural object and a residential one, in both cases a combination of function. Was the customer the same?

V.Z.: The customers were different. The museum and Marchuk's apartment were common to the projects, the rest were different. The main purpose of the objects is commercial real estate. But in the project, in addition to the museum, offices were planned on the hills, and expensive apartments were planned on Triochsvyatitelska. If this house were built, I assume that it would be a record for the value of real estate in Ukraine.

The Dnieper slopes, like a necklace, have collected the best that is in Kyiv: natural landscape, history, and architecture.

PM: The project on the slopes of the Dnieper also included the creation of a public space - judging by the renderings, these terraces?

V.Z.: The main idea was this: the shell is part of the hill. And the first thing we did was connect Mykhailivska Square with Parkova Alley, where artists sell their paintings, with a diagonal line straight across the body of the building. So everything below that line, here in the rendering, where the girl is walking, is an amphitheater with each step 450mm high, where you can sit comfortably.

Here you can relax, arrange formal and informal concerts, exhibitions. This is what is commonly called a public space: a convenient place with free access. This is both a modern and a classic space with a view of a beautiful valley: in the near plane - a park, in the far - Podil, Dnipro, horizon...

Plan of the building according to the land mark and cross-section. project of the Marchuk Museum on the Dnieper slopes by Zotov&Co architectural bureau, 2008

Visualization of the interiors of the Marchuk Museum on the Dnieper slopes by Zotov&Co architectural bureau, 2008.

PM: Is this project exclusively contextual? Is it still possible to move it to some other hill? Well, if the museum didn't work out...

V.Z.: Rather, it is possible not to transfer it literally, but to use some ideas suitable for this case.

PM: Galleries and artists don't really like windows. The same Marchuk told us that his ideal gallery is walls without windows. But when I look at the renderings, both buildings have glass facades and light floods the interior spaces. Did Marchuk see these projects?

V.Z.: And take a closer look at the diagram: where are the museum spaces located? Marchuk saw both that and the other project and participated in its development. We met several times, so everything was done with his approval.

Natural light is contraindicated in museums - with the rare exception of complex reflected light, which does not allow direct rays. In museums, the scenario is individual for each exposition, it is easier to solve it with the help of artificial light. That is why rooms that need natural light were placed on the outer shell, and a museum and two galleries were located in the interior. The client of the building on the Dnieper slopes is a gallerist, so there were still galleries there, in the "darkness". We put this house on the terrain, covered it with grass, integrated it into the slope: all horizontal surfaces are lawns, vertical surfaces are windows.

The interior of the museum is a complex, broken three-level space spread out along the slope, where all three levels are visually interconnected. You see the next one at each level, and you are drawn there.

The main risks arise during the development of the project, when the house becomes thicker, more impudent, more cynical, the floors increase

PM: And yet this project — interesting, original, award-winning — remained unrealized. The fact is that the customer incorrectly chose such a place, in which as a result it was forbidden to build?

V.Z.: I have no particular regrets that it did not happen. It is not known how the slopes would behave, and the increase in anthropogenic load on this area is hardly correct in itself.

Visualization of the interiors of the Marchuk Museum on the Dnieper slopes by Zotov&Co architectural bureau, 2008.

Scheme of insolation of the office and gallery spaces of the Marchuk Museum

PM: But you took this order as a challenge for yourself?

V.Z.: This is a question of morality. Each architect decides for himself individually - where is the limit that should not be crossed. I have enough examples when we left projects without agreeing to compromises. The main risks arise during the development of the project, when the building becomes thicker, more impudent, more cynical, more floors are added... When the customer, having passed the first rounds of approvals, then starts to put on his elbow what is more commercially profitable for him.

In this case, the project stopped at the conceptual phase.

PM: The Marchuk museum project on Triochsvyatitelska is visually completely different. Simpler or more traditional?

V.Z.: It is completely different, there the environment is primarily an urban, not a natural context. This quarter is also super responsible, it closes the quarter of the Mikhailovsky Monastery, and there is a tooth that has fallen out in this line - there is a one-story public toilet. And it seems to me that it would be correct to close the front in the direction of Volodymyrska Hill Park. I don't see a compromise here - it would be the right move, and the context demands it: two firewalls and between them a single-story insert of this toilet.

According to our project, the skeleton of the building is a lattice made of expensive Danish bricks, and in this project we have already reached the development of structural units, but again politics intervened, conditions changed, and the project stopped.

Visualization for the project of the Marchuk Museum on Tryochsvyatitelska Street, 4-D by Zotov&Co architectural bureau, 2011.

PM: Are you familiar with the architectural concept of the Marchuk museum in 2005 — the one in honor of whose construction Yushchenko laid the capsule? Here we found renderings on the Internet that were used in media publications at the time. However, it is not entirely clear who the author is. You do not know?

V.Z.: Um, this is the first time I've seen it and I don't know who did it, but maybe it's good that I don't know. Talking about colleagues is a thankless thing, but we wouldn't do that... This building also claims to be beautiful. Such a subtle question: what is beautiful? For me, these are delicate things, like a good book that you want to re-read many times, or music that you want to listen to. These things are invisible. In this sense, the loudness of what we usually do is like a prostitute: it is available, but not wanted.

House-Museum on Triochsvyatitelska Street: I assume that this would be a record for the value of real estate in Ukraine

The public toilet at 4-D Tryokhsvyatitelska Street — the place where the Marchuk Museum was planned to be built

PM: If they came to you for the third time with an order for the Marchuk museum, would you refuse or accept?

V.Z.: If it were short, I would agree. I love Marchuk, he is a genius. If I could somehow help him get his own museum and good working conditions, I would be happy.

 

Code

The unfulfilled is much more important than what happened, Friedrich Nietzsche believed, and if we project this quote onto Marchuk's museum history, it allowed us to ask ourselves many questions at once: about what modern museum architecture should be, whether we need to build a Contemporary museum Art in Kyiv, or to be satisfied with the presence of galleries in adapted buildings?

Should the museum become an architectural icon or a picture box? The topic can be developed ad infinitum: for example, we have completely left museology and the opinion of museum employees behind the scenes, although they probably have something to say...

In short, this story is a kind of challenge for each of us, just as the order for the museum was a challenge for the architect Zotov. But I want to believe: if the choice is made and the museum is built, it should not become an annoying thorn in the body of the city, but should be its organic, natural detail. As long as the Marchuk Museum is not materialized, in our imagination it can be anything - so let's dream!