Yuri Avvakumov

In 1957 he was born in Tiraspol.
. c 1968 lives in Moscow.
. In 1981 he graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute (MARCHI).
. In 1983-88 he taught at Moscow Institute of Architecture.
. 1984 coined the term PAPER ARCHITECTURE, as a genre of conceptual design in the USSR 1980.
. Since 1984 PAPER ARCHITECTURE organizes exhibitions in Moscow, Ljubljana, Paris, Milan, Frankfurt, Antwerp, Cologne, Brussels, Zurich, Cambridge, Austin, New Orleans, Amherst, Volgograd, Venice

. Since 1988, an independent practice in Moscow, the studio Agitarh (with S. Podemschikovym)
. 1993 director of the Foundation of avant-garde art "Utopia", Moscow
. 1993-94 professor at Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany 1993 Foundation UTOPIA, Moscow
.
. Collections where works
. Ministry of Culture of Russia, Moscow
. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
. The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
. Collection of Contemporary Art State Museum Tsaritsino, Moscow
. State Museum of Architecture im.Schuseva, Moscow
. Museum of the Moscow Architectural Institute, Moscow
. Moscow Center of Arts, Moscow
. Metropolitan Savings Bank, Moscow
. Firm "Microinform", Moscow
. Foundation pour L `Architecture, Brussels, Belgium
. Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt, Germany
. Zimmerly Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
.


Participation in exhibitions and auctions

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1989 "La Cupola, la gondola". House of Culture of Moscow Lamp Factory (DK MELZ), Moscow
1990 "AGITARCH". Galerie Linssen, Cologne, Germany
1991 "Walls and Stairs" (with A. Kirtsova). State Museum of Architecture. Schuseva, Moscow
1991 "Crossing Boundaries". 2AES Gallery, San Francisco, USA
1992 "Exporters" (with S. Shutov). First Gallery, Moscow
1992-93 "Temporary monuments". The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg State Museum of Architecture. Schuseva, Moscow
1992-93 "Temporary monuments". SRM, St. Petersburg State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
1994 "1: 43". Galerie Karlheinz Meyer, Karlsruhe, Germany
1996-2000 RUSSIAN UTOPIA. DEPOSITARY. Russia Pavilion, Venice Biennale, the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, The State Museum of Architecture, Moscow; Museum and Exhibition Center, Volgograd, State Russian Museum, C. Petersburg
1999 A. Pushkin and MONEY. Gallery XL, Moscow;
2000 RAZNOE/24. State Museum of Architecture, Moscow;
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1982-83 "A Doll's House". RIBA, London, United Kingdom
1983 "Theatrical Architecture". Quadrennial artists and architects Theater. Prague, Czechoslovakia
1984 "Paper Architecture". The editorial board of "Youth", Moscow
1985 Exhibition of Young Architects. Central House of Artists, Moscow
1986 "Paper Architecture". SKUC Gallery, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
1986 XVII Exhibition of Young Artists. Artist's House at Kuznetsky Most, Moscow
1987 "Representation". l the "Hermitage", Moscow
1988 "Paper Architecture. Fantasy & Utopia ". La Villette, Paris, France
1988 "Fantasia against utopia". XVII Triennale. Palace of Fine Arts, Milan, Italy
1988 "Drummers of Art. DK MELZ, Moscow
1988 "Inventer` 89 ". Paris, France
1988 XVIII Exhibition of Young Artists. Manege, Moscow
1988 All-Union Exhibition of Young Artists. Manege, Moscow
1988 "Young Artists of the socialist countries". Manege, Moscow
1988-89 "Soviet Architecture: 1917-1988". Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, Finland; Arkitekturmuseet Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden; Stichting de Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1989 "Architecture and Imagination". De Tien van Fort Asperen, Leerdam, Netherlands
1989 "Architecture et Utopie". Pavillion de l `Arsenal, Paris, France
1989 "Architecture and imagination". Fort Asper, Leerdam, Netherlands
1989 "Architecture and Utopia". Pavilion Arsenal, Paris, France
1989 "Paper Architecture. New projects from the USSR ". German Museum of Architecture, Frankfurt, Germany
1989 "Nuova Realta". Pinacoteca Communale Loggetta Lombardesca, Ravenna, Italy
1990 "Papierarchitektur. Neue Projekte aus der Sowjetunion ". Architekturforum, Zurich, Switzerland
1990 "Avant 20/90". Manege, Moscow
1990 "Facades Imaginaires". Grenoble
1990 "In de USSR en Erbuiten". Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1990 "Construir!". Fondation pour l `Architecture, Brussels, Belgium
1990 "Towards the Object". Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1990-91 "Between Spring and Summer: Soviet Conceptual Art in the Era of Late Communism". Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Des Moines Art Center, De Moines, USA
1991 "Paper Architecture: New Projects from the Soviet Union". List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
1991 "FIAC-91". Galerie Gmurzynska, Paris, France
"Vision of Space". Gmurzhinska Gallery, Cologne, Germany
1991 "ART MIF 2". Manege, Moscow
1992 3rd International Istanbul Biennale. Istanbul, Turkey
1991 "Paper Architecture. Alma mater ". Moscow Architectural Institute
1993 "From Utopia to Utopia". Galerie Lachmann. Cologne, Germany
1993 "ART MIF 3". Manege, Moscow
1993 "Art in Moscow 1988-93". Cultural and Historical Center, Krasnoyarsk
1993-94 "Aspects Actuels de la Mouvance Construite Internationale". Musee des Beaux-Arts de Verviers, Centre de la Gravure et de l `Image Imprimee, La Louviere, France
1994 "May Exhibition". Exhibition Hall, Kuznetsk Bridge, 20, Moscow
1994 "Factory of utopias. Russian VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE ". State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
1995 "Kunst im verborgenen. Nonkonformisten Russland 1957-1995 ". Collection of Contemporary Art Museum Tsaritsino ". Wilhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein; Documenta-Halle, Kassel; Staatliches Lindenau Museum, Altenburg, Germany
"Arte Russa". Villa Zorn, Sesto San Giovanni, Italy
"On the house". Profsoyuznaya 100, Moscow
1995 "Einblicke" (Werkstatt Moskau II). Galerie im Marstall, Akademie der Kunste am Hanseatenweg, Kunstlerhof Buch, Berlin, Germany
1996 "The Art of Flying". Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany
1996 "Archeology of the city of the future". Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Gifu Prefectural Museum, Japan
1996 "Anticipating the future. The architect as seismograph. VI International Exhibition of Architecture, Venice, Italy
1997 "City mirage. Another utopia. NTT ICC ", Tokyo, Japan
1997 "revived Bridges. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow;
1999 EASY BREATHING. Moscow Center for the Arts;
2000 FIFTH ELEMENT - ART OR MONEY. Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf;
2000 DOLL FROM THE STARS. ORT, State Museum of Architecture, Moscow;
2000 PERSONAL VIEW. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow;
2001 FAMILY ALBUM: Brooklyn Collects. Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Exhibition Project
1984, "Vladimir Mayakovsky and Production Art" (with E. Bogdanov and S. Chermenskim). Mayakovsky Museum, Moscow
1985 Exhibition of Young Architects. Central House of Artists, Moscow
1989 "Lyubov Popova". State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
1990 "Towards the Object". Kashirka, Moscow; "In de USSR en Erbuiten". Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1990 "Konstantin Melnikov". Pushkin Pushkin Museum, Moscow
1990 "Avant 20/90". Manege, Moscow
1991 "Olga Rozanova". Tverskaya 25, Moscow
1993 "Vladimir Tatlin". Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf, Germany
1994 "Vladimir Tatlin". The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
1996 Vrubel (with Alyona Kirtsova). Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf;
1997 Crimean War (with Alyona Kirtsova). New Manege, Moscow;
EPIC 1998 Epoch. Pavilion of Arts, Paris;
1999 16 History of Moscow. State Chancellery, Munich;
2000 WITHOUT WALLS. ANTHONY CBO. Royal Festival Hall, London;
2000 FIFTH ELEMENT - ART OR MONEY. Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf.
Curatorial projects
1984 introduced the term "paper architecture" to describe the genre of conceptual design in the USSR 1980
1984 "Paper Architecture". The editorial board of "Youth", Moscow
1985 Exhibition of Young Architects. Central House of Artists, Moscow
1986 "Paper Architecture. In search of identity ". Gallery SKUC, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
1988 "Paper Architecture. Fantasy & Utopia ". La Villette, Paris, France
1988 "Paper Architecture. Fantasia against utopia ". Palacco dell `Arte, Milan, Italy
1989 "Paper Architecture. New projects from the USSR ". German Architecture Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
1989 "Paper Architecture". Gallery De Singel, Antwerp, Belgium
1990-91 "Paper Architecture. New projects from the USSR ". Architectural Forum, Zurich, Switzerland; Center for Fine Art Liszt, Cambridge, USA, Center for Contemporary Art, New Orleans, USA, Huntington Gallery, Austin, USA; Fine Arts Center, Amherst, Netherlands
. 1991 "A new architectural fantasy"
. Gallery Lenses, Cologne, Germany
1991 "Build!". Architectural Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
1991 "Avant 20/90". Manege, Moscow
1992 "Paper Architecture. Alma Mater ". MARCHI Moscow
1994 "Factory of utopias. VISIONARY Russian architecture in the twentieth century ". State Museum of Architecture im.Schuseva, Moscow
EPIC 1998 Epoch. Pavilion of Arts, Paris;
1999-2000 WITHOUT WALLS. ANTHONY CBO. Oberdan Gallery, Milan / Main Post Office, Berlin-Mitte / Royal Festival Hall, London / Central Exhibition Hall Manege, Moscow;
2000 Photoprogram 24. State Museum of Architecture, Moscow;
2001 Photoprogram 24. Moscow House of Photography, Moscow.
PRIZE
1984 "Style 2001". 1 prize, the magazine "A + U", Japan
1984 Real Estate Future. Bronze Medal, UNESCO, France
1986 "Downtown Gagarin". 1 prize, the contest of the Union of Architects (SA) of the USSR
1987 "Cities and the home tomorrow". 1 prize, the contest SA USSR
.

. Criticism
.
. There is a sharply polemical antithesis canonical architectural language of social realism, . stubbornly, . with a set of the same, . few and primitive, . but "understandable" form, . seeking to create the image of "recovery", . "Ascent", . take-off, . aspiration architectural banality and commonplace,
. What proposition is not arbitrarily, . confirmed some avvakumovskimi compositions, . in which the stairs are not involved, . but interpreted parody other canonized motifs and forms of Soviet architecture, . also portrays the "rise", . "off" and so,
. (Palace of the Soviets in the form of self-raised card at home). We meet with more unusual for us architectural irony. "The stairs leading nowhere" has meaning capacious character.
. "The ladder as such" (as one would say Russian Futurists) Avvakumov considering either way, carefully and thoroughly, admiring the inexhaustible meaning in this unit, in general, form
. She realized archetypal and universal, which is one of the primary elements of architecture and one of its characters, avatars - along with the column and resting on her beam, vault, door, window, fireplace. Avvakumov used in the models are small (as a toy), ladders or constructs them in a life-size, sometimes bringing in their present installation ladders, ladders. All of them lead nowhere, but necessarily mean something.
Some of them resemble the unknown archaeological artifacts or fragments of peasant utensils, whose functions have already forgotten. Other - circus props, swinging, but not falling as "Vanka-Vstanka, ladders equilibrists. Third completely "eliminate the" placed in space or in combination with other architectural forms. Fourth - quite ordinary, utilitarian, but placed in inappropriate environment, as if interested call attention.
Avvakumov strongly recalls if a simple and well known, but it makes it exciting and quite in his own. His compositions, as separate stanzas are added to the "anthem of the stairs". Involuntarily ponder, . that unless there are no stairs architecture, . it, . as the wheel (on Avvakumov, . wheel - a roll in terms of stairs), . connects space, . allows you to build floor above the floor, . complements the building structure of diagonal and oblique lines in general, . provides continuity of spatial relationships through intermittent, . dissected at the level of form,

. A demonstration inexhaustible plastic and shaped potentials, which has such a simple architectural form, as a staircase, Avvakumov insistently reminds us that the form of architectural works should belong to the first place.

. A. shearers "Paper architecture of hardware
. From the catalog of the exhibition "Temporary monuments". State Museum of Architecture. Schuseva, Moscow, 1992
The idea of lifting or escape ever present in Avvakumov in its repeated motifs ladders, stairs since time immemorial been a symbol of the ascension to heaven. As a constructive element of the ladder used by the artist rather in terms of sculptural and metaphorical than functional.
. In the product Avvakumov "Monument - Fire Escape", 1988, confused bunch of stairs rising to the surface of a translucent screen or wall
. His "Axis of recovery" in 1990 is designed as a tower of stairs, limited to the ends of reflective surfaces, which continue its endlessly up and down.
. In his "Barricades" in 1989, another dense mass of horizontal ladders lepitsya like a symmetrical fence wall of the steps, and these two ways of lifting - ladders and steps - are transformed into a barricade.
. Dynamism tatlinskogo constructivism can be correlated with the revolutionary optimism and the perception - an obsession with the future, "the task facing us," as he put it
. We Avvakumov historical reference and mechanism comparisons, and looking back at the past used such a way that reveal the most sense of this, sandwiched between the symmetrically arranged past and future.
. In contrast, dynamic and unidirectional compositions Tatlin their path forward in space, . and in the history, . design Avvakumov always built on the visual and verbal balance alternatives - constructivist design coexists with socialist realism: a means to escape hanging in the air, . glued fragile house of cards, . heavy dome upside down and turned into a balloon.,
. If the "Axis of recovery reflects the many levels of ascent and descent, . a dense cluster "Barricades" depicts the boundary, . but in multidirectional design still embodies the expectation of an infinite set of possibilities, . which constitutes a thin layer of existence between the future and the past,
.

M. Gouvan. "Temporary Monuments: ascent and descent". World Architecture, London, 1991, N15