In London for “The Center Cannot Hold” conference, we had the opportunity to meet Vladimir Paperny, author of Architecture in the Age of Stalin, and to revive in a conversation with him our interest on the Russian avant-garde and the fate of modernist urbanism under and after Stalin.
Here you find some of his answers regarding:
- the connection between avant-garde and Russian revolution
- The concept of Russian Culture 1 and culture 2 as he developed in his book
- Tabula Rasa: rebuilding the modern world from scratch
- The repression against modernist architects
- Was Stalinist architecture prefiguring Postmodernism?
- The pragmatic recuperation of modern architecture after Stalin
- Architecture as a social equalizer
- Post socialist shift and privatization of housing
- Which heritage is worth to be preserved in Russian modern architecture?
Filmed at in London at the Calvert 22 Gallery 12 June 2016.
Interview by Lorenzo Tripodi
Camera Manuela Conti
Sound Sergio Segoloni
Produced with the support of Calvert Foundation. Thanks to Will Strong.