Rodchenko Workers' Club reconstruction
In 2020 Higher Art and Technical Institute (VKHUTEIN) by Higher Art and Technical Studios (VKHUTEMAS) is celebrating its 100th anniversary. It is the first design school in the territory of modern Russia, that laid the foundation for the development of industrial design, architecture and design education. Revolutionary time demanded reinterpretation of traditional ideas on Applied and Decorative Arts. Searching for the new forms of creative self-expression, as well as art-and-industry education itself was pushed hard. Innovative professors were playing around with form, space and colour. These searches in large part were accordant to the ideology and principals of famous Bauhaus, however at this very time, without any references to anything created earlier, artists of constructivism created groundbreaking world-class projects
Managers: Kirill and Elena Cheburashkin
Working group:
Moscow, 2021
1.9.2.5
In 1925, the results of the experimental activities of VKHUTEMAS were successfully demonstrated to the world community at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts and the Art Industry in Paris. At the same exhibition Alexander Rodchenko presented his famous “Workers’ Сlub” designed by constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov. It was exhibited in the Soviet pavilion. The interior of Rodchenko’s “Workers’ Сlub” became the brand identity of the young soviet designer at the international level
A.M. Rodchenko was not only and not so much a subject designer as a conceptual artist, graphic artist, photographer and poster artist. In this regard, the interior and furniture of the Workers' Club, made by French masters according to the sketches and drawings of the author, it is appropriate to consider, first of all, as an advertising three-dimensional poster, and only then as a real interior for life and work. A contrasting combination of graphic lines and color spots, photo images and fonts, the interior was created in order to advertise internationally the way of thinking of a new person aspiring to a bright future. Complete absence of purely decorative elements, clear, transparent composition of the furniture ensemble, emphasized functionality and transformability of its individual elements.
Unfortunately, the strengthened concept of socialist realism eventually completely replaced the ideas of constructivism and the avant-garde, as a result of which, in 1930, VKHUTEMAS - VKHUTEIN was closed. However, 100 years since the foundation of this splendid school we feel confident to say that the highlights of the constructivism period managed to enrich the world treasury of culture. Our artists, architects and designers managed to get rid of centuries-long complex of replication, and say a well and truly new word in art and architecture. It is no wonder that the interior of the Workers’ Club by Alexander Rodchenko appeared in temporary and permanent exhibitions held in leading world design museums again and again (Netherlands, Germany, France, England, Finland, USA, Austria, Spain, Liechtenstein)
