BREUS Foundation announced the results of the first stage of the architectural competition of the project “Udarnik”
The international cultural organisation BREUS Foundation* announces the list of architecture firms to enter a competition for developing the project of the Museum of Contemporary Russian Art in the Udarnik cinema building
On the 10th of April, 2014, the representatives of the major architecture firms will arrive in Moscow at the behest of the BREUS Foundation to participate in the final stage of the closed competition for developing the project of the Museum of Contemporary Russian Art in the Udarnik Cinema Building. Their works are internationally renowned, the objects they created are now part of the history of architecture: Arata Isozaki & Associates (Japan), Designed by Erick van Egeraat (Netherlands), Stephan Braunfels Architekten (Germany), Emre Arolat Architects (Turkey), John McAslan + Partners (UK), Robbrecht en Daem architecten (Belgium). The architects will hold two days’ workshop in the Udarnik building to present in June 2014 their own concepts of the reconstruction and creation of a new museum complex out of the Constructivist landmark.
The mission of the International cultural organisation BREUS Foundation, as of an institution, is to explore and systematize the contemporary Russian art, to promote it in Russia and abroad. The most significant projects of the foundation are the Kandinsky Prize, the programme of the BREUS publishing house for the release of fundamental monographs on contemporary Russian artists and of books on the theory and the history of the contemporary Russian art and the main project — the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Russian Art in the Udarnik building. The chairman of the foundation Mr. Shalva Breus notes, “The activity of the foundation will secure the development of the fundamentals for preservation, exploration and expansion of the Russian art and for its canonization as an important part of the national and the world culture”.
The international cultural organisation BREUS Foundation announced the competition and selected six architecture firms from Japan, Europe and America that have experience in delivery of large-scale museum projects and renovation of architectural landmarks. The winner is to be decided by an authoritative international jury formed by the architecture, contemporary art and monument protection experts: Shalva Breus, Head of BREUS Foundation, Mrs. Maria Tsantsanoglou, Director of the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Mr. Bart de Baere, Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Antwerp, Jean-Louis Cohen, Head of the Foundation Le Corbusier, Jean-Hubert Martin, an international curator and former Director of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Sergei Kapkov, Head of the Moscow Department of Culture, Alexandr Kibovsky, Head of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage and Sergei Kuznetsov, Chief Architect of Moscow.
The jury will decide the first three winners of the architectural competition. However, that does not suggest that the winner will receive the contract for the reconstruction project of the Udarnik building. In accordance with the competition rules, representatives of BREUS Foundation have to negotiate with the architecture firms in a the form of a competitive dialogue in order to determine the ultimate author of the reconstruction project. There will be various selection criteria among which engineering feasibility and financial viability are the key ones.
BREUS Foundation has hired Avesta as a consultancy of the project as it is well-known for its work with world’s largest cultural centres and museums including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Contemporary Art Center Punta della Dogana in Venice, the Liechtenstein National Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art PERMM and others.
A few years will pass between choosing the architectural concept and the opening of the museum. During that time the Kandinsky Prize will continue its work along with the BREUS Publishing House, which has started off with the release of a monograph on Boris Orlov — the first one in the series on the work of the most significant Russian artists — and The Alien — a work by Ekaterina Bobrinskaya, Doctor of Fine Arts, and has plans to publish monographs on Erik Bulatov, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid.
BREUS Foundation is to present the results of the competition and the reconstruction project to the general public in June 2014.
* The international cultural organisation BREUS Foundation is the new name for the ArtChronika Cultural Foundation, which is used as of 2014.
