Monument to the Third International

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Tatlin (right) and an assistant in front of the model of the tower in the Studio for Material, Volume and Construction in the State Free Art Studios (now the Russian Art Academy ) (November 1920)

The Monument to the Third International ( Russian Проект памятника III Коммунистического Интернационала Proekt pamjatnika III Kommunistitscheskogo Internazionala ), originally Monument to the Revolution , often just called Tatlin's Tower called, was a 400-meter high tower project by Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin , of which only a model was implemented. The model was built in Petrograd between March and November 1920 and then presented to the public.

Although it was never realized, the project has met with enormous reception and is one of the well-known designs of the Soviet avant-garde .

history

Tatlin's attempt to erect a monument stems from Lenin's plan for monumental propaganda. Lenin demanded the removal of monuments of the Empire and the erection of new monuments to the revolution. Tatlin worked on such a project from 1919. By the time the model was being built, the idea was subject to major changes.

Tatlin built the model for a revolutionary monument with his employees in his studio for material, volume and construction in the State Free Art Studios, which was founded in the spring of 1919 (the premises now house the mosaic workshop of the Russian Art Academy ). The employees involved were T. Shapiro, Iosif Meerson, Pawel Winogradow, Ptschelnikowa, Terletski, Dormidontow, Stakanow and Chapajew. The model was presented to the public from November 8th to December 1st, 1920. It was only in the context of this exhibition that the monument was designated as a monument to the Third International .

On December 14, 1920, a discussion about the ideological, aesthetic and useful aspects of the project as well as the possibilities of a constructive implementation was discussed in the Paul Cézanne Club in Moscow. Among others, El Lissitzky , Naum Gabo , Ossip Brik and Vladimir Mayakovsky were present at the discussion .

In December the model was dismantled and exhibited in Moscow at the exhibition in honor of the Eighth Congress of Soviets , which was shown in the House of the Trade Unions from the end of December 1920 . The exhibition, also known as the First Soviet Trade Exhibition, was organized by the Central Press Agency under its director Boris Malkin . The model remained in this building and was presented at the second Soviet trade exhibition , the exhibition in honor of the Third International in the summer of 1921. The model remained there until at least 1922.

In 1925, art students built a copy of the tower for the May Parade in Leningrad. However, this model is much more massive and less dynamic. Tatlin himself created a small and simplified model for the Exposition Internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modern in Paris in 1925 , where it was exhibited in the Soviet department in the Grand Palais .

architecture

The tower was to become a gigantic machine that would house conference rooms, elevators, a staircase and a radio transmitter, and the column of which was to be able to align itself with the stars. Tatlin's work was intended to reflect the dynamism of the revolution . It should be made of industrial materials: iron, glass and steel. The tower should have been 400 meters high.

The design envisaged a helically wound steel structure through which a sloping mast passes, around which three glass bodies rotate. The cylinders, pyramid and hemisphere, surrounded by the double spiral, were designed in such a way that they rotate at different speeds. The restaurant and the conference rooms on the first plateau should rotate on their own axis once a month. The middle part would have rotated on its own axis after a week, while the glass cylinder on the top would have rotated once a day.

The ambitious architectural project was not built for cost reasons, but is still considered an architectural icon today .

literature

  • Selim O. Chan-Magamedow: Pioneers of Soviet Architecture . VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 64 ff .
  • Stephen Bann (Ed.): The Tradition of Constructivism. The Viking Press, New York 1974, ISBN 0-670-72301-0 , pp. 14ff. (English)

Web links

Commons : Tatlin's Tower  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Selim O. Chan-Magamedow: Pioneers of Soviet Architecture . VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 64-66 .
  2. ^ Maria Gough: Model Exhibition . In: October . No. 150 , 2014, p. 12-13 .
  3. ↑ Steve Edwards, Paul Wood (Ed.): Art of the Avant-gardes . Yale University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-300-10230-7 , pp. 362 .
  4. ^ Maria Gough: Model Exhibition . In: October . No. 150 , 2014, p. 14 .
  5. ^ Maria Gough: Model Exhibition . In: October . No. 150 , 2014, p. 15 .
  6. ^ A b Maria Gough: Model Exhibition . In: October . No. 150 , 2014, p. 16 .
  7. ^ Maria Gough: Model Exhibition . In: October . No. 150 , 2014, p. 21 .
  8. ^ A b Maria Gough: Model Exhibition . In: October . No. 150 , 2014, p. 23 .