Architecton

A drone whirls among the apartment blocks hit by Russian missiles in Ukraine as if performing a macabre dance, occasionally revealing the interior of the gutted buildings where a sewing machine, a television and a mirror stand unattended. ARCHITECTON, the latest essay film by Viktor Kossakovsky, investigates geological space and the history of civilization through the ruins of time-tested buildings, which are contrasted with modern construction methods: the possibility of a sustainable future seem to crumble in the face of today’s ubiquitous reinforced concrete—a brittle, short-lived material doomed to end up as a pile of non-disposable rubble. An epic array of landscapes, debris and relics—superbly lit in colour and black and white and accompanied by an imposing soundtrack—unfolds like a disquieting symphonic poem of almost abstract beauty. The cascade of images is punctuated by interludes that feel like the film’s true core, showing the installation of a ring of stones in the garden owned by Italian architect-theoretician Michele De Lucchi. This ring will be closed off to humans after its completion: a ‘sacred’ space that is the rehearsal of a utopian future, free from single-use architecture. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

Victor Kossakovsky: LOSEV (1988), BELOVY (1992), SREDA 19.07.1961 (1996), PAVEL I LYALYA (1998, K), YA VAS LUBIL (2001), TISHE! (2003), SVYATO (2005, K), VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS! (2011), DEMONSTRATION (2013), VARICELLA (2015, K), AQUARELA (2018), GUNDA (2020)