Unintenional Monuments

"Much of visionary architecture, in Barthes's view, embodies a profound double movement; it is always 'a dream and a function, an expression of a utopia and instrument of a convenience.'" (Svetlana Boym, "Ruins of the Avant-garde")

This "double movement" can be traced through Malevich's distinction between the artwork and the usable object;

"Technical and utilitarian activity...produced 'things' whose perfection changed over time: 'a cart, a cartridge, a locomotive, , an airplane are [all] a chain of unconsidered possibilities and tasks', whereas art 'can call its creations finished works since their execution is absolute , timeless and unchanging" ("The Great Utopia: Russian and Soviet Avant Garde 1915-1932)

It is within this rift between the utilitarian purpose of architecture and the "timeless and unchanging" world of the art object where interesting possibilities and inconsistencies open up;



Scanned page from Svetlana Boym's "Ruins of the Avant-garde", found within "Ruins of Modernity" compiled by Julia Hell and Andreas Schonle