Presentiment

Of nothing in particular. Ruins of Ivan Zholtovsky’s puzzling pavilion, grainy rain clouds above, a pop-artsy fence, and tired, lifeless grass in the foreground: Dusk in Gorky Park.

By way of explanation, a quote by Alexandra Selivanova pasted from this post – one of my Constructivism & Brutalism mini-series (with a nod to Pavel Pepperstein):

The only surviving structure built for the famous 1923 Expo is nowadays located on the territory occupied by the [former] Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure… Ivan Zholtovsky was at that time in search of a new architectural language and temporarily stepped away from the [sic] neoclassical architecture…

The machinery pavilion, named Gear Pavilion, made it to this day thanks to its reinforced concrete framework, whose rhythm largely defines the expression of its façade. In Zholtovsky’s untypical symbolic planning, which hinted at the contents of the pavilion, one could see six ancient temples radiating from a single center…

Temples to gods who never saw Zholtovsky among their devoted adepts. The concrete carcasses of those ancient sanctuaries are still standing, as if untouchable, while their surroundings have changed completely more than once since the 1923 Expo.

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