Tatlins Tower
What was it?
Tatlins tower was commissioned in 1919 shortly after the revolution in Russia, by the department of artistic work of the peoples commissariat for enlightenment. with the intention of expressing the ideals of the third (comunist) international, the work aimed to avoid heroic portrayal of a single person by using its form (shape) to represent the utopian aspect of the revolution. A competitive note introduces itself in the fact that the completed tower was to be a third higher again than the Eiffel tower.
The work was never realised - It only existed in model form for two exhibitions. The model was made using only two drawings the majority of the structure being invented in situ or from memory, only five poor quality photographs exist of the actual model which was destroyed shortly after the last exhibition in 1920.
Despite being so short lived the structure has been continualy looked to as a central event in sculpture and architecture, There is no doubt that it has resonances which ring true to the present day. Tatlins pioneering use of the double helix as an attempt to rid architecture of the rennaisance triangle pre-empts modern chaos theory architecture and genetic symbolism. It could be said that his utopian glorification of the Industrial landscape was as misled as our visionary future for genetic engineering.
This is a temporary page It is currently being compiled to give detailed information - 9/May/99
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