Lazar Khidekel Society became a partner of the Golden Trezzini Awards

News of the Awards

Lazar Khidekel Society became a partner of the Third International Golden Trezzini Awards for Architecture and Design, as well as the official representative of the Awards in the United States. At the Golden Trezzini Awarding Ceremony, the Lazar Khidekel Prize will be awarded for the Best Innovative Architectural Project.

“Lazar Khidekel is one of the greatest of innovators in architecture in our times,” said Daniel Libeskind, jury member of the Golden Trezzini Awards and the Lazar Khidekel Prize. “His concept of space, functionality, and modernity is something which has inspired me ever since I discovered his drawings. In Khidekel’s work the word ‘innovation’ is not a footnote but the central spirit of his buildings... He is not a mere visionary of the past, but an architect whose work should inspire all of us to become as young as his ethereal vision."

“I am pleased to be able to present the Lazar Khidekel Prize at the Golden Trezzini Awards,” said Mark Khidekel, member of the Golden Trezzini jury and chairman of the Lazar Khidekel Prize. “Domenico Trezzini and Lazar Khidekel were visionary architects capable of overcoming the conventions of real time and seeing the future with the power of their imagination, becoming symbols of the architectural revolution.”

Regina Khidekel, author of many publications about the Avant-garde and Lazar Khidekel, founder of the Russian American Cultural Center and the Lazar Khidekel Society, jury member of the Golden Trezzini, sees a special connection between the two architects: “Domenico Trezzini was the first architect of St. Petersburg and one of the creators of the new architecture in Russia, which entered the international arena, adopting the achievements of the European culture.

Two centuries later, Russia became one of the main centers of the Avant-garde and gave the world some outstanding innovators in art, architecture, philosophy, and science, including Kazimir Malevich, inventor of the art movement called Suprematism, and Lazar Khidekel (1904, Vitebsk – 1986, Leningrad), Malevich’s associate and the first Supremacist architect, who led Suprematism towards its future development, which today is increasingly associated with his planetary vision in solutions to global urban problems.”

“Any participant of the Golden Trezzini Awards, who has applied for one of the architectural nominations, including nominations for students, can claim the Lazar Khidekel Prize,” said Pavel Chernyakov, Chairman of the Golden Trezzini Arrangements Committee. “Thus, no separate entry for participation in this special nomination will be required. The winner will be the author of the project, which demonstrates the best innovative solutions in the field of architectural design.”

According to Pavel Chernyakov, entries of the Awards nominees for the special nomination “Best Innovative Architectural Project” will be selected by Roman Khidekel, member of the Golden Trezzini Arrangements Committee, architect and artist. A private ballot to choose the winner will be held by the Council of the Lazar Khidekel Society, which includes a number of the Golden Trezzini Awards jury members, in particular, Daniel Libeskind, Mark Khidekel, Regina Khidekel, Mikhail Lukyanov, head of the RSK LLC design company, and Martina Bigliardi-Möhr, representative of the Lazar Khidekel Society in Switzerland.

Reference

Lazar Khidekel (1904, Vitebsk — 1986, Leningrad) was a prominent representative of the Russian Avant-garde, the first Supremacist architect. Lazar Khidekel’s life was connected with Leningrad, where he studied, designed many future landmarks, and taught entire generations of architects-to-be. The most important thing was that from the early 1920s, he worked on the concept of futuristic cities, which in good time preceded radical projects of the European and Japanese Avant-garde of after-WWII-times, and on a workable model of new urbanism. According to Khidekel’s manifesto “AERO” (1920), the most important task of the new architecture is to overcome the contradictions between development of the civilization and the environment.

A century ago, Khidekel had foreseen that a modern architect would no longer think on a scale of buildings or cities, but, as he put it, would see “architecture in the context of nature and in unison with it."

Exhibitions of Lazar Khidekel’s works took place at the Guggenheim Museum, the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Jewish Museum in New York, the Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Belarus National Arts Museum, and many others.

The Lazar Khidekel Society is a nonprofit organization, established by the family of Lazar Khidekel and a group of distinguished art historians, museum specialists, and art supporters under the auspices of the Russian American Cultural Center (RACC) in New York, New York.

The goal of the Lazar Khidekel Society is to sustain and preserve Lazar Khidekel's legacy in art, architecture, and design, as well as to advance the recognition of Lazar Khidekel (1904, Vitebsk – 1986, Leningrad) as one of the titans of the Russian Avant-garde – particularly the Supremacist movement – that laid the foundation for art and architecture of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

A number of committees has been established within the Society. The Exhibition Committee implements the educational mission of the Society through arrangement of exhibitions, publications, and conferences. The Education Committee collaborates with students and scholars who research the Lazar Khidekel Archive. The Conservation Committee is engaged in preservation of Khidekel’s works and unique archive. The Authenticity Committee tracks integrity and consistency of the artist’s heritage. The Development Committee is working on establishing a monument to Lazar Khidekel and his pioneering ideas, a museum & research facility to house the Art Collection and Archives and explore Lazar Khidekel's heritage, as well as to place some of Lazar Khidekel's works in major museums’ collections.

http://www.russianamericanculture.com/lazar-Khidekel-society/lazar-Khidekel-mission/

The International Golden Trezzini Awards for architecture and design is named after Domenico Trezzini (1670 – 1734), a Russian architect of Swiss origin, founder of Petrine Baroque, the first architect of St. Petersburg. The Awards has been held since 2018 with the support of the Representative Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg, the Embassy of Russia in Switzerland, and the Embassy of Switzerland in Russia, the Union of Architects of Russia, the Architectural Council of Moscow, as well as other Russian and international agencies.

The motto of the Golden Trezzini is “Architecture as Art.” The mission of the Awards is to scout for architectural, designer and restoration projects that in terms of artistic value can be regarded as works of art. The Awards is supervised by the International Council of the Golden Trezzini. The honorary chairman of the Council is Mikhail Piotrovsky, President of the World Club of Petersburgers and General Director of the State Hermitage Museum. The Grand Jury of the Awards includes 180+ experts from 29 countries.

In 2020, the Awards is held for the third time and includes 20 major nominations plus a special one. Winners will be awarded golden Trezzini figurines on December 1 in St. Petersburg. Projects submitted by the winners will be showcased at an annual exhibition in the Peter and Paul Fortress and then added to the collection of the State Museum of St. Petersburg History.

Entries for the Third Golden Trezzini are accepted at www.goldtrezzini.ru/en/ till October 15, 2020. Participation is free of charge. Participants from all over the world are invited to join.

The General Partner of the Golden Trezzini Awards is the State Museum of St. Petersburg History. The System Partner is RBI Group. Partner of a Special nomination is YIT. The Official Awarding Partner is LenRusStroy Building Corporation. To see a full list of the Awards partners, please, check: https://goldtrezzini.ru/en/partners-of-the-golden-trezzini-awards-2020/.