between Aggression and Elegance

Life Will Kill You is an installation designed by Molly Hunker and Greg Corso for the Revolve Clothing showroom in West Hollywood. To stand in contrast to the high-fashion clothing of the boutique, an everyday industrial material – the zip tie – is aggregated to create a floating volume that nestles below an existing soffit. The design is intended to explore the edge between aggression and elegance through material sensibility, overall form, and visual effect.

The cloud-like volume is created by a double-sided surface composed of over 100,000 zip ties. The exterior surface of the volume is an aggregation of longer, wider white zip ties while the interior is comprised of shorter and finer colored zip ties. The resulting bulging form offers ever-changing glimpses of blurred yet vivid color combinations as the zip ties layer on top of one another in the predominantly black and white store interior.

our Lady of Angels

The concept of this design by Xiaofeng Mei and Xiaotian Gao is based on the deconstruction and restructuring of Bionics as well as the supernatural spirit of re-designing a church.

The idea is based on two starting levels and extraction elements. One is the derivative and evolution of fish’s bone and texture. Specifically, from fish bones, fish gills, fish suko, and other various important parts, I can extract the geometric elements and then sort out the logic of formation of biological body, which would become the primitive of main structure and mode. Second is the religious beliefs of church and spiritual of space. The exploration of the spirit of building is the basic method and necessary mean to study how to combine the modern architecture and ultra-modern architecture together.

External prosperity of Architectural appearance, but in fact, requires careful logical constitute of inherent physical units to support. In this project, I mainly studied the formation and variation of single cells as well as a series of gradually combined into a system derived from logic. At all stages, a power expansion of the complexity has been formed from the body itself, the logic of variation and composition. Meanwhile, I also sought to control the hierarchy of overall complexity and coherence in order to achieve complicated and orderly aesthetic coexistence of interaction scenarios. This is the original intention of bionics or architectural aesthetics that are tending to nature because nature is the most complex biological interpretation of synthetic organisms.

At any one area, theory would be far beyond the practice, which is the prerequisite for everything to constantly update and evolve, also in the architecture field. The imagination of future architecture and utopian city continued to the present from the last century. Here, the architecture abandoned the totalitarian and inherit the anti-totalitarian utopian tendencies, focusing on the nature and the spirit of liberalism.
 

iconic Kaohsiung City

With a short list of ambitious designs by Akihisa Hirata, Studio Gang Architects, Yves Bachmann and this featured design by Mack Scogin Merill Elam Architects (MSMEA), its fair to say the Kaohsiung City Public Works Bureau did not have an easy choice to make when they decided on a final design for the Kaohsiung Maritime Culture and Popular Music Center. Although MADE IN’s design was ultimately chosen for the Center, many of these other entries are still worth their mention.
With possibly the most “out there” design for the Center, MSMEA sought to create a 24 hour, iconic attraction for Kaohsiung. The eclectic design for the larger component, the Pop Music Center, and the concept for the Center as a whole for that matter is “founded in the vibrancy of Kaohsiung City and its maritime culture, and in the energy and phenomenon of popular music”.

The two main components, the Pop Music center and the Marine Culture Exhibit Center are placed on either side of the Love River and joined by a bridge spanning the mouth of the river.

Of the positioning they said “The Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural and Popular Music Center is not shy. Like a giant vessel moored at the quay, the Center announces and guards the mouth of the Love River and is a gateway to Kaohsiung City and the nation”.

But the placement of the Center is not only to create a cultural landmark for the city, the placement also allows for the remaining 87% of the site to be reserved as open public park space. This would connect to existing surrounding parks and provide a pleasant waterfront for residents and visitors alike.

MSMEA also wanted to create a flexible space to accommodate the various types of performances and events that would be held at the Center. By separating various components, MSMEA created the possibility for audience capacities ranging from as little as 3,500 to as many as 17,000. Floating stages and barges allow for marine performances.

cities Of Pain

For the purpose of consciously evoking society’s reaction, an architectural object is inserted into the main recreational zone of New York – Central Park Jovile Porvaneckaite. Moreover, social and cultural phenomena inspired by the innovative form are discussed. The aim of the project is to analyse the process of form modelling and, consequently, perform a research of the form as power, based on an experimental project carried out by the author. The article aims at establishing the influence of the volume deficiency formed or shaped in the city’s planning system on the suggestibility of the building’s form.

In the project concerned, the term volume deficiency is used to describe the stress environment in the city structure, formed on the artistic, planning, volume, stylistic, value or historical base, and programming continuity of the above processes after integration of the newly proposed object into the environment mentioned.

The artistic value of the volume influenced by the stress environment and adapted into it provides the suggestibility characteristic of the object of mass attraction to the form. The form designed in such a space obtains all the features characteristic of an architectural sign, the city’s dominant. The form of the City of pain project is created as a connective bridge between a narrow city system and a large area of artificial recreational space. The building as a sign is formed as a corridor for social provocation and a laboratory for the modern society’s behaviour
 

into Latvian Museum of Art

Collection of artworks by Alexandra Belcova consists of more than 2500 items, including paintings, painted porcelain objects (dishes from Baltars workshop), ink drawings, pastels, watercolor paintings, sketches for book illustrations and dishes. Collection provides quite complete overview on art of Alexandra Belcova, her accomplishments in each of her domains and illustrates every period of her creative work. The largest group of her artworks is original graphic art - drawings and pastels.
The collection of the entire museum is based on approx. 4500 artworks by Roman Suta and Alexandra Belcova, as well as several thousands of memorial items and archive materials which belonged to artists' daughter Tatjana Suta and which were given to the Latvian National Museum of Art in 2006 according to her will.It is possible to get acquainted with the memorial collection of Roman Suta and Alexandra Belcova in the National Joint Catalog of Museums www.nmkk.lv
 

Vocabulary Vienna

Historically Vienna is known for its operas and concerts for music lovers. Designing a concert hall in this place is challenging and inspiring.

Ketham Santosh Kumar challenge was to deign a concert hall not only as a single architectural building but also as experiencing spaces through urban transition, At same time the design is unique from other music halls, in terms of architectural esthetics, vocabulary and tectonics. The site is located at center of Vienna adjacent to MAK museum in stadtpark. Music house composed of main concert hall is in centre of park and archive bridge connects to MAK museum and other two small theatres are: one in lower level of stadtpark and another on university. And in addition to, it also accommodates a music archive along the bridge and other ancillary facilities. The double core sphere shell, melting species acts as structural system and thermal insulation to music house.

It evolves as if painting and sculptures are melting and flowing out of existing MAK museum, Crafting and blending in surrounding landscape of stadtpark, and creating a new music house.
 

a Fame, a Fame of Sofia, to BE

Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, grew rapidly after the fall of the communist regime. It is the most enticing for business and living city in the country. Unemployment rate is less than 3%, comparing with 12% for the state. About 20 years ago, together with the building of the subway line, the boulevard T.Aleksandrov was laid out. The idea is to connect the center with less developed west areas. Boulevard in words, more correctly to say road, generally flanked by old, almost ruin-like housing fund. The building of new structures is impending, the dispute is how dense and high. Sofia used to have fame for green city. The parks and the gardens have been neglected. The asphalt has conquered the grass, almost no new trees have been planted.

The plot, 5800 m2, predetermined for hi-rise, is municipal property, situated close to the formal government square, between T.Aleksandrov and the pedestrian a hundred years old street Pirotska. Archeological remains, the ancient city wall, pass through. There is open public space, between the plot and the boulevard.

The main question is haw to insert the skyscraper into five story banal environment. One of the answers is to replace the building with “something else” without typical architectural tectonics and elements, something without scale. The similar things can bi compared, the disparate not.
The proposal is to cover the whole building with greenery, creeping on metal web. Ever changing natural double skin filters the air, produces oxygen, protects from heat, cold, noise. Deciduous plants will let the sun in, when is needed and stop it in summer time. In chilly weather, the creepers and the web could be sprayed with water and the frost would create air cushion, preventing from overcooling. A few “sky courtyards” are placed randomly. Every one planted with different trees – blooming and evergreen. Tropical conservatory will keep the green color all the seasons.

There are two ways to preserve the archeology. The first is to be museum exhibit, the second – to be part of the real life. The second is chosen. One can be in touch with the remains accidentally.
The third goal is to let the people to stroll freely in the spot. The open area (without passing through doors) is five sixths of the plot – sidewalk, sunken patios, roof garden smoothly connecting the vertical greenery with K.Boris street.

The scheme of the tall body is simple and straightforward. The central core, almost symmetrical, is very suitable for the earthquake conditions in Sofia. Around – office spaces for routine activities. The bottom floors are open for public, where the archeological remains are integrated. Below parking, accessible from the two existing ramps.

a Living Ocean, in Manifold Ways

Architectural studio SOMA has finished the design of the thematic pavilion for the 2012 Yeosu World Expo. The project was selected in late 2009 and is expected to begin construction during the next couple of months.

As a major and permanent facility the thematic pavilion embodies the expo’s theme ‘the living ocean and coast’ in manifold ways. The ocean is experienced in two ways, as an endless surface and in an immersed perspective as depth. The plain duality of the ocean motivates the building’s spatial and organisational concept. Continuous surfaces twist from vertical to horizontal orientation and define all significant interior spaces. The vertical cones induce the visitor to immerse into the thematic exhibition. They evolve into horizontal levels that cover the foyer and become a flexible stage for the best practice area. Continuous transitions between contrasting experiences also form the outer appearance of the pavilion. Towards the sea the conglomeration of solid vertical cones define a new meandering coast line, a soft edge that is in constant negotiation between water and land. Opposite side the pavilion develops out of the ground into an artificial roof landscape with gardens and scenic paths. The topographic lines of the roof turn into lamellas of the kinetic media facade that faces the expo’s entrance and the ‘digital gallery’.

The building will be erected in a former industrial harbour along a new promenade. Bridges will connect the pavilion to the expo site. after the expo and the aspired improvement of water quality the promenade will be transformed into an ‘urban beach’ offering leisure activities to the public. The main entrance is situated on ocean plaza, which is partly covered by the pavilion to achieve a shaded outdoor waiting area. The space boundaries of the open foyer are defined by the twisting surfaces of the cones.Tthe interstitial spaces between them frame the view onto the ocean and create niches for the visitors to take a pause from the exhibition.

an Occupy movement

Moved by the economic disparity in the United States brought to light by the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, the designers of the Occupy Skyscraper propose creating a building that can further empower protesters and accelerate the Occupy movement. The temporary Occupy skyscraper can be erected on any protest site to provide shelter and meeting spaces for dissenters. By providing a means for protesters to take their movement from a horizontal plane to a 3-D vertical reality, the Occupy skyscraper strengthens and bolsters the event as a whole, but amazingly, it does so only using hemp rope and canvas.

The skyscraper’s construction begins as soon as a protest takes place: Ropes are woven into a vertical web by attaching to and climbing nearby buildings. The webs are woven thicker and thicker until they form nets that can support weight. At this stage, the “building” can be used for climbing, hanging flags and supporting sleeping bags in the vertical spaces, and can be used for gatherings on the horizontal plane. Canvas is then attached to create solid paneling to segregate space uses within the building. The designers envision several designated areas: orientation spaces, and other spots for recreation, sleeping, workshops, conferences, rallies and large meetings.

As the movement gains in strength and more people join, the masses will continue to build out the skyscraper, adding space as needed. The height of the skyscraper reaches its peak, however, when the heights of the surrounding buildings that are supporting the ropes are met. As the protest dies down the building is deconstructed, and after its over, its remains can be removed completely, restoring the urban fabric to what it was before the event.

to Protect the Romans

The building designed by Atxu Amann, Andrés Cánovas, Nicolás Maruri is essentially a cover protecting the remains of a Roman assembly (thermal baths, forum and domus) in the archaeological site of Molinete Park in Cartagena, Spain.

This cover is certainly another piece in the urban area of Cartagena whose main architectural challenge is to reconcile very different architectures, from the roman times, passing through baroque to contemporary architectures, making them vibrate together in the neighborhood. It is a transition element, between very different city conditions, in size and structure, from the dense city centre to the slope park.

The primary goal of the project is to respect the existing remains, using a long-span structure, which requires the least amount of support for lifting the cover. The intervention unifies all the remains in a single space, allowing a continuous perception of the whole site. The cover also generates a new urban facade in the partition wall.
The project also pursues a sense of lightness and is conceived as an element that allows light. The inner layer is built with a modular system of corrugated multiwall translucent polycarbonate sheets. The outer layer, constructed with perforated steel plates, qualifies the incidence of light and gives a uniform exterior appearance.

Besides to the steel structure, the project proposes an elevated walkway parallel to the street. It is a very light structure hanging from the steel beams. Conceived as a glass box, with a faceted, partially visible geometry, it builds the street façade and allows a view of the ruins from three meters height. It is also accessible for disabled visitors. This high path permits an overall vision of the roman remains.

an Avatar Pallet

Avatar Architettura is a multi-disciplinary Italian office for architecture and industrial design founded in 2001 by Nicola Santini and Pier Paolo Taddei. The office research is oriented towards the identification of design strategies which privilege ecology, flexible systems, biodiversity and recycled materials in urban context. Their Recycled Pallet Pavilion is a temporary structure acting as a versatile art space. It can host different kinds of events and offers space for a wide diversity of production forms.

The pavilion is located in the garden of Villa Romana, the German Institute of Culture in Florence, Italy. The demountable structure of 100 square meters is made of precast diamond shaped wooden pallets and custom made joints. The assembly process takes four days. The wooden structure is wrapped by a continuous PVC membrane, opaque for the roof and transparent for the walls.

whispers Ice

The first artwork I “met” by Charles Stankievech, a Montreal/Dawson City multimedia artist, was his delicate, subtle work Whispers (for WB) at the Parisian Laundry (Montreal) in 2005. For this piece, Stankievech set a series of speakers attached to long, rambling wires along the floor of a skinny concrete hallway. The speakers exuded a wash of overlapping whispers in multiple languages, mixed from 12 channels.

The audio effect was either spooky or soothing, depending on your mood. Visually, it was spare yet also inviting, since you could pick up the speakers if you wanted to listen more closely.
Since then Stankievech has continued to work with overlaps between architecture, acoustics (connecting more broadly to communications technologies), and visual art (most frequently sculpture and video). He’s on year three in Dawson as an instructor at the School of Visual Arts (SOVA).

And ice has begun to appear in – or literally around – Stankievech’s geographically northern art on a regular basis. Pale landscapes add to his minimalist aesthetic, and the North is definitely a place where sound travels farther and feels thinner. But even more importantly, Stankievech is currently contemplating boundary issues in remote places – places where international defence systems install themselves. The North provides the specific history of the DEW Line plus the current US HAARP project.

to Intel Alexandrina

Intel Bibliotheca Alexandrina Science and Engineering Fair 2012

The BA Planetarium Science Center (PSC), in collaboration with Intel Co., is organizing Intel Bibliotheca Alexandrina Science and Engineering Fair (Intel BASEF) from 10 to 12 March 2012.This competition prepares students from all over Egypt for participating, competing, and winning in the national competition. Intel BASEF top three winning projects will represent Egypt in the International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) competition that will take place in USA.Intel BASEF brings together students, 14-18 years of age, from all over Egypt to train, research, innovate and compete in preparation for the Intel ISEF, the world’s largest international pre-college science competition.

a Helicoidal to Save a City

The ‘City Respiration Skyscraper’ designed by Czech architects Pavlína Doležalová and Jan Smékal is a helicoidal  240 meter-high structure designed to clean the air of the most polluted cities worldwide. Its primary structure is a concrete ribbon covered by air-cleaning algae. The outer cellular structure is a three-dimensional cluster of individual concrete three-spike units inspired by sea sponges. 

This helicoidal structure acts as a chimney where warm and polluted air is captured at the bottom and  filtered and oxygenated by the algae and a specialized water-sprayed system. A network of these skyscrapers strategically placed in the most polluted areas could clean a city in a couple of weeks.
 

a Romantic among

In  the beginning,” the elderly Edgar Degas recalled, “Fantin, Whistler and I, we were all on the same road from Holland.”

What he meant was that in the early 1860s, just as the moribund polarities in French painting between the neo-classical and Romantic schools were giving way to the full-blooded realism of Gustav Courbet, he was among a band of young artists who aspired to bring up-to-date the Dutch 17th-century landscape, portrait, still life and genre traditions.

One of the artists Degas mentions was Henri Fantin-Latour, painter of that great aubade to the Romantic movement, Homage à Delacroix, the 1864 group portrait in which (among others) Baudelaire, Manet, Whistler and Fantin-Latour himself boldly stake their claim to the leadership of the cultural avant-garde.

Whistler and Manet in their different ways went on to become two of the most progressive artists working in European painting during the second half of the century. Fantin-Latour did not. Neither reactionary nor innovator, his absolute dislike of plein-air painting and preference for a nearly monochromatic palette set him apart from the generation of young artists who allied themselves with the Impressionists.

Yet there is something schizophrenic about Fantin-Latour’s talent. On the one hand he was a portraitist of extraordinary ambition and psychological acuity whose works in the genre always impress but never enthral. His chilly, grey-black palette, the emotional distance he keeps from his sitters, and the stiff poses contrived in the interest of compositional balance rather than for natural effect cast a funereal pall over all his group portraits.

to Ethnograf Installations

Museums in Botswana

In Gaborone, there is a collection of ethnographic and historical treasures, as well as Sub-Saharan art, in the National Museum and Art Gallery. Kanye and Mochudi also maintain ethnographic museums, named Phuthadikobo Museum and Kgosi Bathoen Ii (Segopotso) Museum. There is also a postal museum in Gaborone. In 1986, the Supa-Ngwao Museum Centre in Francistown opened to host ethnographic and historical installations.

Encyclopedia of the Nations

Phuthadikobo Museum (Botswana)
Telephone: +267 577 72 38
Fax: +267 574 89 20
Supa-Ngwao Museum Centre (Botswana)
Telephone: +267 240 30 88
Kgosi Bathoen Ii Museum (Botswana)
Telephone: +267 544 11 35
Telephone: +267 544 25 52
The National Museum & Art Gallery (Botswana)
Telephone: +267 374 616
Fax: +267 302 797
E-mail: national.museum@gob.bw

evolution OF discipline

The architecture for performance and exhibition, being museums, galleries, music halls, pavilions, etc., has been in the leading edge of architectural innovation throughout the history and evolution of the discipline. Architects and designers experiment on new aesthetics, concepts, and ideas with projects that tend to have a flexible program and a large budget. In many cases, the main requirement of such structures is not only to accommodate a specific program but also to inspire the imagination of its users and challenge the current state of architectural design. Some examples, such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry or the Sydney Opera House by Jørn Utzon are considered design masterpieces of the 20th Century. Gehry’s Museum transformed the city of Bilbao from a small industrial Spanish city into a world destination, while Utzon’s Opera House become the symbol of Sydney and Australia.

This issue of eVolo studies the most innovative examples of performance and exhibition architecture today. These are projects that revolutionize architecture on many levels, including sustainability, aesthetics, technology, and urban design. It is interesting to point out that these works are not concentrated in one specific region, but are located in every corner of the globe; from MVRDV’s Comic and Animation Museum in China, to the new Broad Museum in Los Angeles by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, or Kengo Kuma’s Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee, Scotland.
The variety of programs is as diverse as their location. Steven Holl’s Museum of Ocean and Surf in Biarritz, France creates awareness of the oceans’ fragile state and emulates the kinetic sensibility of water through sweeping walls and carefully articulated volumes. Holm Architecture’s circular Samaranch Olympic Museum in Tianjin, China is a study on framing and juxtaposing artificial and natural landscapes to generate a continuous exhibition loop. X-TU Architects’ Prehistory Museum in Jeongok, South Korea was parametrically designed as a futuristic vessel erected as a bridge atop hills along the Hantan River preserving the untouched historic landscape. Among other projects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s Museum of Image and Sound in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is an interface between exhibition spaces and the city. Other smaller scale projects are WORD’s Holocaust Memorial for Atlantic City’s Boardwalk, which acts as an inscriptive apparatus, which etches the history of the Holocaust in our memory, and the America’s Cup Pavilion by Daniel Carper, which functions as an epicenter for various activities. The design is based on the tectonic and function qualities of high-end sailing vessels.

For this issue we had the opportunity to interview one of the most promising architects of Mexico: Fernando Romero, who recently completed the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City. The museum has been praised by the critics as one of the most outstanding works of architecture in the country this decade. Fernando also shares with us the his experience in practicing architecture in Mexico, the United States, Europe, and China – an interesting insight on the major differences, challenges, and advantages of working in different cultures and economies.

The Opinion section includes essays on morphogenetic computational design and zero-energy buildings. Emmanuel Ruffo from the Graz University of Technology explains structural patterns formation and the digital tools utilized to explore these geometries and their potential use in architecture. On the other hand, Dr. Eugene Tssui, from the University of Science and Technology in Guangzhou, China, proposes the first true zero-energy building based on studies of the Termite’s nest of central Africa. Dr. Tssui´s “Evolutionary Architecture” is an in-depth study of living organisms and their natural processes. Finally, Beatriz Ramo, from Tilburg’s Architecture Academy exposes the abuse by architects, designers, writers, politicians, etc., of the so-called “green” sustainable architecture, which in many cases is just an advertising gimmick and not true environmentally responsible designs.

In the News section Kurt C. Hunker from the New School of Architecture in San Diego examines the consequences and changes in high-rise architecture since 9/11. In this section we also present the winners of the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition. The contest recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations. Studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution are some of the multi-layered elements of the competition. It is an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of dynamic and adaptive vertical communities.

 

a Love, a Paper, a Ballerina

"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" (Danish: Den standhaftige tinsoldat) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a tin soldier's love for a paper ballerina. After several adventures, the tin soldier perishes in a fire with the ballerina. The tale was first published in Copenhagen by C.A. Reitzel on 2 October 1838 in the first booklet of Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. The booklet consists of Andersen's "The Daisy" and "The Wild Swans". The tale was Andersen’s first not based upon a folk tale or a literary model. "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" has been adapted to various media including ballet and animated film.

On his birthday, a boy receives a set of 25 toy soldiers and arrays them on a table top. One soldier stands on a single leg, having been the last one cast from an old tin spoon. Nearby, he spies a paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. She too is standing on one leg and the soldier falls in love. That night, a goblin among the toys angrily warns the soldier to take his eyes off the ballerina, but the soldier ignores him. The next day, the soldier falls from a windowsill (presumably the work of the goblin) and lands in the street. Two boys find the soldier, place him in a paper boat, and set him sailing in the gutter. The boat and its passenger wash into a storm drain, where a rat demands the soldier pay a toll. Sailing on, the boat is washed into a canal, where the tin soldier is swallowed by a fish. When the fish is caught and cut open, the tin soldier finds himself once again on the table top before the ballerina. Inexplicably, a boy throws the tin soldier into the fire. A wind blows the ballerina into the fire with him; she is consumed at once but her spangle remains. The tin soldier melts into the shape of a heart.

 

The Nukus Museum

The Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art named after I.V. Savitsky - also known, simply, as the Nukus Museum - hosts the world's second largest collection of Russian avant garde art (after the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg). It is also home to one of the largest collections of archeological objects and folk, applied and contemporary art originating from Central Asia.

Igor Savitsky (1915-84), a Russian born in Kiev and the Museum's founder, first went to Karakalpakstan in 1950 as the artist in the Khorezm Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition led by the world famous scientist, Sergei P. Tolstov. Fascinated by the culture and people of the steppe, he stayed on after the dig (1950-57), methodically collecting Karakalpak carpets, costumes, jewelry, and other works of art. At the same time, he began collecting the drawings and paintings of artists linked to Central Asia, including those of the Uzbek school, and, during the late-1950s/early-1960s, those of the Russian avant garde which the Soviet authorities were then banishing and destroying. Today, the Museum houses a collection totaling about 90,000 items, including graphics, paintings and sculptures, as well as thousands of artifacts, textiles and jewelry, ranging from the antiquities of Khorezm’s ancient civilization to the works of contemporary Uzbek and Karakalpak artists.

Perhaps the most remarkable, indeed unique features of the Savitsky Collection are the paradoxes surrounding its existence. For example, Karakalpakstan - the remote northwestern region of Uzbekistan where the Museum was founded - was, and remains one of the poorest of the entire former Soviet Union. On the other hand, despite its poor economic prospects, Karakalpakstan’s culture has been preserved and provided the intellectual raison d'être and nourishment for the Museum’s creation in 1966.

Second, the Museum may be one of the few places in the world where Russian avant garde art hangs alongside that of Socialist Realism - the former slandered by the Soviet State, the latter glorified by it.

Third, the Museum’s collection of Russian avant garde is the only one that was initially condemned officially by the Soviet Union and, at the same time, financed partly by it, albeit unwittingly. Evidently, Nukus’ status as a ‘closed’ city and, especially, Savitsky’s good relations with the Karakalpak regional authorities enabled this to happen.

Finally, Savitsky, the European, trained the Karakalpaks, his Asian counterparts, in the value of their own culture and the importance of preserving it. His approach and sensitivity instilled trust not only in the older generations of Karakalpaks who sold him their textiles and jewelry, but also in the local government which played a large role in the Museum’s foundation and continued existence. It was this mutual affection and trust that has ensured the renaissance of both a forgotten nation and a neglected generation of artists and their work.

This pearl in the desert - or, as the French magazine Télérama recently called it, 'Le Louvre des steppes' - is located in Nukus, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan in northwest Uzbekistan at the southern base of the now dying Aral Sea, which until the mid-1960s was world's fourth largest inland lake.  Although the ancient Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva may be better known, the Nukus Museum is in fact the fourth splendor of Uzbekistan. Indeed, the Savitsky Collection has been called "one of the most outstanding museums of the world" by the UK's Guardian newspaper.

Alaska, is portrayed...

The Call of the Wild is a novella by American author Jack London published in 1903. The story takes place in the extreme conditions of the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush where strong sled dogs were in high demand. After Buck, a domesticated dog, is snatched from a pastoral ranch in California, he is sold into a brutal life as a sled dog. The novella details Buck's struggle to adjust and survive the cruel treatment he receives from humans, other dogs, and nature. He eventually sheds the veneer of civilization altogether and instead relies on primordial instincts and the lessons he has learned to become a respected and feared leader in the wild.

The Call of the Wild is London's most popular work and is considered the masterpiece of his so-called "early period."The novella is often classified as children's literature because of its animal protagonist, but the maturity of its subject matter makes it valuable for older audiences as well. Major themes include survival of the fittest, civilization versus nature, and fate versus free will.

The Yeehat, a group of Alaska Natives portrayed in Call of the Wild, were a figment of London's imagination.