GENERAL PLAN, 2009
Video, 52 min.
«ГЕНПЛАН», 2009, Видео 52 мин.

An artistic documentation of how Socialist ideas were implemented in urban and industrial architecture, and how the new face of Minsk, the capital of Belarus, was built after the Second World War.

In 1944, two of the Soviet Union’s most decorated architects, drafted the general plans for Minsk’s reconstruction. The plan involved the building of large industrial complexes and structures and a putting a new face on the Socialist city with the limited means available to sectional construction. Because the materials could be produced in a factory, the prefabricated building style was celebrated at the time for its modernity.

Marina Naprushkina met the elderly architects and accompanied them on a journey, both an internal journey and with a with a walk through the city, to reflect on the ideas guiding the project, how these were manifested in the form of structures and how the failure of Socialism’s social model becomes visible in urban architecture. An extremely interesting time in the conflict of both systems, the film piques in the powerful scene in which Ivan Bovt removes his jacket, with all of its medals, saying that a new time has come. As symbolic as the scene is, it also shows the only way in which these once highly influential and formative individuals deal with the fact that their entire lives and work were dedicated to a now-vanished idea. This circumstance however, may not be so unique after all, as the radical change naturally destroyed the foundation of many people’s lives. Here, reminders of the bygone period are remain evident in the European capital’s face. 

This video constitutes a unique historical document. Only in totalitarian regimes did the task of urban planning lie in hands of so few individuals who shaped an entire capitol city with their ideas and structures.  Reflecting on this once more in front of the camera, the work’s dramatic arch develops as the two elderly gentlemen defend their ideals-turned-concrete against the new system, tolerating its contradictions.

Patriot, 2007 Video, 18 Min.

Watch the video...

The video documents an intervention in public life: Marina Naprushkina buys a portrait of President Alexander Lukashenko in a bookshop in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Following that Naprushkina crosses Minsk with the president’s portrait and
strolls through the biggest streets and over the most important squares of the city; the walk lasts from morning into evening. Back at home the portrait is attached to the wall. The national anthem is played, Marina Naprushkina is standing at attention.