City DNA

Installation within the framework of the special project MATERIAL/IMMATERIAL of INTERNI magazine within the framework of Milan Design Week

University of Milan
3-15. 04. 2017
Authors: Sergei Tchoban, Sergey Kuznetsov, Agniya Sterligova
The art object, created by Russian architects is located in the small courtyard of the Cortile dei 700 of the University of Milan. The installation consists of mirrors and media screens: they divide the space of the courtyard into 4 sectors, each unfolds its own local transformation of the material into the immaterial. Its main theme was the image of a modern metropolis: video collages from maps and images of four cities - Shanghai, New York, Moscow and Milan - are broadcast on media screens. The scale of images is constantly changing: micropatterns of individual windows and fragments of roofs alternate with grandiose panoramas and schemes, and sharp shots are replaced by blurry ones. In a fraction of a second, a detailed fragment of this or that city turns into a blurry picture - it would seem abstract, but nevertheless still bearing its individual features. In this transition from sharpness to defocusing, on the shaky border of materiality and non-materiality, architects explore the very DNA molecule in which the uniqueness of each city is encrypted. At the same time, the authors made up one of the sectors only from mirrors, due to which, from the side of the main entrance to the courtyard, the installation is perceived as a giant mirage, sometimes manifesting itself in space, sometimes completely merging with the chamber Renaissance courtyard.