Description and Conception of "The Palace"
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
Page 4 of 4
In the installation we shall show a large spectrum of such "projects" in which, we hope, the viewer will find his own. The installation will consist of more than 60 projects of this theme, furthermore, slides and texts explaining these objects will be included. Each hall, each object is not only a special project in and of itself, but is also a specific example of that place which this "project" occupies in the overall system of "project" reality the way it appears to us.
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Description of the Installation
The installation "The Palace of Projects" consists of two parts. The first part is a pavilion which could be called the "Palace of Projects," a two-storey structure resembling in layout to a "snail" and 65 objects with texts arranged inside of it. Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, it must be said that the main thing in the resolution of this pavilion is served by the arrangement of the lighting - the principle of "glowing walls." The entire pavilion is constructed of wooden structures, and the walls and ceiling in it consist of white plastic stretched across them. The plastic is stretched on the "frames" of the structures only inside of the dwelling, the external parts of the structures remain visible. Light enters into the structure from projectors and bulbs hanging on the outside of the pavilion it passes through the plastic walls and ceiling rather freely. It is understood from the overall concept that the pavilion is built inside of an enormous exhibition hall, representing a so-called "building within a building," and the bright lights from the ceiling and the cross-beams of the hall bathe the entire pavilion with unique spots of light. Each room inside the "snail" has such a special, strange, magical effect.
But this same light fulfills many "artistic" functions: it specifically illuminates particular objects, it projects on the walls photos and slides, it shows films on them. The viewer moves inside the "snail," beginning from the entrance into it, along a spiral route, and having passed through the entire first floor, reaches a stairway to the second. Here, after passing through the halls one after another, he also reaches the last but also spiral staircase and descends, whereupon he finds himself again in the entrance hall and then exits.
The objects located along his route, approximately three in each "hall," are of the most diverse forms - display cases, tables, screens, drawings on the walls, objects on the floor… All of these are projects in one form or another, each one has its own explanation. In a familiar sense, this is a unique kind of museum, and at the same time everything has a strange academic, didactic quality: each of the 16 halls has its own special theme, a few halls are united according to a particular principle, the entire "spiral" installation moving "only forward" has a specific law of development, even a kind of goal, which can be determined definitively only in the last hall upstairs... Given this whole "scholarly" approach, the image of the whole and the mood of everything inside and outside are cheery and joyful, slightly like that of a fair, and this all thanks to the glowing patches of light both outside and inside of the "snail."