Exhibition Conception
The “Imperial Gardens of Russia”
V International Festival
Presentation
The jubilee of Russian statehood is coming… What connotations does this word bring to mind? State symbols, history of the state including that of the development of park and gardening art. In March 2011 President of the Russian Federation signed Decree No. 267 “On Celebrating the 1150th Anniversary of the Origin of Russian Statehood”.
The State Russian Museum, being the owner of the gardens whose heydays vary from the 18th century for the Summer Garden to the 19th century for the Mikhailovsky Garden and the 20th century for the garden of St Michael’s (Engineers) Castle (including Maple Alley and the Engineers Garden), suggests that the participants of the landscape design exhibition choose themes connected with the historical symbols of each of the above mentioned epochs.
The name of the landscape design exhibition – “What Is the Beginning of Motherland…” – may be expounded through tracing the evolution of landscape art in the Imperial residences and its influence on the development of noble estates in the 18th–19th centuries as well as the traditions of amenity planting in the 19th century and recreation of noble estates in the 21st century.
The Mikhailovsky Garden demonstrates compositions devoted to Imperial residences, noble estates, gardens of the Silver Age, etc. Floral coats of arms of the owners of Russian countryside estates in Arkhangelskoye, Kuskovo, Pushkin Mountains, Mon Repos, Maryino ... Rotundas, pavilions, walking paths, wide-branching flowering shrubs, conservatories, kitchen gardens, orchards with the “promenading” owners and their dignitary guests (recreation of the spirit of that epoch). We welcome the participation of French private castles, Italian villas, English, German and Dutch estates as well as contribution from all the countries interested in taking part in the exhibition.
The Engineers Garden and Maple Alley are intended for arranging the compositions created by the Parks and Gardens Administration of St Petersburg. The compositions demonstrate different stages in the development of Soviet amenity planting. In 2010 the municipal Parks and Gardens Administration published St Petersburg Gardens: History and Contemporaneity tracing the three-hundred-year history of amenity planting in St Petersburg from the days of
Peter I. The genealogy tree of the Parks and Gardens Administration of St Petersburg of 1710--2010 described in the publication may serve as a guideline for arranging the compositions. The periods can be divided into: the pre-war, post-war, Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The history of the Parks and Gardens Administration of St Petersburg is the history of landscape industry in the 20th century.
The Area of St Michael’s (Engineers) Castle is supposed to demonstrate the newest developments and compositions of international landscape design and students’ projects. Thus, this exhibition space symbolizes the 21st century. It may possibly cover the theme of the revival of Russian estate in the 21st century which has become a topical issue due to the transfer of some objects of national cultural heritage to private ownership. Therefore it would be advisable to involve the committee for City Planning and Architecture of St Petersburg in the project.
St Michael’s Castle Courtyard turns into a meeting place of the festival guests and participants of the International conference on landscape architecture traditionally held during the festival. In this respect floral coats of arms of prominent noble families and their descriptions are to decorate the courtyard along its perimeter. This idea is motivated by the fact that Emperor Paul I compiled General Armorial of Noble Families in the Russian Empire in order to introduce juristic regulation and approval of ancestral coats of arms of noble families and to enhance the class spirit of the Russian nobility. Paul I thought that compilation of the Armorial would play a certain role in familiarization of the Russian nobility with the ethics of Chivalry and its attributes. The Armorial comprised 20 parts each consisting of 150--180 coats of arms with descriptions of their design and historical data on the family or a person endowed with the coat of arms. First parts of the Armory were printed in St Petersburg in 1803–1809. For the courtyard display it is advisable to select coats of arms of noble families related to the history of the Russian Museum.
After completion of the Festival the best compositions that can remain in good condition throughout the summer may be removed to the territory of St Michael’s (Engineers) Castle to prolong their display.
“What Is the Beginning of Motherland…”
Themes for the participants of the exhibition
Mikhailovsky Garden. 12th--19th Centuries
Gardens of Old Russia
1. Pagan Shrine
2. Church Vineyard
3. Monastery Garden (Millet garden -- Kolomenskoye)
4. Old Kizhi (Wooden architecture)
5. City of Kitezh (Reflection)
6. Baba-Yaga’s Kitchen Garden (Russian fairy tales)
Imperial Residences
7. Strelna -- Road Palace of Peter I (Kitchen garden of Peter I)
8. Splendid Peterhof
9. Tsarskoye Selo
10. Pavlovsk (Round dance of white birch trees)
11. Gatchina
Old Estates Scattered all over Mysterious Russia…
12. Arkhangelskoye
13. Tsaritsyno
14. Pushkin Mountains
15. Mon Repos (Hermit’s shelter)
16. Maryino – the Stroganov-Golitsyn Estate
17. Family Estate of Baron von Stieglitz
Gardens of the Silver Age
18. Repin’s Penates
19. Benois Country House
20. Land of Mine in Dire Neglect… (Esenin’s Russia)
21. Cherry Orchard
“Six Hundred Square Meters”
24. Old Front Garden
25. Granny’s Kitchen Garden…
“The ships of every flag and nation will hail our shores…”
26. Italian Gardens (Villa Demidoff in Italy)
27. French Gardens (Jardins du Prieuré d’Orsan, jardins du château de Valmer)
28. German Gardens (Herrenhausen Gardens, Lappen Nurseries)
29. Dutch Gardens (Het Loo, Van den Berg)
30. English Gardens (English romanticism, Hampton Court)
Maple Alley. 20th Century
History of the Soviet period of the Parks and Gardens Administration of St Petersburg
Garden of St Michael’s (Engineers) Castle. 21st Century
Wind of Change
Compositions of Young Designers
St Michael’s Castle Courtyard
General Armorial of the Russian Empire of Paul I
www.igardens.ru
e-mail igardens@mail.ru
Cherdantseva Olga
Director of the Festival
+7 950 034 80 52
