Fabien Bellat: Post-constructivist Versailles in the USSR

This lecture is part of Associate Professor Georges Farhat's seminar LAN2036.

POST-CONSTRUCTIVIST VERSAILLES IN THE USSR

Over the twentieth century, the art of French landscape architect Le Nôtre found some heirs in cultures and regimes that were the least expected to be referring to the Sun King's legacy. Indeed, while in eighteenth-century Russia the czars' parks understandably emulated the widely admired French model, the USSR showed an astounding ability to reinvent the historic garden style. From the 1920s to the 1970s, from constructivism to academism and beyond, urban settings followed the formal garden pattern. This was part of a process towards achieving monumentality for Soviet cities in order to meet the propaganda requirements of a growing will for power. In fact, this creative choice was an architectural application of the Marxist theory according to which Communism would be the end of History. Therefore, landscape architecture had to provide the USSR with Soviet equivalents of the most famed French gardens — the parks of Moscow, Leningrad, or Stalingrad consciously echoing the classic spirit of Versailles.

ABOUT FABIEN BALLAT

Fabien Bellat is a Doctor in Art history from Paris X University. In collaboration with colleagues at the Moscow Institute of Architecture, his research and publications focus on the study of Soviet architecture. He taught at the Nantes University from 2005 to 2008 and now teaches at the Université du Québec en Outaouais. He has lectured at the Sorbonne University, Moscow State University, Liverpool Hope University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Quebec University in Montreal, and at the Cuban National Museum of Fine Arts. He has recently been named associate researcher at the Versailles School of Architecture and has joined the team for the upcoming Le Nôtre exhibition to be held in 2013 at the chateau of Versailles (curated by G. Farhat and P. Bouchenot-Déchin).