Introduction of a Case Study | "Tselinny": a happy ending? Dinara Satbayeva

Today I want to tell you about a beautiful modernist construction in Almaty that hopefully will become one of my case studies. It is now a happy ending kind of story, as famous cultural nucleus Tselinny Cinema in Almaty is taking its original shapes and gets a new, but equally important role in the cultural life of the city.

Image 1: The Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture

The story of the building can be viewed as a story of cinderella's magical makeover. Just like Cinderella, Tselinny cinema was for a long time like a forgotten, mistreated and dusty diamond of soviet architecture and culture, until “a prince”, or rather a new private owner of the building invited a fairy – Asif Khan – famous British architect to make it shine bright again...

Stepping a little back, I think it is also relevant to mention my progress with defining my thesis boundaries and justifications that I have for establishing these boundaries. For the purpose of feasibility and deep analysis of cases, I am thinking about limiting my cases to the buildings that are cultural public institutions (in use and in initial planning). I think that to explore participatory management in architecture, following with investigation of dynamics of communities creation around the issue of preservation and communities participation in urban development, it is justified to look at cases of close interaction between the public and the buildings themselves. As many examples of Soviet Modernism in Kazakhstan are residential, industrial and governmental buildings, these are problematic to explore, because of the diverse usage and limited public access to those buildings. However, I aspire to create a common platform to include modernist heritage in its wholeness by exploring certain cases more precisely.

Tselinny's tale

So once upon a time in 1964, Tselinny Cinema was constructed on the Masanchi street 59, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It was a collaborative work of architects S. Rosenblum (author of a model project), V. Katsev, B. Tyutin (geo-tagging), engineer V. Semenov and artist E. Sidorkin. It was the republic's first widescreen cinema. It was also the most popular cinema in the city, with halls for one and a half thousand seats, which was never enough to accommodate everyone willing to attend a cinema session. In 1982 almost two million viewers were estimated to be able to attend the cinema.

Image 2: The Tselinny Cinema, 1960s

While it was a typical humble project in its form, with many siblings in other soviet cities, its open glass front facade of made it particularly and revolutionary inviting for a growing cinema-loving audience of Almaty. The facade illustrates the full glazing stylistic as we see it in contemporary architecture. The cinema was the first conceptually public space of the city and it was harmonically embedded into a booming urban landscape of Almaty. Along with the ideals of Le Corbusier against the excessive decorations of facades, many secrets of the Tselinny's beauty were hidden inside. Behind the glass facade one could see sgraffito murals of running horses by Yevgeny Sidorkin flaunting. Sidorkin made the interior reflect many national and folk tales motifs. This was a common technique of the time, where every republic's typical constructions are unique with respect to small details alluding to traditional cultures.

What is more exciting, is that if we look at the interpretation of kazakh culture as 'nomadic', modernist architecture 'function in form', harmony of space and forms, use of fundamental materials, its truthfulness and futurism are so easily put together, so it seems to be easily relatable to the contemporary historical narrative, but also to the considerations of the future, which are still modernist in many ideas of architecture.

Image 3: Yevgeny Sodorkin's sgraffito in the foyer of  «Tselinny» cinema. 2018. Photo by Yuriy Palmin

Image 4: «Tselinny» cinema in early 2000s

From a proud and welcoming center for cinema culture in Almaty, with ears, the building lost its fit. The cinema was closed and sold in the beginning of 2000s. It was harshly neglected, overrun by modern cheap looking materials, its proud handwritten name turned into something which looks more like an abrupt, cheap bright red letters of no specific aesthetic belonging.

In 2018, the long-awaited project of Center for Contemporary Culture "Tselinny", lead by Jamilya Nurkaliyeva and architect Asif Khan, gave this building another chance. In the summer, during the interior works sgraffito that were believed to be lost due to bad maintenance were rediscovered. Miraculously, Sidorkin's sgraffito in the foyer was thoughtlessly covered with drywall. One could guess that substructures hammered directly into the drawing damaged the artwork significantly. Nevertheless, this discovery was now in the good hands and will be brought back to life.

Image 5: The Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture Interior

Image 6: Yevgeny Sodorkin's sgraffito in the foyer of  «Tselinny» cinema, 2018. Photo by Marat Sadykov

In an interview on the website of the center architect Asif Khan shared some of his plans on the reconstruction of the building. He sees it to be interactive in its form, where the new center will pertain its historical and architectural value, but will be ready to embrace the demands of the future, so that anyone could come there to work, learn, recreate and network. Moreover, the whole area has a potential of developing into a park zone, which will make the performance space of the center even bigger.

While the center is already closed and will undergo a final stage of reconstruction and restoration by 2020, it is already notable in the attitude of the management and the architect that this is a story with a happy ending. The center is now owned privately, which is the first private cultural center in Kazakhstan. The team held several events, many of which were talking about the importance of architectural and urban heritage, about further projects and developments. Earlier this summer they launched a book together with Moscow's GARAGE gallery on Soviet Modernism in Kazakhstan. 

Its founder Kairat Boranbayev expressed his idea of the building's future and it also makes me hopeful:

“Tselinny will not only be another attraction for citizens, but it will give

 a powerful impetus to the development of modern culture and art throughout Central Asia, and in the future will enter the list of leading world arts institutions”

Image 7: The Tselinny Cinema, 1960s

Sources:

https://www.tselinny.org/en/about

https://www.tselinny.org/en/article/18

https://astanatimes.com/2018/09/tselinny-from-old-soviet-cinema-to-modern-contemporary-arts-centre/
http://artguide.com/posts/1563

https://rus.azattyq.org/a/29491202.html

https://garagemca.org/en/news/2018-08-15-kazakhstan-to-open-its-first-center-for-contemporary-culture-with-the-support-of-garage