Museum is Mourning. Alexandr Sokurov’s Architectural Elegies
Abstract
The article has been inspired by Rem Koolhaas’s lecture concerning the exhibition space of the Hermitage Museum. The text focuses on the hybrid works of the Russian film director Alexandr Sokurov. In search of the subjective authorial voice, Korczarowska attempts to adapt the theory of the essay film (Laura Rascaroli) to the needs of the analysis. The article provides a detailed interpretation of Russian Ark and Francofonia, exploring in particular the relationship between film essays and architecture. Recognizing Sokurov’s films as architectural essay films (Penelope Haralambidou), Korczarowska concentrates on cinematic representations of the “museum experience” and its relation to the problem of remembrance and historical trauma. In the author’s opinion, Sokurov’s “museum films” can serve as a paradigmatic example of Haralambidou’s thesis that architectural essay films explicitly link the preservation of human memory to architecture.
Keywords:
Alexandr Sokurov, Russian cinema, museum, Hermitage Museum, Louvre Museum, architectureReferences
Adorno, T. (2005). Muzeum Valéry Proust (tłum. A. Noras). W: M. Popczyk (red.), Muzeum sztuki. Antologia (ss. 91-104). Kraków: Universitas.
Google Scholar
Assmann, A. (2013). Pamięć miejsc – autentyzm i upamiętnianie (tłum. J. Górny). W: M. Saryusz-Wolska (red.), Między historią a pamięcią. Antologia (ss. 168-185). Warszawa: WUW.
Google Scholar
Crawley, G. (2012). Staging Exhibitions: Atmospheres of Imagination. W: S. MacLeod (red.), Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions (ss. 12-20). Oxon: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Custine, A. (1989). Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia. New York: Doubleday.
Google Scholar
Duncan, C. (2005). Muzeum sztuki jako rytuał (tłum. D. Minorowicz). W: M. Popczyk (red.), Muzeum sztuki. Antologia (ss. 279-298). Kraków: Universitas.
Google Scholar
Duncan, T., McCauley, N. (2012). A Narrative Journey: Creating Storytelling Environments with Architecture and Digital Media. W: S. MacLeod (red.), Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions (ss. 288-296). Oxon: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Dziadek, A. (2005). Muzeum nowoczesności André Malraux. W: M. Popczyk (red.), Muzeum sztuki. Antologia (ss. 211-219). Kraków: Universitas.
Google Scholar
Giebelhausen, M. (2012). In the Museum’s Ruins: Staging the Passage of Time. W: S. MacLeod (red.), Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions (ss. 234-246). Oxon: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Haralambidou, P. (2015). The Architectural Essay Film. Architectural Research Quarterly, 19 (3), ss. 234-248.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135515000524
Google Scholar
Huyssen, A. (1995). Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Koolhaas, R. (2017). Wykład poświęcony pamięci Paula S. Byarda (tłum. M. Wawrzyńczak). W: A. Leśniak (red.), Śmieciowa przestrzeń. Teksty (ss. 147-170). Warszawa: Centrum Architektury.
Google Scholar
MacLeod, S., Hanks, L., Hale, J. (2012). The Place of Narrative. W: S. MacLeod (red.), Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions (ss. XIX-XXIII). Oxon: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Maleuvre, D. (1999). Museum Memories: History, Technology, Art. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Google Scholar
Malraux, A. (2005). Muzeum wyobraźni (fragmenty) (tłum. A. Dziadek). W: M. Popczyk (red.), Muzeum sztuki. Antologia (ss. 185-210). Kraków: Universitas.
Google Scholar
McClellan, A. (1999). Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origins of the Modern Museum in Eighteenth-Century Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Google Scholar
Morris, R. (2012). Imaginary Museums: What Mainstream Museums Can Learn from Them? W: S. MacLeod (red.), Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions (ss. 5-11). Oxon: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Popczyk, M. (2005). Dialektyka początku i końca. W: M. Popczyk (red.), Muzeum sztuki. Antologia (ss. 267-277). Kraków: Universitas.
Google Scholar
Rascaroli, L. (2009). The Personal Camera: Subjective Cinema and the Essay Film. New York: Wallflower Press.
Google Scholar
Rombes, N. (2009). Cinema in the Digital Age. London: Wallflower.
Google Scholar
Storrie, C. (2006). The Delirious Museum: A Journey from the Louvre to Las Vegas. London: I. B. Tauris.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755604074
Google Scholar
Szaniawski, J. (2014). The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov: Figures of Paradox. New York: Wallflower Press.
Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. M. (2013). Architektura jako narracja znaczeniowa. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Warszawskiej.
Google Scholar
Authors
Natasza Korczarowskarozio@wp.pl
University of Lodz Poland
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3130-128X
Professor at the Department of Film and Audiovisual Media, Institute of Contemporary Culture, University of Lodz. She specializes in the history of Polish film, contemporary European cinema and the problems of historiophoty. She published the books: Ojczyzny prywatne [Private Homelands] (2007) and Inne spojrzenie [Another Way] (2013) – the latter devoted to the images of history in the Polish feature film after 1965. Since 2008 she has been cooperating with the Polish Film Institute and the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute on the educational project Academy of Polish Film.
Statistics
Abstract views: 294PDF downloads: 232
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Natasza Korczarowska
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
