The exhibition “Visible World and Invisible World” will be opened in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes on August 23. It will give a chance to take a fresh look at the churches of the Russian North and to see what is invisible.
The Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes with the assistance of the Higher School of Environmental Design in the Moscow Architectural Institute of the State Academy, the Creative Union of Russian Artists is presenting the exhibition project “Visible World and Invisible World”. It is based on painting, drawing and architectural analytics of the Moscow’s artists Alexander Messerer, Anna Kozlova-Messerer and Marina Vengerova.
The project “Visible World and Invisible World” is aimed at complex revelation of the entire image of the phenomenon of Old Russian church architecture. It includes works visualizing both outer, emotional and artistic perception (pictures of the artists Alexander Messerer and Anna Kozlova-Messerer) and inner world of the church proportions that we cannot see and that appears in the shape of geometric rules. These rules expose the sense of the church building traditions and are illustrated with analytical drafts of the architect Marina Vengerova.
The display presents the analysis of proportions of three stone churches constructed in the Russian North in the 15th – 16th centuries. It was made using the drafts of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve and the Restoration Section in the Construction Department of Vologda State University. The images of the most ancient monuments were reflected in the emotional and delicate works of the couple of talented artists painting only from nature.
Marina Vengerova, architect: “You see a picture – it is “visible world”, and your feelings and perception mean “invisible world”. They exist inseparably as materialization of the same happiness. You smile – it is combination of visual and inner emotions, material demonstration of invisible.
The places of special presence of God make material layer for it as the church is the universe: combination of the worldly and the divine. The concept of infinity lies in two main symbols of Christianity – a square and a circle. The square is the earth with life periods. The circle is infinite time like the circle of the year and the clock-face.
“Thy will be done in heaven and on earth…” – this is the code. The square and the circle equal in area showed in the churches. All church dimensions and their main significant dimensions and places are based on these figures: an iconostasis, breadth of the church coming from the dome square, plus doubled circle equal in area and it is the breadth of the church core.
Standing in the middle of a field, look up to the sky – it is the circle and all altitudes in the church are made using these circles: arches, vaults…
The church is visible embodiment of the world model: the square on earth and the circle in the sky”.
The exhibition is open from August 23 to September 30.
About the artists
Alexander Borisovich Messerer
He was born in Moscow in 1960 and descended from a renowned family of artists. Upon leaving school, he entered the Art Department in the Moscow Art Theatre School, but didn’t graduate from it and continued his education in the Moscow Polygraphic Institute in the workshop of M.P. Miturich. Creative activity of the famous graphic artist D. Lion who gave him lessons made a great impact on Alexander Messerer. Upon graduation, he worked in the Rainbow Publishing House.
He takes up painting and drawing. He created illustrations for the books of verse of V. Kryukov: “Salt and Lightning”, “Apple-Tree Maria”, “Upwards”, “First Snow”, “Bread”. Together with Anna Kozlova-Messerer, he is the author of such projects as: “Paper Surface of the Earth” (1995, Peredelkino, the dacha of Bella Akhmadulina), “Stories Outside of the Garden” (1996, Moscow, the EXPO Gallery-88), “Land of Silence” (2002, Moscow, the Solyanka State Gallery), “Visible World and Invisible World in Pictures of Anna Kozlova-Messerer, Alexander Messerer, and Architectural Research of Marina Vengerova” (2012, Moscow, the Cultural Centre “Pokrovsky Gate”), and others. He participated in the exhibitions of the artists of “The Circle of Ferapontovo”. He is a member of the Union of Russian Artists.
Anna Valerievna Kozlova-Messerer
She was born in Moscow into the family of engineers in 1969. When she was a pre-school-age child, she attended the studio of the Moscow State University. Her first one-man exhibition was staged there when she was 5 years old. Then she studied in the art studio in the Pioneers’ House on the Sparrow Hills and at the Krasnopresnenskaya Children’s Art School. In 1992, she graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute with a degree in urban development. She teaches and carries out creative work, taking an active part in different exhibitions. In 2013, Anna Kozlova-Messerer created a series of pictures for the book of Manana Manabde that was published in Georgia. She has five children.
Anna Kozlova-Messerer is a member of the section “Architectural Design” in the Creative Union of the Russian Artists, the IFA (the section of painting). She was awarded the Silver medal of the Creative Union of the Russian Artists for her contribution to the Russian fine arts.
Marina Eduardovna Vengerova
She was born in 1969 and graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute with a degree in theory and history of architecture. The topic of her diploma work was “Visible World and Invisible World in Creative Work. Pavel Florensky, Vasily Kandinsky, Yevgeny Trubetskoy”. From 1989 to 2006, she was a teacher and a head of the Sculpture Studio in the Centre of Creative Activity for Children and Youth “Sokol”. Marina Vengerova became the laureate of the Second Moscow City Contest of Author’s Programs of Children’s Additional Education. Since 1987, she has been participating and organizing the expeditions studying Russian and foreign architecture (cities of Russia, the Baltic States, Finland, Yugoslavia, Italy, Germany, France and other countries). She is a co-author of the mobile scientific and educational project “Byzantine Empire and Russia. Invisible in Visible” elaborated within the framework of the research program “Reconstruction of Traditional Proportioning Methods in Modern Church Architecture”. This project was approved by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and got a blessing of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (2011). The exhibition “Visible World and Invisible World in Pictures of Anna Kozlova-Messerer, Alexander Messerer, and Architectural Research of Marina Vengerova” was staged in the Cultural Centre “Pokrovsky Gate” in 2012.
She is a lecturer in the Higher School of Environmental Design of the Moscow Architectural Institute in the State Academy, a chairperson of the section “Architectural Design” in the Creative Union of the Russian Artists, an author of the research work “Geometric Proportioning of Old Russian Churches of the 10th – 16th Centuries”.
