<translation>Exhibition – Věra and Vladimír Machonin 60s / 70s</translation>

Machonins: Architecture Despite

“It seems necessary for us to say that life was better for people, that there was nothing good about Husak's socialism at all – and that the good that emerged then was despite the regime.”

French architect Henri Labrouste wrote that buildings should express not the ideal of beauty but the social needs of the people. Unfortunately, the peak creations of Věra and Vladimír Machonin fall into the times when “…the word people can practically be used as a kind of cipher for the party, whenever the use of the true name seems unsustainable or disadvantageous,” as aptly stated by Petr Fidelius in his study Language and Power. Can Czechoslovak architecture of the 60s and especially the 70s be hastily labeled with the adjectives communist or normalization? Normalization was indeed a period of total decline, during which the regime persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and even murdered its opponents at the borders. That colorful, kindly appearance, which some creators today, most often filmmakers and series creators, try to attribute to this era under some protective label of "retro," is false.
Nevertheless, it is not fair to associate the work of the Machonins with normalization. Their buildings certainly emerged despite the prevailing notion of what is “beautiful.” But at the same time – and this must be emphasized – also in defiance of the dreams of the party secretariats about the unification of living space “between Rostock and Vladivostok.” To what extent is the negative perception of buildings from the normalization decades a reflection of purely aesthetic criteria, and to what extent is it influenced by the purpose for which the object was created, and also by which institution resided in it? In the catalog of the works of the Machonins, there are no politically charged buildings, if we do not count the embassy in the "friendly" GDR, so critiques towards them are not as sharp as towards some of their colleagues.
However, there are those who criticize the Kotva with the slogan “Glory to the CPC” on the attic as a building that created the illusion of prosperity during socialism. However, the Machonins did not design it as a symbol of dubious surplus masking the true state of society, but simply as an original, unique building. Moreover, Kotva generated unusual social themes, looking more towards the west of our borders: from the famous slogan “Kotva is here for you” to the less known fact that the Kotva logo was probably the very first advertisement on a sports jersey in our country – even before the revolution, it was worn on the chests of Sparta footballers, something unprecedented until then.
Similarly, the Karlovy Vary Thermal can easily be condemned. But it is precisely on it that one can demonstrate that the work of the Machonins was anchored in the European architectural context. The creators traveled to all similar festival cinemas abroad to create a building without which the most significant Czech cultural event of the year, the film festival, could not do without to this day. By the way, the residents of Vary like to criticize Thermal, but they also enjoy swimming in the hotel pool, uniquely embedded in the rock above the city.
The work of the Machonins is also authentic, despite European inspirational influences. What other than anthropologically intrinsic authenticity is hidden in their family villa, tucked away in the serpentine of one of the Smíchov hills? Exemplary brutalism, where brick architecture is combined with Atmosfix cladding, is expected more in an administrative building or department store. Here, however, it is used in the most private building an architect can create, their own home. “This is our expression, we believe in it, that’s why we want to live in it,” the creators seem to say, regardless of the generally shared opinion on what a family residence should look like.
When it comes to family, it is impossible not to address this topic with the Machonins. Already because there are not many prominent creative couples in the history of our architecture. But also because in hardly any municipality of the significance of Prague will we find the realizations of two female architects – mother and daughter – standing closely together. Věra Machoninová and Pavla Kordovská defined the space of Budějovické náměstí over the span of almost two decades. Machoninová is the author of the urban plan for the square, the metro station, and The House of Residential Culture and also designed two administrative buildings here. In their place, the daughter built banking buildings in a creative tandem with her husband Petr Kordovský, with her own handwriting that certainly does not copy her parents but respects the original mass solution as much as possible.
The male line of the family also shows a remarkable genetic disposition to exceptionalism. Three brothers – Vladimír, Pavel, and Sergej Machonin – each achieved extraordinary results in their fields. Pavel was a leading figure of the generation of Czech sociologists in the 60s, Sergej was one of the most respected post-war theater scholars and cultural publicists. They were also united by another fact. While all of them actively participated in building the communist system after February 1948, after August 1968, this system excluded them from public life. Pavel Machonin was labeled as a “right-wing element” in Lessons from the Crisis Development, while Sergej Machonin’s journey in the 70s even led him to Charter 77.
Vladimír, like Věra, did not sign consent to the Soviet occupation, and thus both could only create limitedly in the following years. The fact that their most prominent realizations were completed in the 70s does not indicate conformity to Husak's leadership, but rather the then-common duration of construction work. Hence, it is unfair to label them as communist architects. They unfortunately had a strong and bold handwriting. That’s why they logically resonate more in public discussions than the works of someone far less pronounced, even if politically much more adaptable.
The double coding of modern architecture according to Charles Jencks, which stipulates that a work should allow for elite and popular interpretation, could not function in the so-called socialist country. The broad population must have always (and logically from the perspective of that time) seen the regime's attempts to build its spectacular monuments through prominent buildings. The Machonins are proof that this was far from always the case. And using this dichotomy – which elite will we consider decisive in decoding their architecture? The communist apparatchiks who did not invite the Machonin couple to the opening of Kotva? Or the true, artistic elite? Their handwriting was often understood by the latter. The projects of villas that Věra Machoninová created for icons of Czech directing - both film (Věra Chytilová) and theater (Otomar Krejča) can serve as proof, even though only Krejča's house was ultimately realized.
Today, with the passage of several decades, there is a chance to overcome the politicized perception of architecture of that time. It can be stated that the architecture of Věra and Vladimír Machonin is sui generis architecture, architecture despite. The only thing that is not despite is their own stubborn belief in the correctness of the path they embarked upon and from which they never deviated. For that alone, they deserve admiration.


Gallery of Jaroslav Fragner
December 22, 2010 – January 30, 2011

The exhibition is held under the auspices of the Minister of Culture Jiří Besser.
Organizer | Gallery of Jaroslav Fragner
Co-organizers | Municipality of Prague 1, National Gallery in Prague
Curators | Pavel Směták, Klára Pučerová
Co-curator | Radomíra Sedláková
Graphic Design | Robert V. Novák
In collaboration with | Art and Industrial Museum, National Technical Museum, Olomouc Museum of Art, Development Department of the City of Prague