Experimental workshops of the Senezh Studio, 1964–91

Founded by architect Evgeny Rosenblum (1919–2000) and philosopher Karl Kantor (1922–2008), the Senezh Studio became a unique centre for design education for practicing artists, designers, and architects. As the central educational and experimental studio of the USSR Artists’ Union, Senezh ran three to four workshops every year. Two were held at the House of the Union of Artists on the shores of Senezh Lake, and the other one (or two) in different cities across the country and even abroad. Each of the workshops ran for about two months and included lectures and experimental project work, done in small groups supervised by Senezh tutors. In addition to prominent Soviet practitioners and theorists of architecture, design, and cultural studies, the studio also invited specialist consultants and lecturers from Poland, such as Szymon Bojko (1917–2014), Józef Mroszczak (1910–75), and Bohdan Urbanowicz (1911–94). The paper models and artworks created by the participants were presented at a closing exhibition and discussed in subsequent publications. The most valuable aspect of the workshops, however, was the participants’ change in mindset as they learned to move between a purely artistic approach (focussing on colour, form, and composition) and the more practical tasks associated with culturally sensitive environmental design (especially in terms of public spaces and museum exhibitions). This direction—moving away from single objects to entire environments—was pursued by the artist Mark Konik (1938–2012), who had joined the Studio in 1978. He also made an invaluable contribution to the Studio’s introductory course, with a programme that brought together the basic course taught by Johannes Itten at the Bauhaus, the concepts of the Soviet avant-garde, and his own original ideas.