Under Construction

Through a speculative monologue, the architect reveals the complex mechanism of her repressed emotions. Doubts about her own work are mixed here with an eclectic defence of her career. An insight into the inner self of the now deceased "starchitect" takes place inside her nearly completed building, which seems to have become a labyrinth of her own making. She tries in vain to find her way out of it, and at the same time cannot detach herself from it. This internal emotional contradiction correlates with the issue of urban development and the privatisation of public space for the purpose of maximising profit, at the cost of negative impacts on the environment and the quality of life of the public. ‍

These, for example, still carry supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Originally a classified spaceport site made available after the collapse of the USSR until the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it was an adventurous destination for space enthusiasts, especially from wealthier Western countries. Here, space heritage meets Islamic culture in the "Great Steppe", as Kazakhstan is nicknamed, and the theme of the relationship between heaven and earth is varied in the form of endless intersecting verticals and horizontals. Thus, contrasts resulting from the modern dualism of politics and religion erupt across the Kazakh landscape and architecture. The "sanctuaries" of these power structures are separated by thousands of years, yet they are strikingly similar. They exist side by side in a symbiosis of a kind of "former future," which will actively last until the Russian Federation builds its Vostochny Cosmodrome and, in 2050, terminates its space lease agreement with Kazakhstan.