MOSCOW: Where Public Meets Private
"Moscow is a classically Arendtian representation of the public realm, as seen in Khutsiev’s I Am Twenty, which serves a portrayal of its open landscape—filled with busy street fares, bustling urban squares, dinner parties, and crowded trains."
Moscow is a behemoth of a city filled to its brim with culture, urban sprawl, and people—with a population of a whopping 16.2 million people residing in its urban center, it’s the largest metropolitan city in Europe, outnumbering other giants like London (12.2 million) and Paris (10.9 million). Therefore, it is especially interesting to explore the role of public spaces in this city.
With so much space, Moscow seems to be the ultimate Arendtian representation of the public realm. As explored in the Moscow Omeka blog post focusing on the city’s various parks, urban spaces play an especially important role in Moscow, a city cmoming to terms with its past to enter the world stage as a post-Socialist city. The advent of public space is an important part of discussion for Moscow’s built environment today, with new art exhibits and discussions cropping up recently. “Moskva: urban space”, for example, is a recent exhibit from the 2014 Venice Biennale by the city’s chief architect to explore how “today’s urban singularity is more so based on the ‘connective tissue’ that is the public spaces, and the ways in which these spaces have become equally important markers of contemporary metropolis identities.” [1] This exhibition provides great insight into the sprawl of Moscow and the utter importance of urban spaces in the city.
Looking at specific examples from this course, Marlen Khutsiev’s 1965 film, I Am Twenty, is the perfect representation of this very public realm in the sprawling city of Moscow, even half a century ago. It’s an exquisitely gorgeous homage to the beautiful city, and much of the film focuses on scenes that occur in the public realm: Sergei and his friends smoking cigarettes around the city late at night or early in the morning; hosting dinner parties where they all converse with one another; and generally just spending a great deal of time outside.
Above is the perfect example of the Ardentian public sphere as seen in the movie. Sergei and his friends chat about life, love, and everything in between, but with lots of people around. Even in the image captured above, we see not only Sergei and his two friends on screen, but about four other figures walking squarely past the camera, with a beautiful, open square in the back filled with cars, trains, and sprawling public space. Interestingly, the public realm actually allows for the existence of the private realm in many such scenes, which complicates and enriches its role in a way that Sennett or Ardent do not point out. In these moments of public display in busy squares, the characters actually engage in intimate conversations, allowing for the private realm to become seamlessly integrated into the public one.
Another scene occurs during the May Day parade, perhaps the most “public” of realms shown in the entire movie. It’s a scene where thousands gather in the streets of Moscow to celebrate the Allied victory in the Eastern front and the surrendering of Nazi Germany. Here, in perhaps the most crowded one might imagine a street, Sergei and Anya meet and share an intimately private moment. They chat and end up on a beautiful night around town together, traipsing about the city—private and intimate, though fully in the public.
All of this sheds light into Moscow as a place of the public realm: while it follows the classic Arendtian description of busy open spaces, there is the caveat that the private realm can exist even in these public busy spaces. This is reflected perfectly through most scenes and interactions throughout the film.
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Sources:
[1] Rawn, Evan. "'Moskva: Urban Space'" Investigates the Future of Moscow's Public Realm at the 2014 Venice Biennale. Arch Daily, August 10, 2014.