Concrete is the most widely used material in the world after water, according to Viktor Kossakovsky in Architecton. This observation conceptually links this third part of his ‘A-trilogy’ to the second part, the water documentary Aquarela (2018), which was in turn the sequel to ¡Vivan las antipodas! (2011).
The connection is also made visually, with slow-motion shots in which falling boulders and stones seem to flow like rivers. Accompanied by a score by composer Evgueni Galperine, this gives the visual symphony about concrete and stone a hypnotic power.
Kossakovsky moves from the ruins of the temples of Baal to Ukrainian buildings bombed by the Russian army, from houses destroyed by earthquakes in Turkey to quarries where building materials are extracted with brute force.
His historical reflection on construction and destruction centers on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele De Lucchi who, in protest against the transience of modern construction and as a lesson in modesty in our relationship with nature, creates a ‘magic circle’ in his garden, where humans are forbidden to set foot.
