‘Who are we? anles of the Group of Consuuctsts (©. 1922) We donot constr oursevesobped ta build Panosanin stations, skyscraper, Handley Pages, mass-produced houses, luo compressor el. ‘We dno ret te technology. We did nat create ran, ‘BUTE Tha atts of yesterday ‘The CONSTRUCTORS af today {have worked upon 2. ogancing ‘have discovered ‘are hamessing 3 are purging are fusing ourselves wth BEFORE ~The engineers tok the rcreation mart NOW=The aris tak the recreation in technology ‘THERE MUST HOWEVER BE WO PLACE FOR RELAXATION (Who has seen a WALL Wha has saen SIMPLY a PLANE ~ ‘EVERYONE. .. ANDO ONE. ‘There came one who had realy sen and simply SHOWED asquare, This cea opening one's eyes tothe pane, ‘Who has seen an ANGLE Who fs soa FRAMEWORK, a DIAGRAM ‘EVERYONE ...AND NOONE ‘There came one who had really seen and simply SHOWED Uae ‘Wha hes seen: anion bridgt a dreadnought a zeppain elicopter EVERYONE ... AND NOONE. 0 ‘he wa cama along - the fst working grup of CconstaucMasts [ALEKSEY GAN, RODCHENKO, STEPANOVA nd we simply seid: Thi is today “chnology i the mortal enemy of at. TecHMOLOGY... ‘We are your ist fighting and puiive detachmert. ‘ie aro also you last skied labourers. (Wo ara not dadreamers oft who butd in the tmagination: ‘Aerorai stations Elevators and Flaming cites ‘WE ARETHE BEGINNING ‘OUR BUSINESS ts 7ODAY a fankerd a Broom Boots ‘a catelogua ‘And wen one an i is laboratory setup square Ratio eared it oa wha had need and who hed no need, and ‘san oa al the ‘ships af fttwing art” sailing under white, al without exception, wihoxt exception radio carried i to ail who had need and who had: -s00n but especially on all the “ships of letwing art” with the ew tie of contusv’ saing under vatous aps allwithout exception, ..withoul exception is ‘constructed on the bass of fins and gis. Ot course, the suse existed belo the ie and be rd iste before, ‘Whats the pint. ‘Wel simply - THEY WERE SHOWN “THEY WERE PROCLAIMED2 ‘A Rodchenko Design for a city with “observatory”, 1920 seilon paper, 38x22 cm srbed “Rodchanko 1820" (lower right) Achenko gn for a communal 8, 1918 realau, opaque white séian ink on paper 4d 0n cardyoarc, Geom ted in panei shen, December 1918" sight) Architecture, Design and Advertising The square ~ 1915 MALEVICH’s laboratory The line, the grid, the dot - 1919 RODCHENKO's laboratory BUT - after this The first working-group of CONSTRUCTIVISTS (ALEKSEY GAN, RODCHENKO, STEPANOVA) proclaimed: ‘THE COMMUNIST EXPRESSION OF MATERIAL STRUCTURES and UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON ART Everything came to a head, and the ‘new’ constructivists caught up with the fashion, wrote or painted “constructive” poems, novels, pictures and other trash. Others, fascinated by our slogans, imagining themselves geniuses, design elevators and radie-posters, but they have forgotten that all attention must be ‘ocused on the experimen- tal laboratories, which show us NEW ELEMENTS PATHS OBJECTS EXPERIMENTS. THE MODEL EXPERIMENTAL LABORATORY and THE MATERIAL STRUCTURES STATION OF THE FIRST WORKING- GROUP OF CONSTRUCTIVISTS OF THER.S.ES.R. The manifesto is typewritten and preservad in the Redchenko/Stepanova Archive. The highlighting and spacing of the words was apparently done by Rodchenko. According to Inkhuk records, the Working-Group of Constructivists, which included Aleksey Gan, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Karl Loganson, and Vladimir and Georgiy Stenberg, was formed at the beginning of 1921. Rodchenko and Stepanova spent virtvatly the whole of t92t working under the badge of Constructivism. Rodchenko made wooden spatial structures, which he called “constructions”. Stepanova continued to work ‘on har series af *Figuras”. This work culminated in the exhibition *5 x5= 25° which was the first artistic declaration of Constructivism, Along with various alher textual materials, a manifesto was drawn up (o outline the theses and priorities of the Constructivists, just as Marinetti had ance done for Futurism. ‘The text is typical for the beginning cf 1922, when the experimental phase was aver but real, practical Constructivism was stil in its infancy. As befits a manifesto, the language is dogmatic and uncompromising. ‘The movement affirms itself through denying the past. ‘The concluding words of the manifesto were most probably written ‘oy Aleksay Gan. In his writings, especially in his book Constructivism, wm‘rks and Votogt crntanty soeser eat conn ot aesincham, ri cpu ha let oth shee eg oO ‘ory ta socopttca tat ofthe Revlon ae thet autre tween hingel and Rodchenko an Sepanva. I 1873/26 Ga eeated {omni producine, catia gol of Contraiva Wws Gas ‘whol cansidere tobe the tree group of Censors fom yg125 Rodchenko in his studio, | th the foreground: Spatial constrectlon 0.12, Photograph, 1924 126 ‘A Rodchenko Sovdop’, dealgs for the House of Soviets, 1920 Pen and ink and opaque white, 261207 om lascribed in tian ink “*Radchento 1920" (lower tatty a ‘A.Rodchenka Construction, 1919 Pencit an paper, 355x225 cm ‘Stamped “Rodchenko"; scribed in pend! ‘canvas ‘a, 5° (tower tet)