Going into space and Designing Legends on land
My interview of Vasily Klyukin back in June 2013 was published in Monaco Life and The Riviera Woman . Vasily’s moment of fame took place when he became the highest bidder paying Euro 1.2 million for a Virgin Galactic trip into space with a mystery companion at the prestigious amfAR (Foundation for AIDS Research) auction during the 66th Cannes Film Festival. The secret companion turned out to be no other than Leonardo di Caprio.
Then later in August that year, Vasily organized the third edition of Art.Nocturnal through his company Stars-Bridge at the Japanese Gardens in Monaco with the objective of supporting and promoting Russian contemporary artists. It was a that time that he launched his newly published book “Designing Legends” that he dedicated to his guests at the event. Vasily a business entrepreneur with a taste for extreme adventure and architectural talent but with no formal architecture training, created 50 building concepts (towers, offices, museums and a theater) with his unique futuristic vision to make of each building a legend, the pride and symbol of a city or even a country. See my article published in Monaco Life.
In the foreword to the limited preview edition of the book Vasily writes: “This is how I see architecture the day after tomorrow. Not tomorrow, because big buildings, especially towers, take months to plan and much longer to build. Vasily has a long list of people to thank for their support with this book and ends up mentioning his father, the writer Vasily Ivanovich Klyukin, “who would have been proud of the result.“ His friend Russian painter Andrei Sharov describes Vasily as “a single minded person with his own ideas, someone who combines the talent of a successful entrepreneur with the vision of a great artist, I believe in the success of his initiatives.”
The Virgin Galactic-shaped skyscraper, virtually located next to the Gherkin in Central London, was designed as a surprise for Richard Branson and unveiled at the first meeting of the Virgin Galactic team. According to the plans Vasily will be travelling into space with Di Caprio in 2015. Jon Ronson, journalist for The Guardian, who covered the astronauts’ meeting, published a photo of the Virgin Tower in his article where he listed the « Future Astronaut Community » that includes many Hollywood stars like Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher. The article published in The Guardian.
Book presentation in Turin plus invitation to the 14th Architecture Biennale
On March 18, 2014 Vasily presented the book to an audience of 200 people made of Journalists, artists and members of the Government, at the Molle Antonelliana, in Torino, Italy, in the presence of Paola Gribaudo curator of the book edited by Skira. Articles of the event were published in Italian in La Stampa, Atribune and Artslife. The book has 300 hundred pages of revolutionary architecture blending with art. Vasily’s creativity has not been recognized yet in Russia, his country of origin, but as we all know « Nobody is a Prophet in his own land. »
Vasily was really excited when he announced that, thanks to Paola Gribaudo, he had been invited by the Peggy Guggenheim Museum to present the book on opening day of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition / Fundamentals in Venice scheduled from June 7 to November 23, 2014. He said: “It is like getting an Olympic Medal! “
At present, when Vasily is not embarked on an adventure trip to some exotic destination or busy with the specific training to go into space, he is working on his next book with 35 to 40 additional design projects. The Monaco Comet and The Virgin Tower will appear on the upcoming publication. How will he surprises us next?
Monaco Reporter 