In realizing the entire visual identity of the Magacin club in Belgrade, architect Maja Vidakovic reminds all who tend to generalize and are constantly looking up to western models, what it’s like to be true to yourself and your values; to people, to the city.
Here at Magacin, Maja Vidaković succeeds in showing that it’s possible to produce vibes like those pulsing through the world’s celebrated capitals using entirely authentic local elements in a simple, unpretentious way. Magacin is a hybrid bar, lounge and nightclub, changing its moods and ways according to the time of day or the programme. Come midnight, a laid-back lounge-bar is transformed into a lively nightclub.
What stands out at Magacin is the element of emotion, born from the designer’s memories, who concentrates a great amount of energy in details and transfers it to the visitors. Each is offered the opportunity to live their own story, to inscribe it and store it in a warehouse of memories for future generations.
The moment you step into the place can sense you belong here, it stirs you; you become part of the game where the contrast between the dominating “crudeness”, on the one hand, of the ambience, and the “exclusiveness” of the place, on the other.
The club’s industrial appearance, socialist-realistic aesthetics, minimalism and a pronounced coldness contrasted with a glamorous interior, sophistication and splendor, represent a new interior concept. Old gold satin drapery and bourgeois silver candlestick holders flicker before rough-textured concrete walls:; here and there the random traces of automobile tires.
Here memories are the stuff of interior design: chandeliers with bulbs of opal glass, the social-realist canteens, classrooms and public institutions; the wooden furniture of socialist officials the inspiration for the of black glass tables.
Contrasts between the interior and exterior are enhanced by the sense of proportion, so that Pride, Love, Ambition and Admiration do not easily become Haughtiness, Prejudice, Greed and Envy – the sins in the VIP lounge. Light installations named after four “popular” sins emerged out of cooperation with artist Vuk Velickovic from Paris. Their message: remain aware of them, and mind the thin line that lies between virtue and weakness.
A glass mural, designed by Maja Vidakovic and Vladimir Ristic, dominates the central hall connecting the industrial motives of Belgrade’s river banks, exists only as fragments now, symbolizing our attachment to the city.
The bar, stretching 15 meters, represents a sort of an “altar”, a stage for different types of communication. The unisex toilets are also treated as a “scene”, an unexpected escape to the jungles of Guatemala and a symbolic return to nature and the senses.
Magacin evokes a certain sophistication, a certain hidden pride and reminds us who and what we are. We enter the warehouse, where we give into the passions of life, and the wish to demonstrate our own personal glamour.
Author: Jelena Kovač
Photos: Vladimir Ristić, Marko Todorović
