In ARCADIA, Anastasia Tsayder explores the metamorphoses of the post-Soviet urban space: uniform buildings and districts are engulfed by unruly bushes and trees, which seem to be hoping to return to their natural state that people cannot control. “A garden city,” a utopian idea once championed by Soviet Socialism, is gradually turning into a forest of a city.

The plants are both the result and the illustration of the transformations that followed in the wake of economic upheavals and also an integral part of those changes. Just like the plants in Arcadia that are no longer restrained by people, the spaces occupied by the trees and bushes create voids, “non-places” in the fabric of urban districts that help us feel free, if only for a while, from the social pressure and control.

This exhibition is part of an ambitious project bringing art and science together that Rostan Tavasiev has been working on for a few years now. The exhibition features drawings and sketches of gigantic sculptures designed for outer space. According to the artist's concept, the sculptures would be made of planetary nebulae. They could be more than 30 trillion kilometres tall or wide.

The project was inspired by Rostan Tavasiev's discussions with astrophysicist Sergey Popov. The artist and the scientist held a series of interviews on the possibility of creating works of art in outer space. To further deepen his knowledge of the subject, Rostan attended the Basic Astronomy course at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, from which he graduated with honours.

Art is no doubt a desirable habitat for many an animal species. Bulls and rhinos, tigers and elephants, beetles and deer, gorillas and flamingos have inhabited the realm of visual arts for centuries. From time immemorial, artists have depicted animals; the creators of prehistoric cave paintings gave rise to a new genre, which has since evolved undergoing numerous transformations in line with to the latest developments in global culture and politics, changing tastes, and the advent of new artistic techniques and inventions. From the caves of Lascaux and Altamira to Albrecht Dürer's The Rhinoceros to Damien Hirst's tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde and Maurizio Cattelan's taxidermic horse suspended from a ceiling – animals have long been a source of inspiration and metaphor in art. They have come a very long way from being worshipped as sacred objects to being depicted in paintings hanging on the walls of our homes and sentimental pictures adorned with gilded frames, to becoming design items and, eventually, a symbol of sustainable development and environmental activism. Not unlike insects that employ camouflage to resemble sticks or twigs or other, dangerous species, animals that "live" in museums adapt to our reality and become a universal language that can be used to describe all sorts of changes.

The Soviet statesman who had the talent to be boss of Ford or GM

Russia Beyond the Headlines / November 24, 2016

A new exhibition of photographs in Moscow is dedicated to Soviet reformer Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin. Favored by Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Kosygin was responsible for the introduction of dramatic reforms in the 1960s, attempting to bring elements of a market economy into the Soviet system years before perestroika...

Oleg Tselkov: la liberté du prisonnier

La Dame de Pique / June 30, 2014

«Prisonnier.» C'est le mot qu'Oleg Tselkov emploie pour parler du rapport à son art. Il se sent prisonnier dans sa création. Et ce constat, il le fait tout sourire. C'est un prisonnier heureux, accompli, libre. Cette prison, il a commencé à la bâtir lui-même en 1960 lorsque le premier de ses personnages s'est invité dans son œuvre, pour très vite ne plus laisser place à d'autres thèmes, à d'autres inspirations, à quelque intrus que ce soit. Aujourd'hui, il n'a plus vraiment le choix. Inlassablement, il peint ces étranges figures...

• Adult — 100 rubles
• Preferential — 50 rubles
• Child — 50 rubles

Every Thursday admission free.

During exhibitions:
Tuesday - Sunday — 11:00 - 20:00 (11:00 am - 8:00 pm)
Ticket office is open untill 19:30 (7:30 p.m.)

Open daily except Mondays.

Moscow, Russia, 21/5 Kuznetsky Most, porch 8

Entrance from Bolshaya Lubyanka street
5 minutes walk from the metro station "Kuznetsky Most" or "Lubyanka"