Woven
March 15 - May 12, 2024

Since ancient times, thread and fabric weaving have been believed to possess magical properties and, as such, have been featured in numerous myths and legends. The likes of Ariadne's thread and Penelope weaving a shroud as she waited for Odysseus to return from his travels come to mind. Initially used only for the production of clothing and household items, textiles soon enough attracted the attention of artists; hence the embellished folk costumes and the emergence of highly decorative tapestries.

Over time, textile arts evolved into a full-blooded art form, with its practitioners taking full advantage of the versatile medium’s potential. In recent decades, artistic textiles have transcended the confines of decorative arts to become a very contemporary medium, partly because they are no longer viewed merely as a means but also as a message, a subject worth exploring in its own right. Traditional techniques of weaving, embroidery, and collage are seamlessly combined with technological experiments in the works of artists, who add new layers of meaning to familiar images.

Nature is both the most original creator and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists. Despite the cyclical pattern of changing seasons they never cease to appear new, evoking familiar and sometimes unexpected feelings and emotions. Winter has been especially important for Russian artists from various epochs and movements. The exhibition offers diverse perspectives on the approaching season, viewed upon through the prism of three different artistic methods.

Winter is first of all about the tranquility and beauty of nature, which has been so often extolled by poets, writers and visual artists. The opening section of the exhibition features works of art that are filled with admiration for this special state of nature. Pictorial photographers were particularly meticulous about capturing the elusive winter effects as they created softer transitions between light and shade and elaborate compositions as they sought to upgrade their pictures to "paintings." On display here are photographic masterpieces from the 1920s and 1930s by the likes of Nikolay Andreyev, Leonid Shokin, Pyotr Klepikov and Sergey Ivanov-Alliluyev from the collection of the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.

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.

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 — 250 rubles
• Preferential — 100 rubles
• Child — 100 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"