Imagine Moscow: Architecture, Propaganda, Revolution

07/02/2017. Exhibition at the Design Museum [LON] UK
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

Marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution, this exhibition explores Moscow as it was imagined by a bold new generation of architects and designers in the 1920s and early 1930s. The exhibition will host six unbuilt projects from 15th March to 4th June 2017.

Yakov Chernikhov, Set design with concave surfaces, late 1920s, paper, ink, gouache, pencil, whiting. Chernikhov had his own studio, which was almost unheard of during this decade

Yakov Chernikhov, Set design with concave surfaces, late 1920s, paper, ink, gouache, pencil, whiting. Chernikhov had his own studio, which was almost unheard of during this decade

Valentina Kulagina, To the Defence of the USSR, Poster, 1930, Ne boltai! Collection. Image courtesy of Design Museum

Valentina Kulagina, We Build, 1930’s. Image courtesy of Design Museum

Gustav Klutsis, Photomontage, lithography on paper, 1924. Image courtesy of Design Museum

Iakov Chernikhov, architectural fantasy (1930). Image courtesy of Design Museum

Yakov Chernikov, Composition on a theme of an industrial area with buildings and metal constructions, 1924-33. Image courtesy of Design Museum

Gustav Klutsis, Architectural Study, 1920-1921. Image courtesy of Design Museum

El Lissitzky, ASNOVA The association of new architects, 1926. Image courtesy of Design Museum

Valentina Kulagina, Front cover design by Valentina Kulagina entitled 1st of May in ‘Krasnaya niva’ magazine, 1930. Image courtesy of Design Museum

El Lissitzky, Proun, 1922-23. Image courtesy of Design Museum

El Lissitzky, The New Man from The Three-Dimensional Design of the Electro-Mechanical Show ‘Victory over the Sun’, 1923. Image courtesy of Design Museum

El Lissitzky, The Sentinel from The Three-Dimensional Design of the Electro-Mechanical Show ‘Victory over the Sun’, 1923. Image courtesy of Design Museum

Old Man (Head 2 Steps behind) 1923. Image courtesy of Design Museum

Reciter. Figurine for the opera Victory over the sun by A. Kruchenykh, 1920-1921. Artist: Lissitzky, El January 01, 1921. Image courtesy of Design Museum

El Lissitzsky, Figures from The Three-Dimensional Design of the Electro-Mechanical Show 'Victory over the Sun', 1923. The artist's full name was Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, but he was known a El Lissitsky

El Lissitzky, Sportsmen from The Three-Dimensional Design of the Electro-Mechanical Show 'Victory over the Sun', 1923. The artist said each work he did was a stopping point on the road, not its final destination

Ivan Leonidov, Competition design for the monument for the first artificial earth satellite in Moscow, 1958, watercolour, white, bronze, brush on paper

Ladovski's Communal House became one of the earliest and most iconic symbols of the Soviet idea of communal living that aimed to revolutionise traditional family structure, and to transform the role of the female in society

Ivan Leonidov, United Nations Building, 1947-48, gouache, watercolour, pencil, tracing paper, white highlightings. Leonidov first won recognition in 1927, for his unexecuted diploma for Lenin Institute and Library

Drawing on rarely seen material, Imagine Moscow presents an idealistic vision of the Soviet capital that was never realised. All the proposals were originally designed for Moscow between the 20s and 30s. The Design Museum celebrates the first centenary of the Russian Revolution by housing an exhibition where visitors can discover six old projects which were designed to change the city.

The exhibition shows large-scale architectural drawings are supported by artwork, propaganda and publications from the period. Taken together, these unbuilt projects suggest an alternative reality for the city, offering a unique insight into the culture of the time. Each of the six projects presented in the exhibition introduce a theme relevant to life and ideology in the Soviet Union: collectivisation, urban planning, aviation, communication, industrialisation, communal living and recreation.

The proposal of a new Moscow was created by a bold new generation of architects and designers in the 20s and early 30s. They worked on an idealistic vision of the Soviet capital that was never built.

Communal house (1920) by Nikolai Ladovski was one of the most iconic and famous symbols of Soviet communal living; Cloud Iron (1924) by El Lissitzky consisted of eight lightweight horizontal skyscrapers linking the work and living spaces using trams and metro; Lenin Institute (1927) by Ivan Leodiniv was a new planetarium and a big library; Health Factory (1928) by Nikolai Sokolov consisted of individual capsules for isolated rest, and a big area for communal activities; Narkomtiazhprom (1934-1936) a building design by the Vesnin brothers: Ivan Leonidov and Konstantin Melnikov. It was intended to house the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry; The Palace of the Soviets (1932) by Boris Iofan, was the ultimate monument of Soviet power at the time. It was going to be the tallest building in the world.

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Exhibition curator

Eszter Steierhoffer Curatorial Assistant: Eleanor Watson; Curatorial Research Assistants: Kristina Ailane, Helen Ilka, Constanza Larach, Anya Smirnova, and Olga Vaigatcheva