Reigning in Russia

The Soviet propaganda graphics that shaped the Russian Revolution

Propaganda today may come in a much more subtle and insidious form, but once not too long ago, nationalistic messages were sent out to the public loud and clear. The eye-catching graphic design of early 20th-century Soviet propaganda is an...

An exhibition of post-Soviet photography brings light where there was darkness

Grand entrance: Rotterdam practices to transform St Petersburg’s Vasilievsky

The Russian island of Vasilievsky is set for a makeover. The understated yet historically rich locale is an important port-side connection for St Petersburg, bordering the Gulf of Finland. Gearing up for the challenge are two architectural firms, KCAP and...

Power house: Renzo Piano designs a new home for the V-A-C Foundation in Moscow

Moscow’s iconic red-brick Red October district has been slowly transforming into a vibrant neighbourhood of art, food and culture ever since its well known chocolate factory moved out, leaving a rich collection of industrial buildings behind, ripe for redevelopment. ...

Sculptural cells: Louise Bourgeois’ emotive works on show at Moscow’s Garage

’The subject of pain is the business I am in,’ said Louise Bourgeois, the late French-American artist whose 70-year-career was driven primarily by profound anguish, anxiety, and fear. In her final decades, these feelings manifested themselves in the form of...

Rising in Russia: Zaha Hadid’s Dominion Tower unveiled in Moscow

Fresh from her Royal Gold Medal win, Zaha Hadid has further cause for celebration: the completion of her latest project, the Dominion Tower in Moscow.  The project, which broke ground in 2012 and was unveiled alongside the Peresvet Group last week...

Soviet modernist: Rem Koolhaas-designed Garage Museum of Contemporary Art opens in Moscow

Architecture studio OMA has resurrected a 1960s Soviet Modernist ruin as a contemporary art museum in Moscow’s Gorky Park, restoring original features and wrapping the two-storey space in a gleaming polycarbonate façade. The 5,400 sq m building is a...

Garage Museum’s new exhibition maps the history of Russian performance art

The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow recently unveiled ’Russian Performance: A Cartography of its History’ – a large-scale exhibition, curated by Yulia Aksenova and Sasha Obukhova. The exhibition covers a century of performance art from the theatrical experiments...

Born in the USSR: a new show at Gallery Elena Shchukina explores contemporary Russian design

When curator and Wallpaper* editor-at-large Suzanne Trocmé was looking through Russian resumés for the designers who would ultimately form Born in the USSR, launched at Gallery Elena Shchukina as part of the London Design Festival, she noticed a peculiarity in...

2012 in review: October in three stories

2012 saw team Wallpaper* set up temporary HQ in Russia for our Reigning in Russia issue, which hit the shelves in October. One of the most popular stories was our directory of the young architects reshaping the Federation.Browse our...

Garage Centre pavilion designed by Shigeru Ban in Gorky Park, Moscow

Ever since our Russian adventure, we have been eagerly anticipating the opening of the new temporary pavilion for the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, in Moscow’s Gorky Park.   The structure will be the...

Russian art collective AES+F designs its first house

Russian art collective AES+F have been creating their trademark large-scale video installations, as well as photographic and sculptural works, since 1987. Now, the group have not only turned their attention to architecture, but have also joined forces with one of...