Current Exhibitions

The nexus between architecture and installation art has long been a topic worthy of exploration. Installation transforms space and interacts with the audience; it must be designed, constructed and installed and therefore relies on architectural components.

Since the late eighties the acclaimed conceptual artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have created fantastical spaces that they call ‘total’ installations inviting viewers to immerse themselves in stories about utopian dreams. The use of common objects – things which help to create an atmosphere of memory – is a key instrument in their work; they incorporate such objects in their walkable room installations, which become something like a personal museum for the “little man”.

The show brings together a selection of sketches and drawings for their famous installations The Toilet realised at the IX Kassel Documenta 1992, The Palace of Projects permanently installed at the Zeche Zollverein, and The Red Pavilion, which was exhibited at the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993. Along with drawings for built works, theatre and ideas for unrealised installations such as The Vertical Opera to be performed in the Guggenheim Museum are presented. Most of the drawings on display do not reflect a thinking process that leads to their large-format installations, but rather ideas that exist from the very beginning in the minds of the artists and then are realised on paper by Ilya Kabakov.

A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Trailer of the exhibition

Studio visit

This exhibition was kindly supported by Schüco, Janinhoff Klinkermanufaktur, NBK, Guardian Glass, Grohe, Kewenig gallery and speech. Media partner: BerlinArtLink.

Image: © Ilya und Emilia Kabakov

An unusual exhibition of graphics in Zaryadye Park Media Center offers you to look at the popular centers of the world with the eyes of four artists who are fascinated by the image of cities.

The project displays works by recognized masters of urban landscape and architectural drawing - watercolors by Alvaro Castagnet from Uruguay and Thomas Schaller from the USA, Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov, architect and graphic artist Sergei Tchoban, who works in Russia and Germany. All of them are keen not to only make reliable reproduction of reality, but also share their feelings and impressions of the urban environment with the audience. Developing old traditions and techniques, they at the same time find new artistic techniques for author's statements about the spirit of place and time.

The exhibition is located on two levels of the Media Center. The first part of the exposition presents the works of participants in digital animation. For this section, each artist has chosen a city that he knows and loves well: Sergey Kuznetsov - Moscow, Sergey Tchoban - Berlin, Thomas Schaller - Rome, Alvaro Castagnet - New York. In the exhibition hall you can see the originals of the works engaged in the animation, as well as other works created by the authors during their trips to different countries.

For this exhibition the Museum for Architectural Drawing of the Tchoban Foundation provided artworks on loan from its own collection by the artist Sergei Tchoban.

Image: © Sergei Tchoban