NOVEMBER 15, 2019 – JANUARY 12, 2020 / SMALL EXHIBITION HALL
On November 15, the Zarya Center for Contemporary Art will open the exhibition of photographs “Water Architecture: The Experience of Immersion,”which will transport viewers to the world of the resorts and health spas of the Soviet Union and Russia, including Primorye.
Curated by Anna Petrova, “Water Architecture: The Experience of Immersion” brings together photographs of two different epochs – the Soviet and Post-Soviet. On view will be the works of the father and son duo, Michael and Igor Churakov, Claudine Doury, René Fietzek, Olya Ivanova, Georgy Khrushchev, Daniel Kolchanov, Dmitry Lookianov, Ivan Mikhalov, Igor Mukhin, Egor Rogalev, alongside Michal Solarski, and Anatoly Topuz.
In the Soviet Union, sanatoriums, resorts, and spas took over the former residences and palaces of the tsars. A few were built in the 1930s, leading to a mix of both avant-garde and neoclassical. After World War II, recreational architecture – both buildings for cultural recreation and the care of one’s health – was designed by Modernist architects, whose no-frills approach relied instead on innovative (often to the point of bordering on the absurd) forms.