ABOUT US

The Museum was founded in 2012 and it is the first museum in Russia specifically dedicated to design. The museum collects, studies, and preserves Russia’s design heritage, introduces the viewers to the best examples and main schools of international design, and presents Russian design abroad.

The museum collection includes examples of domestic and foreign design from the avant-garde to the present day. These are the best works of constructivist artists, the most significant developments of Soviet designers and design associations, the works of contemporary Russian designers and cult objects of international design.

So far, the museum has successfully organized exhibition projects in some of the most prominent spaces in Russia, as well as abroad – in the UK, Holland, Germany, Belgium, and China. The museum represents the Russian Federation at the international level: in 2015, the museum presented an exhibition on the Russian avant-garde in the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2015 in Milan. In 2016, the museum’s exhibition “Discovering Utopia: Lost Archives of Soviet Design” took part in the first London Biennale of Design (Somerset House, London) and was awarded the medal of the Biennale for the best response to the topic. 

  

The museum works with professional audiences and students, holds forums and conferences dedicated to current issues in the development of Russian design. The museum puts much effort into educational activities engaging leading European and Russian designers and design historians. 

The museum is creating a series of documentary films on design, including “History of Russian Design”, “Holland – Territory of Design”, “Discovering Utopia”, “Sweden. Design for Society”, “British Design. Traditions and Innovations”. 

Together with the world's largest publishing houses, the museum publishes books based on its own collection: “Designed in the USSR: 1950-1989”, “VNIITE - Discovering Utopia”, “Vladimir Runge: from“ Horizon ”to“ Zenith ”.

 

Our exhibition projects:

 

“Soviet Design, 1950-1980’s” (CEH “Manege”, 2012-2013) 

“Packaging Design. Made in Russia” (CEH “Manege”, 2013) 

“Common Objects: Soviet and Chinese Design 1950-80’s” (Design Week, Beijing, 2013) 

“New Luxuries: Less+More in an Age of Austerity” (CEH “Manege”, 2013-2014) 

“Sportcult” (“Proun” gallery, 2014) 

“British Design: from William Morris to the Digital Revolution” (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, 2014) 

“Russia. Bread. Salt” (Russian pavilion at EXPO 2015, Milan) 

“Technical Aesthetics” (INNOPROM, Ekaterinburg, 2015) 

“Red Wealth. Sovjet Design 1950-1980” (Kunsthal Rotterdam, 2015-2016) 

“The History of the Soviet Cinema in Movie Posters” (co-organizer, CEH “Manege”, 2016) 

“Russia. Bread. Salt” (Sheremetyevo International Airport, Terminal E, 2016) 

“Discovering Utopia: Lost Archives of Soviet Design” (Somerset House, London, 2016)

“Moscow Thaw: 1953-1968” (co-organizer, The Museum of Moscow, 2017)

“The Thaw: Looking to the Future” (co-organizer, The State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val, Moscow, 2017)

Moscow Design Biennale 2017

“The Legends of Danish Design” (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 2017)

“Soviet Design 1950-1980” (ZARYA Centre for Contemporary Art, Vladivostok, 2017)

“Into The Unknown: a Journey Through Science Fiction” (co-organizer, The Barbican Centre, London, 2017)

“The Paper Revolution” (ADAM - Brussels Design Museum, Belgium, 2017)

“New Olds. Classics and Innovations in Design” (co-organizer, Decorative Art Museum, Moscow, 2017)

“Russian Design History 1917-2017” (#ARTLAB, Tobolsk, 2017)

“33 Beginnings - 100 Years of Finnish Design” (Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, 2017)

“The Paper Revolution” (Bröhan-Museum, Berlin, 2018)

“Design System in the USSR” (Decorative Art Museum, Moscow, 2018)

“Consumer Dream” (co-organizers, Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, Ekaterinburg, 2018)

“Soviet Design. Red Wealth” (ADAM - Brussels Design Museum, Belgium, 2018)

“Impossible Is Inevitable” (co-organizer, The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow, 2018)

“History of Russian Design 1917-2017” (Nizhny Novgorod, 2018)

“History of Russian Design 1917-2017” (Tyumen, 2018)

“History of Russian Design 1917-2017” (Nizhnevartovsk, 2018)

We collaborate with:

MUSEUMS State Tretyakov Gallery State Museum of Fine Arts Central Exhibition Hall Manezh Multimedia Art Museum All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Arts Museum of Toys Museum of Moscow Museum of Retro-Cars Skolkovo Innovation Center bang bang education Art Gallery Yeltsin Center Brussels Design Museum Barbican Centre Brühan-Museum London Design Biennale EMBASSIES Embassy of Sweden in Moscow Embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow Embassy of the United Kingdom in Moscow Embassy of Finland in Moscow Embassy of Denmark in Moscow COMPANIES Rostec SIBUR - “Formula of good deeds” Lava Design Amsterdam Droog PUBLISHING HOUSES Unit Editions Phaidon Press AFFILIATED SPECIALISTS Alexander Lavrentiev Victoria Andreyanova Vladimir Runge Pavel Ulyanov Igor Zaitsev Julian Mayor Richard Hutten Jurgen Bey Davide Quayola Christopher Pearson Daniel Widrig Assa Ashuach Sarah Christoffersen