COLLECTED IMPRESSIONS. Travel stories by photographers and designers

Location: Moscow, The New Tretyakov Gallery, Western wing, Krimsky Val 10, Moscow

Organized by: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Design Museum, Engineering Division of the Rosatom State Corporation

Curator: Alexandra Sankova

The exhibition showcases 11 installations, which include works by contemporary Russian designers and architects and photographs by the finalists of the ASE International Photo Awards fr om Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Hungary, Finland, Turkey, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Russia.

By creating new meanings and associations, the photographic works complement the exhibits – industrial, graphic, book, furniture and lighting designs, as well as textiles and ceramics. The exhibition features works by the leading Russian designers and architects – Andrey Bartenev, Denis Simachev, Yaroslav Rassadin, Katya Bochavar, Svetlana Tegin, Sergey Smirnov, ARCHPOLE, and many others.

Specifically for the exposition, Vera Zanegina has designed a carpet "Rhythms of Ploughlands" – an imitation of a sown field with ripened ears of grain, flowers and tree branches woven into it. The artist Venera Kazarova created paper flowers, and Alexandra Falishtynskaya made an installation "Internal Migration", merging textile design with art.

The exhibition is dedicated to travelling – which we all miss so much during the pandemic – and follows a common travel scenario: for instance, the first section features design items that each of us could take on a trip. The route runs through emotions and memories, visuals and sounds, reminding visitors of how refreshing and inspiring journeys may be.

One of the sections of the exhibition is very personal. It is a mini-museum that displays objects brought by the participants of the project from their trips. Artists consider impressions to be the main thing; they see travelling as an endless resource, a perpetual motion machine, which gives the energy to develop new ideas, rediscover themselves and the world. The exhibits in this room are concentrated memories, or "concentrated life", as one of the designers put it.

The exhibition starts in a blue room wh there are photographic works presented in concrete frames, as in windows through which we look at the world.

The exposition was designed by one of the most famous Russian graphic artists Igor Gurovich.

The music that accompanies the exhibition was written by contemporary composer Viktor Osadchev. His album "Journey" is inspired by travel. The music fills the exhibition space with echoes of distant countries and impressions he brought from his trips as the most precious souvenirs.