The VDNKh
The VDNKh first opened its doors to visitors in 1939 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in the North-East of Moscow. Built as a large park with over 80 architecturally inspiring pavilions, it was a cultural center glorifying the ideology of communism and socialism. Best architects, sculptors and painters of those times worked together to bring the ‘Communist Eden on Earth’ into reality. The purpose of the pavilions was to display the latest industry achievements and inventions of the Soviet scientists. However with the fall of the Soviet Union this complex has been neglected and the pavilions have been turned from impressive exhibition halls into derelict monuments of the Soviet epoch. After a few decades of dilapidation, the complex has been recently renovated and the buildings' original purpose restored. Nowadays the pavilions are being used as exhibition spaces and water is flowing again from the glorious fountains. The project explores the utopian ideas and symbolism behind the center's monumental architecture while documenting the various transformations it went through.
