From the Art in Russia Series – Moscow: an artistic epicentre
Reality & Imagination: an explosive relationship
The first major Russian retrospective of Takashi Murakami (1962, Japan) just closed at Garage Moscow. The museum, founded by Roman Abramovich and his then-wife Dasha Zhukova, is one of the best examples of how Post-Soviet architecture (it was a prefabricated pavilion that housed a restaurant) lends itself with minimal intervention, to outcomes as good as the contemporary marvels of modern architecture. Keeping its original two-floor shape, its tiles, brickwork and internal mosaic, the Dutch firm OMA succeeded in modernising the building by adding a double polycarbonate skin on its concrete structure. The outcome is a luminous minimalist shape within Gorky Park, the ultimate attraction for Moscow art lovers who came in great numbers to get to know the art of the controversial Japanese artist.
Maria Pia Masella MA
