Permanent exhibition at the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Center

The Manege Unit is opening a permanent exhibition at the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Center

The Manege team is opening a new permanent display dedicated to the iconic Soviet monument and its creators. The exposition will occupy the first floor of the exhibition center.

The elaborate and appealing design and architecture create a perfect setting for the exhibits. The foyer, ramps and interfloor rooms are getting a new look. The exposition will be revised from time to time to add new items related to the contexts of the epoch, as well as archive materials from the Manege collections.

The architectural design of the first floor is meant to highlight the grandeur and rich exterior of Stalin’s Empire style, as well as the scale of thinking and aspirations of the time when the monument was built. However, the display will follow along the timeline of the monument’s existence from its construction and triumph through the years of physical decay and ideological degradation and toward the new life of the monument and the pavilion following the reconstruction of 2009.

The modern approach behind the exhibition emphasizes a detailed focus on a wide range of archive papers and minor objects, and the accompanying explications and educational program aim to represent the epoch that saw the construction of the monument and to highlight other works by sculptors, artists and architects who were involved in the creation of the objects of monumental propaganda.

The Worker’s hammer and a model of the pavilion built to the design of Boris Iofan will be installed in the foyer, and running above the ramps will be a timeline featuring the milestones in the history of the monument.

The display will include archive materials and original items dating to the period of the monument’s construction, Soviet sculptures of the 1930s, including a working model of Georgy Motovilov’s Metallurgist, elements of the original internal carcass of the 1930s, furniture manufactured to the designs of Boris Iofan, objects from Vera Mukhina’s studio including a ladder and a set of tools used by the sculptor, postcards and souvenirs brought from Paris in 1937, the archive of engineer Pyotr Lvov who worked on the construction of the monument, and models for unrealiazed projects by Vera Mukhina including the EPRON Operator, Icarus and others. Unique footage of archive documentaries of the 1930s will be also made available to the visitors, as well as a commemorative medal of the Paris International Exposition (1937, bronze), a photo book titled The 1937 International Exposition (Paris), original photographs by Boris Iofan, a Paris guide of 1937 and even Boris Iofan’s signature hat, Vera Mukhina’s favourite mug and saucer set and many other items.

The display will be regularly revised to add archive materials, documentary photographs, artworks and historical artifacts dating to the period of the monument’s construction and artistic objects exploring the context of the Soviet monumental propaganda.

Media Accreditation: Manege Unit | +7 (495) 645-92-76| pr.manege@gmail.com

Head of PR department Elena Karneeva | e.karneeva@moscowmanege.ru, +7 (926) 576-40-53

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