Luzhniki. There Is A Place For History. On The 70th Anniversary Of  Sports Complex

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) and Luzhniki present the joint exhibition project Luzhniki. There Is a Place for History, marking the 70th anniversary of the Luzhniki Olympic Sports Complex. Bringing together works from different periods — from the Russian avant-garde of the early twentieth century to works by young contemporary artists created over the past decade, including several commissioned specifically for the exhibition — the project offers a multifaceted perspective on the history of one of Russia’s most iconic sporting venues and its relationship to the country’s cultural and social development. The exhibition architecture has been designed by Workshop B.

The exhibition at MMOMA on Gogolevsky Boulevard unfolds through several interconnected narratives. On the one hand, it explores key chapters in the history of Luzhniki, one of Moscow’s defining landmarks, highlighting significant moments in the life of the Olympic Sports Complex. On the other, it examines the ways in which the history of sport has intersected with broader social, political, and artistic processes across different historical periods.

The project brings together multiple layers and features artworks from various periods and artistic movements including objects of Soviet and post-Soviet material culture. Archival photographs and documents are presented on an unprecedented scale, offering visitors a rare opportunity to see treasures from the Luzhniki Foundation’s collection, many of which are being exhibited for the first time. Together, these materials provide a comprehensive account of the many stages in the evolution of Luzhniki, a place that has witnessed some of the most significant events in the country’s modern history.

The exhibition is organized into thematic sections, each revealing a different aspect of Luzhniki’s rich history. Visitors can engage with interactive installations and sports-related elements created especially for the project, step inside a reconstruction of the Russian national football team’s locker room at the Grand Sports Arena, and explore materials related to the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957, as well as other landmark sporting events. The exhibition also includes a special project by contemporary Russian photographer Sergei Sapozhnikov, created specifically for the anniversary of Luzhniki. His installation reflects on the contemporary architecture of the Olympic Sports Complex and considers its continuing evolution and future legacy.

Sport continues to serve as an important source of inspiration for contemporary artists. Some draw on the legacy of Ancient Greece and its ideals of bodily harmony, while others revisit the utopian imagery of the early Soviet period. Both of these approaches, expressed through a wide range of media and artistic languages, come together in the exhibition.

One of the exhibition’s central aims is to explore the sensory experience of the body and the dynamic poetics of movement associated with physical effort, endurance, and the pursuit of excellence. It focuses on the relationships between movement and rest, tension and release, determination and emotion. In this sense, the exhibition offers a broad cross-section of artistic reflections on physical culture and the body in motion.

Sergey Kuznetsov, Viktor Alimpiev, Konstantin Batynkov, Anatoly Brusilovsky, Vladimir Grig, Anatoly Zverev, Ilya Kabakov, Valery Katsuba, Irina Korina, Boris Matrosov, Alexandra Paperno, Alexander Rodchenko, Leonid Rotar, Vladimir Salnikov, Vadim Sidur, Leonid Sokov, Varvara Stepanova, Keith Haring, and others.