EDITOR’S NOTE: This story of the Moscow River, written by Yury Grigoryan, Anna Kamyshan and Yulia Tarnavskaya, translated from Russian by Anna Shirokova-Koens, focus on human and urban domination over nature. It complements the homonym Russian pavilion features in the XXII Triennale di Milano Broken Nature. The curators of the national Russian participation, Yury Grigoryan, Anna Kamyshan, Yury Kuznetsov, Taisia Osipova, Sergei Sitar and Elena Uglovskaya, aim is to develop a new attitude that considers nature an independent participant in terrestrial life. This project was coordinated by Bogdan Peric.
An old fisherman sits with his granddaughter at the natural green riverfront in front of the Kremlin. Picture from Meganom’s proposal for the Moscow River redevelopment strategy, 2014.
The Moscow River Age presents a timeline of stories that explore the relationship between humans and the Moscow river spanning over 200 years as it is our recent past and our near future we can easily grasp. Systematic engineering in the last century drastically altered the destiny of the main waterway of Moscow. Dams and gateways locked its natural flow, channels connected it to the far seas, vast territories within the river basin became water storages. It suffered enormous human intervention. The industrial age is gone, and today we might pretend the exploitation is over: look, the river side turned into a pretty area and you are meant to enjoy your time there. However, in order to pay back our debt to the nature and the river men should not only stop exploiting it but make this relationship mutually beneficial. It means that it has to become a ‘win-win’ type of relationship which both sides could benefit from. In search of restorative design, we collected many ideas of how it can be treated with a respectful attitude in mind. Friendship and love are central to this approach. The authors of the exhibit items are truly Friends of the Moscow river. The part of the display the describes the river’s potential future gives some clues about how humans can see the river as their equal from which they take but to whom they also give back. The narrative is polyphonic: many different voices tell us about the life of the river and the life of those who live near it. What kind of impact do they have on each other?
1919-1931 The first period — 1919-1931 — can be described as the ‘era of freedom’. It was the time when people were closely studying nature, its rhythm and tempo. Floods came in spring, and draughts came in summer. Swimming in the river was a common hygienic activity, and beaches were created even by the Kremlin walls. But once it was decided to build the Moskva-Volga canal, later known as the Moscow canal, this era came to an end. As the river was enclosed into stone, and its free flow was interrupted by dams and locks, a vast number of people were sent to prison or labour camps. Many of the convicts were forced to build the Moscow canal. By various estimates, from several tens of thousands to a million and a half of people died during its construction. The canal is something that the inmates and the constrained river had in common. At the same time, its coming-into-being marks the beginning of the new era: the river became a core resource for the city’s economic development.
On November 18, 1919 the Moscow river began to freeze up. It meant the beginning of winter and epitomised the prelude to this long dark season. The Russian version of the nature study calendar divides each of the fours seasons into smaller periods. Four in spring, three in summer, autumn and winter. The dawn of a season, its peak and wane mark weather and natural occurrences which are important for human activities. Russian Nature’s Calendar. Made by A. Lobkov using work of A. Strizhev, K. Yakovlev, A. Zuev, 1968. Exhibit item: Ivan Shpak. Model drawings: Mikhail Matrenin. Brass, enamel, milling, engraving, d 18.2 cm. 2019.
In June 1931 it was decided that the shallow and polluted Moscow river should be connected to the water-abundant Volga, by way of building a 128 km long canal. The Moscow-Volga canal included more than 240 hydraulic works, including 10 dams, 11 locks, 9 power plants, as well as reservoirs, moorings, ports, factories and sanatoriums. It took 6 years to dig it. The canal was literally hand constructed: the inmates of the Dmitrovsky labour camp, one of the ‘islands’ of the GULAG archipelago, were equipped only with shovels and barrows. By various estimates, 22,860 to 1,500,000 people died building it. A few hundred of those who survived, received commemorative badges, and many thousands were executed by shooting. Award badge To the builder of the Moskva-Volga canal, 1937. Illustrations from Modernizing Moscow. I. Ivanitsky, T. Gildenlant and E. Neyman (Eds). Design: A. Rodchenko, V. Stepanova. Text: V. Shklovsky. Moscow, Izostat, 1938. Idea: Aleksandra Diachenko, Egor Schurov (participated in the open call). Award badge: copy, 6×6×3 cm, ca. early 2000s. Illustrations: digital print, 25×13 cm. 2019.
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1947-2014 The second period of the timeline refers to the years when the river was fiercely exploited. However, it was exactly then that the river became the key romantic motive for many projects and literary/artistic works, for the human soul longed for nature in these harsh industrial times. It was the publication of an essay written by Timofey Raynov, the evangelist of cosmism, which gave way to romanticizing of the river. In his 1947 piece he was advocating that humans should treat inanimate nature — say, the planet, a stone or a river — the same way they would treat a person. These thoughts resonate with the contemporary philosophical thought today, when the Gaia’s hypothesis by James Lovelock is seriously taken into consideration by many scientists in different countries. His reflections were a starting point for changing the attitude towards the river in the future, as far as the exhibition’s narrative is concerned. Architectural and artistic works which praised the natural state of the river and defended its purification were another example of how people were romanticizing it (see exhibit items 1968, 1969, 1991). The longing for clean river water coincided with the construction of new dams and water storage reservoirs, and massive industrial wastewater discharge into the river. Its embankments became thoroughfares that polluted the water and destroyed the traditional way of life.
By the early 1970s road construction reached its climax. Most up-to-date materials and engineering solutions were used for building new highways. Using reinforced concrete spans with prestressed reinforcement was one of them. Roads were often drawn up along the coastlines of rivers and lakes, and so boat piers and nooks where people used to swim withered away, just as the rest of their daily routine did. New highways ruined and nullified entire forests and villages, and forced people to leave behind places which had been been inhabited for generations. But not a single soul complained or ranted about it: everyone believed that soon the ‘building of communism’ will be accomplished, and so somebody had to make room for the roads leading to that wonderful future. Village houses that disappeared underneath the Moscow ring road. Idea and exhibit concept: Sergey Topunov and Boris Kondakov (participated in the open call). Exhibit item: Pavel Kiselev. Plaster, 12×12×2 cm. 2019.
‘Moscow. Nature’s Revenge. Reconstruction of the Moscow river valley within the Moscow ring road’ was the theme suggested in 1991 for MArchI students’ graduate work by architect Boris Eremin, their supervisor. Rehabilitation of the river was the main goal for these projects. It meant restoring its natural landscape and relieving its utilitarian burden. Reconstruction of the Moscow river basin inside the city. From the ‘Moscow. Nature’s Revenge’ series (fragment). Project supervised by Boris Eremin. 1991. Exhibit item: Ivan Shpak. Paper, screen printing, 21×22 cm. 2019.
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2014-2030 The third part of the exhibition covers the Moscow river’s today and tomorrow, from 2014 to 2029. The ecological crisis and the romantic artistic image of the river were reinvented during the 2014 development competition for the best project for renovation of its riverside. The dream of its rehabilitation, of making the river natural again becomes a trigger for many initiatives, whether private, state, public or activist. There are people who arrange artistic actions on the river, people who enjoy an illegal swim, and others are looking for ways to clean the river. During this period, the name ‘Friends of the Moscow River’ first became known, and their Manifesto, which declared the right to the river, was first spread.
In 2014 the Moscow city government announced an international urban design competition for the best vision of the Moscow river’s future development. Russian architecture practice Meganom won the contest, as their ‘Future Ports’ project gave everybody a reason to tie up to the Moscow riverfront. Their design proposal envisaged adding more natural elements to the granite and concrete of the embankment. At the same time, it suggested that more life could be sparked in the city if new public spaces, such squares, outdoor concert halls, gardens, parks and ecological islands were created on the riverfront. All these are referred to as ‘ports’ and are meant to help purify the river and properly embed it into city’s everyday routine. An illustration for the ‘Moscow River Future Ports’. Idea: Meganom + Gillespies consortium, together with Systematica, Strategy Partners Group, John Thomson and Partners, Cushman & Wakefield. 2014. Exhibit item: Yury Grigoryan. C-print, 20×11.5 cm. 2019
A fly crossing a river was a performance put up on June 18, 2019 near Nikolina Gora village by ‘The Consequences of Collective Action’ art group. The performers stood on the opposite sides of the river. They threw a caprone thread over the water, and tied to it a helium balloon to which in its turn they tied a transparent container with a fly they found on the spot. The exact species of the fly remained unknown. Pulling the thread from one side to another they sent the container across the river. The container was then opened, and the fly flew away. The map and the container used in the performance ‘A fly crossing a river’. Courtesy of Sergei Sitar, author of the performance. Idea and exhibit item: Sergei Sitar. Plastic container, 12×6.5 cm, paper, rope, mixed technique. 2019.
On July 21, 2025 five members of the Friends of the Moscow River Society bypassed a century-old ban to swim in the river and despite the threats from the Federal Protective Service and the Federal National Guard Troops Service did have a swim opposite the Kremlin. All the participants of the unauthorized public action were arrested. The rest of the Friends of the Moscow River circulated a manifesto of the Society. Its final sentence read as follows: “It is high time we claimed the river back.” On July 22 hundreds of people came to the Moscow river and swam en masse, asserting their right to do it. The River Day is now celebrated annually on this date. A flyer with the invitation for the “Moskva-kva Rekafest” celebrations for Moscow river. July 15–30, 2030. Illustration: Tatevik Mamyan, 2019. Digital print, 20×15 cm. 2019.
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2030-2067 2030 is marked by an important event: it is declared that the Moscow River possesses natural intelligence (NI). This recognition has a strong impact on the attitude of people towards the river. The slogan used in the manifesto of the Friends of the Moscow River — ‘Let’s return our right to the river!’ — is changed into ‘Let’s give the river back its rights!’. The river becomes a source of inspiration for a lot of movements, from scientific and educational programs (such Water Affection) to radically eco-friendly and near-religious groups (such as The River Movement). In 2045, the river is granted the right to compensation for damage caused to it in the 1930s and gradually returns to its natural course and state.
May 14, 2030: the notion of ‘natural intelligence’ (NI) received legal recognition at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum. The term was elaborated by a group of leading ecologists, biologists, politicians and psychologists as an alternative to the term ‘artificial intelligence’. May 31, 2030: the Global Court named after Vernadsky declared that the Moscow river possesses natural intelligence (NI) and issued a passport confirming this fact. The passport of the Moscow river, 2030. Courtesy of the Institute of Natural intelligence. Idea and exhibit item: Julia Ardabievskaya, Alina Kvirkvelia, Artem Staborovskiy and Mikhail Khvalebnov. UV metal print, 20×15 cm. 2019.
On January 6, 2033 the first Temple of the River opened its doors in the south-east of Moscow in Kapotnya district. Prior to this event, the Friends of the Moscow River Society has been split into fractions for many years, and one of them became its extremist wing. These devoted environmentalists formed ‘The River Movement’, a neopagan brotherhood. Members of the cult later erected the Temple which, other than being a sacred place, has a formative and informational purpose: it houses an ecological school and the Moscow River Basin Research centre. Souvenirs from the River Temple shop: a photo of the River Temple and a hologram crystal. 2033. Idea and exhibit items: Polina Filippova. Photo, 10х10 cm, mixed technique; glass, engraving 2.5×2.3 cm. 2019.
The Court of Universal Equality acknowledged that humanity committed numerous wrongdoings against the natural intelligence (NI) of the Moscow river. According to the ruling, the river is entitled to compensation and restitution. The dams and locks are being taken down, artificial water reservoirs are drawn down, water is freed from the underground collectors. The river is becoming its natural self, floods come in spring and droughts cause low water levels in summer. A souvenir cap. Produced by the Friends of the Moscow River Society to celebrate the rights of the river. Courtesy of the Lost&found section of the Court of Universal Equality, 2045. Idea and exhibit item: Taisia Osipova, Anna Kamyshan. Cotton, thermal print, 26×19 cm. 2019.
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2067-2091 The fifth section of the ‘The Age of the Moscow river’ exhibition is dedicated to the period of symbiosis. It is in this time that genetic engineering is being widely used as an instrument of research, as people look for better ways of coexistence, trying to find a solution that brings harmony for the river’s natural intellect and themselves. River silk — a type of fabric derived from river moss — becomes the favorite eco-trend of Moscow fashion mongers. The River radio is the city’s most popular choice. The upland fringe made of membrane and mother-of-pearl embankments of the river turn unto new symbols of the capital. Finally, sturgeons — designed as markers of the river wellbeing — are celebrated in works of art.
The use of bioactive substances for the purification of water and the banks of the Moscow River in the 2050s led to the appearance of a dense suspension in the river which enveloped objects and swimmers once immersed in water. Once dry, the film transformed into a kind of fabric with a pleasant texture and light aroma of water lilies, river silk sui genereis. A sample of the river silk, ca. 2067 Idea and concept: Anna Andronova, Egor Orlov and Alisa Silantieva (participated in the open call). Exhibit item: Anton Churzin, Ivan Shpak. Natural materials, plexiglass, screw bolts and nuts,12×12 cm.
By 2076, poachers had completely exterminated — fishing them out by hand one by one — a genetically engineered species of sturgeon, launched into the Moscow River as a marker of its well-being. This tragedy was reflected in many works of art. Exterminated sturgeon. Painting by Aleksandra Budaeva, 2073. Idea and item exhibit: Aleksandra Budaeva. Oil on canvas, 9×12 cm. 2019.
Artificially designed shellfish (API) were originally meant to gather information about the condition of the Moscow river and clear more trash from its waters. Only later it turned out that their metabolic byproduct comes in a shape of river pearls. Even though the municipal authorities, the members of the Friends of the Moscow River Society and the city residents observe that the river has already become much healthier, API find yet more effluvia and dirt, process it and produce pearls which are then sent to the pearl depository. Overproduction led to the use of river pearls in paving and construction. Moscow, once the White city, then the Red one, is now known as the Pearl. ‘The Pearl Moscow’. Postcard. 2070. Pearl paving. Fragment. 2075. Idea and exhibit items: Maria Fedorova (participated in the open call). Postcard: print on pearlized paper, 14.5×9.5 cm. 2019. Pearl pavement: aluminium, original author’s technique, 10×5x3 cm. 2019.
2091-2119 The sixth — the last — part of the timeline is also the most ambiguous. It starts in 2091 when an eco-social district of the Drainless Area of the Caspian Sea was formed. Along with other territories, the Moscow river Basin and its inhabitants became a part of this district. In this way the human-river relationship is switched to a new mode. After years of exploiting the river and subsequent years when people attempted to form a symbiosis with it, nature starts to play the leading role. The quintessence of this change shows in the fact people created an official position of The One Who Thinks About the River. Any resident of the Moscow river Basin can take it and start contemplating the river on a regular basis as a professional.
There is now an official position of The One Who Thinks About The River. The main duty of the person in the office is to contemplate the river. It brings us back to the era when observing the nature and following its rhythms was the meaning of life for some people, and an intrinsic red line for other people who were disciplined and guided by it without ever realizing that. The new ball. Job advert for ‘The One Who Thinks About the River’ position, 2119. Idea and concept: Dmitry Laptev, Alexandr Popov and Olga Chernova (participated in the open call). Exhibit item: Anna Bouali, Ivan Shpak, Anna Kamyshan, Taisia Osipova, Andrey Mikhalev. Glass, electronic elements, mixed technique, 9.5×9.5 cm. 2019.
The stamp suggests that this kettle with a bended bottom found in the creeks of the Filyovsky Park was made in 2093. The artefact dates back to the New Corners era. Water reservoirs drawdown and snowy winters led to the unprecedented floods on the Moscow river. Widespread damage included flooded ground floors in most buildings by the river. Many buildings tilted. This caused a massive migration, people quickly colonized the hills free from water. However, some communities of Old Believers stayed in the riverfront and kept on living, working and accommodating to the New Corners. Kettle. Circa. 2093. Discovered during an archaeological expedition in 2280. Idea and concept: Anna Andronova, Egor Orlov and Alisa Silantieva (participated in the open call). Exhibit item: Ivan Shpak, Anna Bouali. Aluminium, argon welding, anodizing, 20×17 cm. 2019.
Since the late 2040s the ecological agenda plays an increasingly more significant part in the interaction between countries and governments. The UN declares that gaining control over the quality of water and soil, elaboration of new ways to reprocess microplastic and thorough monitoring of its sources are the humanity’s main challenges of the decade. In 2091 the drainless area of the Caspian Sea was formed. It incorporated basins of several rivers, including the Moscow river, and became an autonomous eco-social region. In 2115 an international agreement established new eco-political boundaries between all the countries of the world. Illustration from a children’s geographical encyclopedia, Odyssea Publishers, 2118. From the library of Anna Kamyshan. Idea and exhibit item: Anna Kamyshan. C-print, 16×15 cm. 2019.
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Yury Grigoryan
Yury Grigoryan, co-founder of Meganom architectural practice. In 1991 Yury graduated from MARCHI Moscow Architectural Institute, where he is currently a professor. From 2011 until 2014 he was the Director of Education at Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design. Besides leading Meganom, Yury regularly gives publics talks and participates in conferences.
Anna Kamyshan
Anna Kamyshan, co-founder of the Moscow River Friends community. Since 2014 she has been leading the Moscow River strategic redevelopment project at Meganom. Anna was trained as an architect, completed a postgraduate programme at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design (2014) and later a postgraduate programme in Sociology at the University of Manchester (2016).
Yulia Tarnavskaya
Yulia Tarnavskaya, editor. Previously worked as the editor-in-chief of the Afisha, Bolshoy Gorod and Afisha-Mir magazines. A few large exhibitions, including "Romantic Realism" (2015, Manege art hall, Moscow) and "Mechanics of Miracle" (2014, VDNKh, Moscow) benefited from Yulia's expertise, as she was responsible for their wall texts and captions. She was also the editor of the book that Meganom published to honour the memory of David Sarkisyan, the late director of the Moscow Museum of Architecture.
The XXII Triennale di Milano, Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, highlights the concept of restorative design and studies the state of the threads that connect humans to their natural environments––some frayed, others altogether severed. In exploring architecture and design objects and concepts at all scales and in all materials, Broken Nature celebrates design’s ability to offer powerful insight into the key issues of our age, moving beyond pious deference and inconclusive anxiety. By turning its attention to human existence and persistence, the XXII Triennale will promote the importance of creative practices in surveying our species’ bonds with the complex systems in the world, and designing reparations when necessary, through objects, concepts, and new systems. Even to those who believe that the human species is inevitably going to become extinct at some point in the (near? far?) future, design presents the means to plan a more elegant ending. It can ensure that the next dominant species will remember us with a modicum of respect: as dignified and caring, if not intelligent, beings.
Broken Nature is composed of a thematic exhibition and a number of international participations solicited through official channels. It will run from March 1 to September 1, 2019.
