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Factory of Happy People. Gorky Park
Moscow Museum of Modern Art
2018
2018
An installation-exhibition marking the 90th anniversary of Moscow’s main park—Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure.
According to Betty Glan, the first director of Gorky Park, the name "The Factory of Happy People" was coined by Herbert George Wells, who visited Moscow in 1934. Over the decades, the park has served multiple roles: it educated and entertained, promoted ideology and leisure, showcased ballet, rock operas, and consumer goods, acted as a showcase for Soviet power and a meeting place for countercultures, hosted elite art exhibitions and criminal showdowns, functioned as Moscow’s largest ice rink and a testing ground for scientific experiments, and became a stage for carnivals and semi-underground art exhibitions. These shifting "masks" of the park—created by architects, artists, designers, scenographers, and directors, as well as the park’s visitors—transformed from era to era, layering over one another and resurfacing in the park’s hidden corners.
Students of Dmitry Krymov’s scenography workshop at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) were invited to interpret and visualize the park’s key historical periods: the experimental and avant-garde 1920s, the Stalinist 1930s, the wartime 1940s, the Thaw and Stagnation periods in the 1950s–1960s, Perestroika in the late 1980s, and the vibrant 2000s.
At the heart of the exhibition was a journey through these historical eras—a movement through "rings of time", all connected by a single historical timeline. Along this timeline, curator Aleksandra Selivanova and Moscow historian Alexander Mozhaev assembled artifacts, artworks, photographs, documents, and stories that reveal the most intriguing and unexpected moments in the park’s history.
According to Betty Glan, the first director of Gorky Park, the name "The Factory of Happy People" was coined by Herbert George Wells, who visited Moscow in 1934. Over the decades, the park has served multiple roles: it educated and entertained, promoted ideology and leisure, showcased ballet, rock operas, and consumer goods, acted as a showcase for Soviet power and a meeting place for countercultures, hosted elite art exhibitions and criminal showdowns, functioned as Moscow’s largest ice rink and a testing ground for scientific experiments, and became a stage for carnivals and semi-underground art exhibitions. These shifting "masks" of the park—created by architects, artists, designers, scenographers, and directors, as well as the park’s visitors—transformed from era to era, layering over one another and resurfacing in the park’s hidden corners.
Students of Dmitry Krymov’s scenography workshop at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) were invited to interpret and visualize the park’s key historical periods: the experimental and avant-garde 1920s, the Stalinist 1930s, the wartime 1940s, the Thaw and Stagnation periods in the 1950s–1960s, Perestroika in the late 1980s, and the vibrant 2000s.
At the heart of the exhibition was a journey through these historical eras—a movement through "rings of time", all connected by a single historical timeline. Along this timeline, curator Aleksandra Selivanova and Moscow historian Alexander Mozhaev assembled artifacts, artworks, photographs, documents, and stories that reveal the most intriguing and unexpected moments in the park’s history.
Curators
Aleksandra Selivanova
Philipp Vinogradov
Valentina Ostankovich
Exhibition Scenography
Students of the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS),
Dmitry Krymov’s Studio:
Evgenia Rzheznikova
Elizaveta Guseva
Anna Grebennikova
Alexandra Dykhne
Grigory Rakhmilovich
Maria Plavinskaya
Anna Itkina
Olga Sizoy
Historical Consultant
Alexander Mozhaev
Aleksandra Selivanova
Philipp Vinogradov
Valentina Ostankovich
Exhibition Scenography
Students of the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS),
Dmitry Krymov’s Studio:
Evgenia Rzheznikova
Elizaveta Guseva
Anna Grebennikova
Alexandra Dykhne
Grigory Rakhmilovich
Maria Plavinskaya
Anna Itkina
Olga Sizoy
Historical Consultant
Alexander Mozhaev
