Decoding the DNA of Cities: Current Exhibitions on Local Contexts

We begin our route in Ulyanovsk. At the Regional Art Museum, a collective research exhibition, «Six Stories of the City, ” is currently on display, stemming from the results of the III Modern Art Residency „MELNITSA + SPHERE“ (Central Support for Culture and Modern Art Development + Modern Art Support Foundation).

Over a long period, the residency participants investigated the identity of Ulyanovsk, striving to develop its unique code using artistic and conceptual methods. The focus included historical memory, architecture, literature, and local urban communities. Museums, archives, and staff from local organizations, along with fieldwork, contributed to the deep dive into the city’s narratives.

Having absorbed knowledge about Ulyanovsk, the artists created original projects that reflect the city as a complex structure where historical plots, cultural imagery, and social mechanisms intertwine. Six remarkable stories about the city and a compelling exhibition experience!

/ Curators: Alexey Korsi and Viktor Zhilyaev

/ Artists: Alexey Zhuravlev, Elizaveta Klevantseva, Nadezhda Petrova, Olga Babina, Alexander Volkov, Margarita Zhuravleva

We continue our journey through regional projects where artists reflect on local contexts.Our next stop is the collaborative project, «Simple Landscapes. Perm, ” featuring artist Andrey Lyublinsky and students from the design school, „Tochka, ” at the PERMM Museum. This is a reflection on the city seen through the lens of simple forms and color palettes. The project participants shared personal routes and their relationship with their hometowns, embedding private stories within a shared framework to create a new city within a city.The expressive foundation of the project was Lyublinsky’s series, „Simple Landscapes.“ In this series, the artist depicts urban and natural landscapes using basic elements: color, simple light-and-shadow solutions, geometry, and rhythmic patterns. Perm is an inseparable protagonist in the artist’s practice; he frequently addressed the city, including in his urban interventions.For the exhibition at the PERMM Museum, Lyublinsky invited the students of the design school, „Tochka, ” to expand their understanding of Perm through the deliberate simplification of the visible landscape. Applying the „urban constructor“ method (using assembled elements, modules, and solutions for representing urban space) in practice, the project participants gathered their own views of Perm, which were then integrated into a common visual language—an installation panorama of the city. The exhibition is supplemented by the soundscape of composer Polina Limyè./ Curator and Initiator: Andrey Lyublinsky/ Participants: Students from the design school, „Tochka“

The journey continues in Yelts. In the new space of the «Buksir» gallery, nine artists gathered to discuss subjects that often fall outside the confines of official historical narratives. The residency, organized by the gallery and the SFERA Foundation for Contemporary Art Support, resulted in an exhibition dedicated to themes of counter-history and countermemory as they relate to Yelts. These include little-explored urban narratives, underground passages, vanished riverbeds, old unsigned photographs, fading personal histories, and lost everyday objects.

The project team questions who speaks on behalf of a place, thereby shaping its image. Is it the archive? Social strata or political structures? Or does the voice of history arise depending on the intention of the person interacting with the document?

The former merchant house and shop of merchant Bogomolov serves as the space for these collective artistic investigations. Within its walls, the artists function like detectives, working with clues—the silhouettes of the past, traces, and lacunae—to reconstruct the fullest truth of what existed back then and what is inevitably being lost today.

/ Curator: Daria Epin

/ Artists: Dima Bolokhov, Nelly Akchurina, Yaroslava Komissarova, Dmitry Makhov, Anna Rymar, Gleb Pastukhov, Vitaly Tyurlik, Sasha Kokacheva, Katya Yanova

Heading to Suzdal! A large project by artist Lucy Solovyova (LU) has opened in the public spaces of the MIRA Center. Through engagement with the residents of Suzdal and the MIRA creative community, LU is exploring relationships—both those already formed and those poised to develop in various corners of the city. Art becomes the focal point around which moments of interaction, shared leisure, and connection are built. Since LU lives and works in both Vladimir and Suzdal, it is particularly fascinating to observe how these local connections between residents are formed.

At the MIRA Center, the artist displays works that resonate with the magical potential of Suzdal, in collaboration with local inhabitants. In the authors' view, this potential imbues ordinary objects with idyllic qualities, a touch of fairy-tale wonder, and sacred significance. The exhibition speaks to the accessible opportunity to see the miracles surrounding us.

In «Lartse, ” LU continues her dialogue with local artists. An exhibition has been staged within the walls of an experimental wooden pavilion, prompting reflection on how a place imprints itself upon an artist’s life—and whether the reverse effect exists in this interaction. Artists from different generations, sharing the same space, raise the theme of the „local artist“ and invite a conversation about the cultural development of those who remain intrinsically linked to the places where they were born and raised—the concept of creative predestination.

An fountain has been installed in the „Aquarium.“ The idea sounds absurd yet intriguing. For centuries, fountains have been understood as a point of origin for social connections through rest and contemplation. The local artist and MIRA community member, Ilay Djipov, conceived this Suzdal fountain, weaving references to white stone carving, motifs of fauna, and, naturally, characters from LU’s work—figures that invite passersby to pause, ground themselves, or simply dream.

The project was realized by the MIRA Center and the «SOYUZ» Cultural Project. / Curators: Evgenia Kazarnovskaya, Anna Borunova, Elena Anitova / Exhibit participants at the MIRA Center: Lyusya Solovyova (LU), Darya Arkatova, Ksenia Bakaeva, Sofia Ber, Daniil Burlakov, Maria Gavrilova, Garikk, Elizaveta Golubeva, Sofia Grishna, Ulyana Doronkina, Varvara Dragunova, Ilay Zhipov, Anna Zharenova, Tatyana Kineeva, Tatyana Makarova, Elizaveta Marinina, Evgenia Polyakova, Alena Seleznyova, Alisa Semyonova, Maria Semenova, Evdokia Syndyachkina, Olga Syndyachkina, Svetlana Stepanova, Glafisha Tarakanova, Diana Urvantsova, Elizaveta Khrustova, Aleksandra Chalikova / Exhibit participants at «Lartsa»: Lyusya Solovyova (LU), Anzhelika Bovsunovskaya, Vladimir Blagoveschensky, Alexey Vesyolkin, Garikk, Pyotr Dik, Viktor Dynnikov, Anna Zharenova, Kashka Zhidomorova, Elizaveta Komarova, Aleksandra Mikhaltsova, Artyom Podporin, Marianna Turnova, Tatyana Flenova / Authors of the Suzdal Fountain: Lyusya Solovyova (LU), Ilay Zhipov

For Lena Sharganova, the city of Nelidovo in Tver Oblast is not just her hometown, but the starting point of her substantive artistic practice, including work in textiles. Her long-running authorial project, «Radiant City, ” features pieces where Nelidovo becomes a specific locus of memory, prompting the artist to delve into family archives, documentary materials, and oral histories. Lena Sharganova has explored the fabric of this city—a former industrial center and an unfulfilled vision of a garden city.At the „Rel’sa“ exhibition, works from various series of the „Radiant City“ project are presented, alongside new pieces where personal memory intersects with the collective memory and public history of Nelidovo. The exhibition is akin to a journey—we move from the city of modernity into the past—to a time when fearless miners extracted minerals, and urban planners strived to bring the idea of a garden city to life and create a comfortable space for living and prosperity.

Upon returning to Moscow, you should visit a major thematic exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery to cap off your journey. The focus is the flower, which became eternally entrenched in the visual arts at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This beautiful era—a time of beauty and refinement—was captured by Konstantin Korovin, Isaac Levitan, Mikhail Vrubel, Valentin Serov, Alexey Isupov, Mikhail Shemyakin, and others. In addition to 150 works by brilliant artists, the exposition showcases not only painting but also sculpture and decorative arts—porcelain and glass objects. The flower and floral motifs, in general, provide a rich space for formal and conceptual experimentation! / Curator: Olga Atroshchenko

_____________________________________________________Text Author: Michael ArutyunyanOn the cover: A view of the exhibition of Lena Sharganova’s solo show, «The Road Home» (2026), at the CSI «Relsy»Image Source: Photographer Timur Yomov (Geometria platform)