Pop-up cafe and bookshop open in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery

A group of young Russian designers have given Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery of fine arts a makeover, breathing new life into its shop, cafe and other public spaces. Egor Kraft from design collective Dopludo worked with designers Maxim Shcherbakov and Alexey Galkin to temporarily transform the cafe, the book and souvenir shop, the main hall and the patio. The aim of the project is to rethink public spaces in galleries in order to ensure visitors have a more meaningful experience. For the duration of the project, the shop will sell limited edition posters and silk scarves designed by artists Pavel Pepperstein, Aidan Salakhov and Dmitry Gutov.

Another objective of the art project, which was coordinated by curator Oxana Bondarenko, founder of The July 16 agency, was to rework the space in a manner consistent with the functional design of the museum. The initiative was inspired by a quote by Russian painter Kazimir Malevich who once said that “any cutout pentagon or hexagon would be a better sculpture than the Venus de Milo or David” — a statement on the notion that the design of a gallery space should relate closely to the collection of art it houses.

The temporary redesign will be in place until 2 June.