Arrival to the Significant Space

"Arrival in a Place of Significance" is the first joint project by renowned artists Irina Drozd and Dmitry Shorin. The exhibition invites visitors to reinterpret the historic Moscow tenement building of the First Russian Insurance Company, built in 1906 and located at 21/5 Kuznetsky Most Street. "Visitors be able to experience the atmosphere of returning to the tenement building, which is now inhabited by peculiar ghosts of the past rather than by living people, reflecting the cultural layers and the ideology of the time," said Anton Uspensky, curator of the exhibition.

Thematic sections of the exhibition create a multi-layered context that brings back the functionality of the tenement building that used to host the offices of various businesses such as the First Russian Automobile Club, the Steamship Trade Society, Pavel Ovchinnikov's jewelry store, and Philip Morris' department store. Works on books and the history of art are now located on the same floor as the former library, while works with references to the Soviet era occupy the place of communal apartments.

The Tomatdesign team was thrilled with the opportunity to create a book design that highlights the potential of the creative duo and the value of their works. The catalog is designed to be not just a classic reference material but as an object with artistic value of its own. The intersection of personal stories, mutual interviews of the artists, and the curator's essay reveal the concept of the exhibition and establish the historical and cultural context for the publication.