NEW YORKER / Diversity United - Art Guide Moscow 22.11.21 – 13.03.22

Kremlin secret
The Kremlin is the seat of the
Russian president and, with its
more than two-kilometer-long
red brick wall, probably the city‘s
best-known landmark. But this was
not always the case: the medieval
fortress, which has been a UNESCO
World Heritage Site since 1990, only
acquired its red color at the end of
the 19th century. For around 300
years, the walls and towers were
painted white.
False Moscow
Even if the name suggests
otherwise, the Moscow Mule
originated in the United States
in the early 1940s, but it is
closely linked to the Smirnoff
distillery founded in Moscow
at the end of the 19th century,
whose „Smirnoff Vodka“ was
soon to be made known in
North America.
Soaring high
At 540 meters, the Ostankino
TV tower in the north of Moscow
is the tallest structure in
Europe - since its opening in
1967, it was even the tallest
free-standing structure in the
world until 1975. The integrated
revolving restaurant „Seventh
Heaven“ provides spectacular
views over Moscow.
Go big!
Moscow‘s official population is
12.7 million (01/2021) – as large
as Finland and Denmark combined!
In Gorky Park alone, a
green oasis in the middle of the
big city, up to 100,000 people
usually gather on a weekend day.
Clever dogs
The Moscow Metro is used by up
to nine million passengers every
day and is one of the world‘s largest.
But it‘s not just people who
use this convenient way of getting
from A to B: Moscow‘s street dogs
have also adapted to the traffic.
In search of food, the animals not
only obey traffic rules to avoid
being run over on the road, but
even ride the subway! They
have learned to recognize the
stops from the loudspeaker announcements
and even hop on
a seat for a nap. In the evening,
some dogs even ride back to
the suburbs.
The exhibition location:
The State Tretyakov Gallery
The museum, which houses one
of Russia‘s largest and most
famous art collections, takes its
name from textile merchant and
art collector Pavel Mikhailovich
Tretyakov, who throughout his
life not only built up a considerable
collection of mainly contemporary
Russian artwork, but also,
together with his younger brother
Sergei, constructed the premises
in which the works found their
place. In 1892, Pavel Tretyakov
donated his collection and that of
his late brother to the city of Moscow.
At that time, the collection
included almost 2,000 works of
art. Today, the collection includes
more than 180,000 works of art
distributed among three sites: the
Tretyakov Gallery, the New Tretyakov
Gallery, and in the studios
and apartments of the exhibiting
artists.