Russian culture abroad: Soviet design of 1960-1980 to be on display at London Design Biennale

Russia will present Soviet design of 1960-1980 at the first London Design Biennale 2016, that opens at Somerset House on September 7.

"We are showing works by Soviet designers that have never been shown to public. We chose this period because it was the time when stunning projects were created but they could not be seen first because of the country’s seclusion, then because the theme of Soviet design was not presented," Alexandra Sankova, the director of the Moscow Design Museum that organizes the project, said.

She said the previous time Russia presented its design on a large scale was back in 1925 in Paris, when the pavilion of Russian and Soviet architect and painter Konstantin Melnikov and painter, sculptor and photographer Alexander Rodchenko were a hit.

More than 30 countries will bring visions of Utopia to the biennale. The Russian exhibition is fully in tune with the main theme of the biennale, Utopia by Design, as "projects of Soviet designers were utopian to a great extent: the thought was flying faster than the possibilities".

The exhibition will feature objects both launched in production and not, as well as those existing in one or two copies or incomplete.

The London Design Biennale will run until September 27.