Novocomum in Como – Club Zuev in Moscow

We would like to point out that the exhibition “Terragni and Golosov: Novocomum in Como – Club Zuev in Moscow. Comparisons and Affinities”, Edited by Alessandro De Magistris and Anna Vyazemtseva and organized by MAARC Virtual Museum Abstractionism Rationalist Architecture Como, will be held in Moscow at the MUAR – Schusev State Museum of Architecture.

The exhibition aims to verify, through archive and editorial sources, the contacts, influences and differences between two of the most iconic works of the 900th century, Terragni's Novocomum and Golosov's Club Zuev, two masters of modern architecture.

These two buildings, united by a similar compositional solution – a cylindrical glass volume in the corner, and completely different in purpose, were designed and built almost simultaneously – in 1927-1930, in countries separated culturally, politically and economically. Their authors – Ilya Golosov (1883-1945) and Giuseppe Terrani (1904-1943) – belonged to different generations and had different education and professional experience, but both played a key role in the history of modern architecture.

The exhibition of unpublished and full-scale drawings of the Zuev Club, placed next to those of the Novocomum, documents from the State Museum of Architecture AV Shchusev in Moscow, the State Archive of Arts and Literature in Moscow and the Terragni Archive in Como, alternates with images and period photos, 20 contemporary large-format authorial photos of Roberto Conte (a real exhibition within the exhibition, the result of the investigation carried out specifically by the photographer between 2016 and 2019).
It is also possible to watch a documentary conceived by Anna Vyazemtseva and filmed by Anton Ovcharov in Como, Milan, Moscow and St. Petersburg inside the two architectures, which includes several interviews with the curators of the exhibition as well as with other authoritative scholars.

According to the curators of the project Alessandro De Magistris and Anna Vyazemtseva, “inviting the public to compare and reflect, the exhibition avoids simplifications and hasty comparisons, introduces the viewer to two key works of 20th-century architecture and speaks of the difficult events in the history of Italy and the Soviet Union that accompanied them between the two world wars.”

Opening on September 4th at the AV Schusev Museum of Architecture in Moscow.
Edited by: Anna Vyazemtseva and Alessandro De Magistris

Exhibition organizers: MAARC – Association “Abstract Art and Rationalism in Como”, State Museum of Architecture named after AV Schuseva
Photo project: Roberto Conte
Coordinators: Ebe Gianotti (MAARC), Polina Streltsova (GNIMA named after Shchusev)
Graphic design and installation: Giovanna Saladanna in collaboration with the Municipality of Como, Terragni Archive, AV Schusev Museum Moscow.