January 24 opens an exhibition of Soviet design in Brussels. From the post-war years to the 1980 Olympic Games, the life style in the USSR through household items designed by Soviet designers introduces the Brussels Design Museum ADAM. Exposition of Soviet Design. Red Wealth - "Soviet Design and Red Wealth" - prepared by the Moscow Design Museum (MDM).
By topic: Exhibition of Soviet Design in Europe
ADAM shows 600 items from the Soviet Union from 1950 to 1980: from trains and boats (these are photos and 3D mockups) to electrical appliances, guitars, radios, watches, packs of cigarettes, canned goods and posters. The exhibition opens with the legendary Volga, a car that stood 60 years ago in the Russian pavilion at the international exhibition Expo 58. From the works of the automotive industry there is a Latvian 1959 minibus (3D layout), designed by designer Svetlana Mirzoyan, a 3D layout of a fire engine and a prototype snowmobile.
The covers of the magazines "Technical Aesthetics". 80s MDM Director Alexandra Sankova believes that when Russian design of the 21st century develops, it is important to look back on the achievements of the past decades and present the names of the designers who shaped the lifestyle of the Soviet people. Each section of the exhibition presents a review of the material culture of a Soviet citizen: childhood, leisure, furniture, household appliances, design, engineering and industrial production. In Brussels, presented and unique projects of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics (VNIITE).
Sewing machine "Rocket". 1955. Sewing machine "Tula" Many projects were inspired by the cosmic successes of the Soviet Union and Khrushchev's visit to the USA. During this trip and meetings with Nixon, the Soviet leader was greatly impressed by the American way of life. Returning to the Kremlin, Khrushchev promised that the USSR would “overtake and overtake America.” Attractive appliances of the ZIL and Tula brands: the Tula sewing machine and the ZIL refrigerator, completely American-style, were to be the undoubted evidence of Soviet success. For the first time "Tula" released in 1955, the Tula Machine-Building Plant: an innovative Soviet sewing machine had an electric motor. Prototypes were made in Leningrad, and the design was based on sewing machines, taken away from Germany after the war. Although Tula was widely advertised, the majority of Soviet citizens still preferred Singer’s reliable sewing machine, which was produced by a well-known American company at its Podolsk plant until the revolution.
Radio "Star", 1954. Radio "Star". Released in 1954, the radio carries both echoes of the epochs of art deco and modernism. This is an impressively beautiful device: a balanced, monumental, streamlined shape exactly copied the French radio Excelsior 52, S.N.R., Société Nouvelle 1952 in a plastic case.
Guitars "Krunk", "Tonic" and "Ural" (on the picture). The bass guitar "Krunk", especially in its two-headed version, is probably the most odious electric music instrument produced in the USSR. The Yerevan factory made a string guitar, its black case was covered with an unusually thick and strong even by Soviet standards layer of polyester varnish “star dust”. Guitars were notable for their ease (“Ural” weighed about 5 kg) and were an indispensable attribute of VIA - amateur vocal-instrumental ensembles, which from the late 60s became heroes of evenings in the Palaces of culture.
Volga player. A player that plays only singles. In 1957, the Saratov Electromechanical Plant struck the company with a technical miracle in the form of a portable player, designed in such a way that it resembled a suitcase. His release was massive 50-60-ies. And the factory "Melody", the main record company in the USSR, began to make small vinyl records.
Covers for vinyl records. 60-70s The exhibition also presents a rich collection of advertising posters, magazines and fashion magazines. A separate room is dedicated to sports, including racing bikes, skis. Interviews with Soviet designers are shown in the video: Yuri Soloviev, Valery Akopov, Vladimir Runge, Igor Zaitsev, Svetlana Mirzoyan and Alexander Ermolaev. Visitors will also be able to familiarize themselves with the unique archival film document Design in the USSR (1977), shot to promote Soviet design abroad.
Related topic: Moscow Design Museum at London design biennale 2016
A carton of milk. The lines for such packaging in the USSR were supplied by the Swedish company Tetrapack. in 1944, Eric Wallenberg invented the packaging in the form of a tetrahedron. C beg. 50s packaging design was done graphics "Prodoform". Soviet Design. Red Wealth. From January 24 to May 24, 2018. Brussels Museum of Design ADAM.
