Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Art museum in Gorky Park, Moscow, Russia
The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art occupies the former Vremena Goda restaurant, a 1968 Soviet modernist building in Gorky Park. Rem Koolhaas's OMA added a facade of translucent two-layer polycarbonate panels, 11 metres wide, that rise vertically above the roof terrace. Inside, restored brick-mosaic walls include a mosaic of a red-haired girl among foliage, and some Soviet-era ceramic tiles remain.
Founded in 2008, the center relocated from its original location to its present site in Gorky Park some years later. The building was previously a Soviet-era restaurant that underwent complete transformation to serve as an art institution.
The museum's name comes from the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage, its 2008 home. Its public library of about 60,000 items on contemporary art moved into the main building in 2022. The museum has staged over 100 exhibitions, including retrospectives of John Baldessari, Marina Abramović and Mark Rothko.
The center sits directly within Gorky Park and is easily reached on foot from the metro entrance. Visitors should plan for extended time to explore all levels and the rotating exhibition programs throughout the year.
The 1968 Vremena Goda restaurant was abandoned for about 20 years before Rem Koolhaas's OMA converted it. The renovation restored brick-mosaic walls, including a mosaic of a red-haired girl surrounded by foliage that became a museum symbol, and kept some Soviet-era ceramic tiles. The new facade uses translucent two-layer polycarbonate panels 11 metres wide that rise above the roof terrace.
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