Transit

One has to go to Moscow. All the power is in Moscow. (с) Brother, 1997, dir. Aleksei Balabanov. New Babylon, a golden cage, a big rented apartment or the head office of the Corporation Russian Federation? One way or another, Moscow is a huge transit place where you enter a suspended state – a transit state. In some regions in Russia, people say that a person becomes a local in 3 years after moving to a new place. Having moved to Moscow in search of a living and having lived here for 3 years, I still can't call this city a home. The transit state doesn't leave me: the streams of people and cars carry me away as a river carries away large objects. My route follows the Moskva river: through city outskirts, sleeper neighborhoods, industrial zones, business centers, the Red Square, gentrified areas, and back to industrial zones and city outskirts. And this suspended state makes me feel that Russian society is also in the transit state, insecure about the future and unable to make a choice at the eternal crossroads. In this project, I explore the urban environment of Moscow to find past, present and future changes, and bring out and understand the development path for the state and society.