Published on: 2026-09-22
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
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At the Multimedia Art Museum (MAMM), subordinate to the capital To the Department of Culture, starting from September 23, the XVI International Month of Photography will open in Moscow “Photobiennale-2026”.
The International “Photobiennale-2026″ opens the anniversary, 30th exhibition season at the Multimedia Art Museum and will become one of its key events. Within its framework, seven exhibitions will be held, including those dedicated to the work of world-class foreign artists. Separate projects will be devoted to masterpieces of film posters from the 1920s-1930s, the history of the Moscow Metro, and other topics,” said the Minister of the Moscow Government, head of the city’s Department of Culture.
This season, the festival will unite Russian and global photography art: the exhibition will showcase both classic projects of the Soviet avant-garde and works of the latest artistic practices. Visitors will see works by leading foreign photographers: Roger Ballen, Jan Schlegel, and Alexandra Catier. In addition, the program includes thematic exhibitions dedicated to the history of cinema, the Moscow metro, Soviet automobilization of the 1920s-1930s, as well as Lilia Brik.
“An anniversary is not a reason to sum up the results, but a necessity to build new plans. We try to discern and foresee those new paths along which art, including photography, which is mutating before our eyes, will develop. Art constantly reflects life, as well as its own nature. This is an intense and exciting process, which is why the main slogan of MAMM is ‘The most interesting is ahead!'” said the director of the Multimedia Art Museum, Olga Sviblova.
The Theater of the Subconscious
The exhibition “Theater of the Subconscious” will be held as part of the photobiennale Roger Ballen, one of the key photographers and artists of the second half of the 20th century, a participant of the 59th Venice Biennale (2022). Roger Ballen’s works are part of the collections of the world’s largest museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Centre for Art and Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The exhibition will combine the author’s classic works with his new series of works spanning 50 years of creativity. A special place will be given to the Russian premiere of the project “Inferno” (2025), inspired by Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.”
About aliens, mermaids, and jellyfish
Another international project of the program is the exhibition “About Aliens, Mermaids, and Jellyfish” by a contemporary German photographer Yana Shlegel. His photos are exhibited at the largest international art exhibitions and fairs, including Paris Photo, Photo London, and Art Basel. In Moscow, new series of the author’s works from 2024–2026 will be presented for the first time.
Jan Schlegel explores the beauty and uniqueness of the world’s plastic forms. He photographs both monumental brutalist structures and microscopic organisms whose secret lives are hidden from the human eye. His shots artistically transform nature and provide an almost childlike, unclouded perception.
Behind the glass
As part of “Photobiennale-2026,” MAMM will present the exhibition “Behind the Glass” by a contemporary French artist and photographer Alexandry Katiyer. She is the recipient of the Prix Niépce (2026), laureate of the Prix Elysée from the Museum of Photography in Switzerland (2018), and winner of the “Silver Camera” at the Moscow House of Photography, now known as MAMM (2006).
Alexandra Cathier’s work occupies a special place in contemporary photographic art. While the industry is going through a crisis, print media is disappearing, the number of mobile shots is growing, and AI creates images of non-existent objects and events, Alexandra Cathier continues the traditions of classical light painting. She pays particular attention to complex manual printing techniques. At the exhibition, visitors will be able to see both the series that brought her worldwide fame and new works.
The Soviet period of photography development will be presented at “Photobiennale-2026” with several large-scale projects.
Talking posters of silent films
To mark the 130th anniversary of the emergence of cinema in Russia, an exhibition titled “Talking Posters of Silent Cinema. Masterpieces of Film Posters from the 1920s-1930s from the Collection of Alexander Dobrovinsky” will open. The exhibition will tell which films were watched 100 years ago, which foreign films were released in Soviet distribution, and how domestic cinema developed. Among the featured artists are Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir and Georgy Stenberg, Anton Lavinsky, Semyon Semenov-Menes, Nikolay Prusakov, Mikhail Dlugač, and other masters known in the history of art and world design.
One of the largest sections of the exhibition is photomontage in the film poster. Visitors will see how in the 1920s-1930s poster art reflected all the main genres of cinema: thrilling spy films, historical-revolutionary dramas, situation comedies, and satirical films about the life of Western bourgeoisie. Inside the exhibition, there is a cinema hall where you can watch iconic films of the era and feel like a viewer of the early 20th century. As part of the exhibition, an extensive educational program will take place with the participation of film scholars and historians, as well as screenings of silent films accompanied by live piano players.
Lilya Brik: style icon and muse of the avant-garde
The exhibition “Lilya Brik: Style Icon and Muse of the Avant-Garde” will be another brilliant event of the “Photobiennale-2026” at MAMM. The project is dedicated to the 135th anniversary of Lilya Brik, muse of Vladimir Mayakovsky, wife of Osip Brik, and one of the key figures of the Moscow bohemia of the past century. The poet dedicated such famous works to her as “A Cloud in Trousers,” “The Backbone Flute,” and “Lilya!” Alexander Rodchenko saw her as one of his main models. The exhibition will showcase photographs from the 1910s to the 1970s, Alexander Rodchenko’s photomontages for the poem “About This,” posters, and film shots. The exposition is created jointly with the State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky and the State Museum of the History of Russian Literature named after V.I. Dahl.
Long live the car!
As part of “Photobiennale-2026,” a multidisciplinary project titled “Let There Be a Car! From the History of Soviet Motorization of the 1920s-1930s” will be presented. The exhibition will bring together photographs, film documents, posters, propaganda fabrics, magazines, children’s books, and other artifacts of the era. The exposition immerses visitors in the times of rapid motorization.
Visitors will see the first mass-produced Soviet motorcycle L-300 (the same model Timur rode in the film “Timur and His Team”) and a children’s pedal car from the 1930s. The exhibition will include more than 200 items from 25 state institutions of Moscow and regional locations, as well as private collections. The introduction of the automobile into the lives of Soviet citizens was connected with the rapid pace of industrialization. Already by the mid-1920s, this process had acquired great state significance.
Vladimir Mayakovsky dedicated the poems “Give Us a Car!”, “A Poem Like a Chauffeur”, and “The Story of One Dream” to it. Quotations from these will be presented in the exhibition. Here, you will also be able to see photographs of the first car owners, including Vladimir Mayakovsky himself, Lev Kuleshov, and Sergei Eisenstein. A separate section will be devoted to photo and film chronicles of famous car rallies: the Karakum (1933), the children’s pedal car race (1934), the first women’s rally (1936), and others.
The exhibition’s educational program is designed for visitors of all ages. Special lessons and workshops have been prepared for children: young guests will be able to draw, sculpt, and model future transport on computers. For the very little ones, the Multimedia Art Museum (MAMM) will host a pedal car race.
The metro — the pulse of time
Another exhibition, “Metro — Pulse of Time,” invites you to trace the 90-year history of the Moscow Metro. The exhibition will combine photographs from the 1930s to the 2020s, architectural sketches of stations, film fragments, and unique footage from cinema and television chronicles. It features works by classics of domestic photography — Alexander Rodchenko, Emmanuil Evzerikhin, Arkady Shaikhet, Mikhail Grachev, Vladimir Lagranj, Viktor Akhlomov, and Igor Mukhin. Viewers will also see works by outstanding directors: Grigory Alexandrov, Alexander Medvedkin, Mikhail Kalatozov, Georgiy Daneliya, and many others.
One of the features of the exhibition will be new projects created specifically for the exposition. Their authors are contemporary photographers Ivan Mikhailov, Gleb Zherekhov, and Ivan Onofriychuk. They will dedicate their works to metro stations built over the past 15 years. Since its inception, the Moscow Metro has become a major cultural phenomenon.
The photographs of Emmanuil Evzerikhin, Mark Markov-Grinberg, Boris Vdovenko, and other photographers, as well as newsreels from the 1930s, capture underground palaces filled with light and metro builders working under extremely harsh conditions. Viewers will see the first metro workers in impeccable uniforms, the first passengers amazed by the beauty and engineering complexity of the stations, candy vending machines, and buffets. The “best metro in the world,” as newspapers of those years wrote (using the masculine gender exactly), was meant to instill a new, progressive way of life among the population.
With the arrival of the thaw, the country changed, and along with it, the style of the era changed. The focus of art shifted from the ceremonial to the private. In the works of photographers and directors of the 1960s, the metro appears as a living space of urban everyday life, where the focus is on the person, their feelings, experiences, and doubts.
A separate chapter in the history of the Moscow metro is connected with music. In the 1970s-1980s, during the heyday of vocal-instrumental ensembles, the metro repeatedly became a concert venue. In the musical films “Moscow in Notes” (1969) and “The Losers’ Ensemble” (1976), the action takes place in the capital’s metro, and in 1982 a full episode of the popular program “Morning Mail” was dedicated to it. The exhibition is completed by photographs and videos from contemporary authors. They allow us to appreciate the colossal changes that have occurred in the metro over recent years.
The program of events in city museums contributes to the implementation of the goals and objectives of the national project in Moscow “Family”. More details about Russia’s national projects and the capital’s contribution can be found at special page.
A large-scale project appeared on the portal mos.ru special project, dedicated to the development of key sectors of Moscow. These include transport, industry, healthcare, education, sports, and construction. The special project helps to learn how the capital has changed over the past years, what initiatives aimed at making city residents’ lives even more comfortable are currently being implemented, and what awaits Moscow and its inhabitants in the near future.
On the project page “Culture, Heritage, and Leisure Industry” You can learn about how architectural monuments are preserved in the capital.
Moscow is the cultural center of the country and ranks among the leading megacities in terms of the number of museums and exhibition halls. The city has established a film cluster that unites the Moskino film factory on Ryazansky Avenue, the Gorky Film Studio, and the Moskino film park.
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