White Room / Black Room: Alexander Brodsky

The first UK showing of Russia’s leading avant-garde architect opens in London this October at Calvert 22

White Room / Black Room will see Brodsky transform an entire floor of the gallery into two rooms filled with light and darkness, making for a fully immersive experience. Viewers will enter through a small door and the space will be divided into two contrasting rooms first encountering a seemingly endless corridor of white light and then a more confined darker chamber, hidden from view and filled with blackness.

Described as the “most important Russian architect alive today” Alexander Brodsky’s work is characterised by a unique ability to translate archetypal traditional forms, using everyday materials and construction techniques. Brodsky, who graduated from the Moscow Institute of Architecture in 1978, first received international acclaim in the ’80s with his utopian and imaginative paper architecture in collaboration with Ilya Utkin.

His training has resulted in a practice that moves comfortably between the worlds of fine art and architecture. His reconfiguration of modest objects, his evocative lighting, and his use of elemental materials, including oil, clay, sand, and, even ice, invent a unique conceptual aesthetic. His functional buildings meld modernity and traditional elements to startling effect. Known throughout Russia for his work as an exponent of “paper architecture”, Brodsky is becoming increasingly noted internationally for his architectural projects and site specific installations.