David's Office

In the Ruined Wing (entrance from Starovagankovsky per.)
“From a space where contemplative people admire the past, a museum has the ability to transform itself into a place where people actively experiment with the future.”

David Sarkisian
David Sarkisian was Director of the Schusev State Museum of Architecture from 2000 to 2009. During those years, the former Talyzin estate on Vozdvizhenka Street emerged as an important exhibition space, and the Museum became a bastion in the struggle to preserve Moscow’s architectural heritage. David filled his office with an incredible collection of assorted objects, creating an extraordinarily creative space that became an original self-portrait of this exceptional person. After David passed away, his coworkers at the Museum, his relatives, and his friends decided to preserve his office by recreating it in the Ruined Wing, an exhibition space created by David himself. In 2010 a virtual installation of the office was presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale. With the permission of Osanna Sarkisian, David’s sister, the objects from the office were transferred to the Museum for a permanent memorial exhibition. They were moved, and remain here in the same order in which they lay in David’s office while he was alive. This installation is not merely a copy of his office; it is his image, the reflection and identity of David Sarkisian, and a testament to the bright decade of life at the Museum under his leadership.

Author of the exposition: David Sarkisian
Architects: Yuri Grigorian, Aleksandr Brodsky
With the participation of: Yulia Ardab’evskaia, Irina Korob’ina, Pavel Kuznetsov, Elizaveta Likhacheva, Osanna Sarkisian, Gleb Soshnikov, Polina Filippova