The very first P.S.Culture studio project was exhibited in the Museum of Moscow. Dedicated to the city life during World War I, it takes the visitors through the whirlwind of wartime. The witnesses of the era — diaries, photographs, letters and posters — envision the timeline of the war: starting with the enthusiasm of 1914 and subsiding in the silence of mass graves.
The exposition couples unique wartime artifacts with up-to-date artistic solutions. For us authenticity always goes first. We used the wallpaper samples of 1910s, recreated the grenadier regiment uniform, the Sisters of Mercy pinafores, as well as the full dress of a Moscow University student. In the same time, multimedia tools we use are appropriate and profound in their essence. The examples are «1914» neon sign (conveys anxiety and hopelessness) and the magnified picture of frontline routine, pierced by projectable bombshells (conveys the feeling of mortal, yet invisible danger).
World War I in Russia started with bellicose rhetoric — and entailed the October Revolution of 1917. The visitors go back in time, exploring the vehement years of WWI — and they are not alone. They are accompanied by papier-mache mannequins, which represent the wartime Muscovites. Their faces are featureless and pale; it is not until the end of the exhibition, when the visitors see their backs. They appear to be stained with blood.