Photo of the week: a snapshot of the future. But where?

For the last week The Calvert Journal has been travelling across Russia to host a series of workshops on digital storytelling. Having finished the first leg of their travels, our editor Nadia Beard, together with Will Strong, Programme Manager for Calvert 22 Foundation, have visited Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Sochi so far. Can you recognise which Russian city is captured in our photo of the week?

“The photo shows a light projection on the exterior of the Yelstin Centre in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. It’s an amazing museum of twentieth-century history and the Nineties more specifically,” says, Masha Borodacheva, our Partner Manager who took the photo.

Named after Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s president from 1991-1999, the art and educational centre was one of the most memorable locations for our recent workshops: it houses a museum dedicated to the public figure and a unique collection of Nineties artefacts including Yeltsin’s own desk, complete with a hidden nuclear button.

The building itself, reconverted from a shopping centre, is a symbol of the Nineties, though in this photo looks more like an artefact of the future than the past. “Opposite the museum is a tall business centre complex, and 100 metres from there is the bridge, painted to look like a domino set by street artist Timofei Radya. The colours and neon lights reminded me of the film Blade Runner,” Borodacheva continues.

Yekaterinburg is known as the “Constructivism capital of the Urals” for having the largest concentration of avant-garde architecture, yet this photo shows a different perspective on the city and a bright future over the horizon.

Our editors will be travelling to Krasnodar, Voronezh, St Petersburg and Moscow from 9 — 25 March. Why not RSVP here (in Russian), or follow our journey on our Instagram.