The city is something more than just a place of birth. Here people are working, studying and relaxing. And the city has its own life. It is like a big living creature with citizens bustling around, stone labyrinth of streets and neon signs. Look how several artists and photographers, exhibited in Moscow some time ago, express their perception of the city.

The exhibition “People and the City” took place at the Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art, a popular capital's haunt with galleries, design studios, art cafes and showrooms.
The space of the exposition was divided into several parts, each of which presented the certain view on the urban environment.
There were maps, panoramic views, city landscapes captured from distances and heights

and individual buildings. 

We move from far to close, from general to specific. Entering the city, we start an exciting journey in the discovery of the new world. The photographers lead us through amazing pathways, showing the features of a megalopolis like constant change and a mixture of times, when past, present and future exist in the same space.he artists offer an inspirational itinerary through the streets that are breathing and moving like animals. This street life is full of dreams and challenges, luck and obstacles. 

 
We follow the history of the inhabitants of the city, observing their relationships with each other and with the surrounding area. People move around, communicate, meet each other, share ideas and create the history of the place where they live. Constructing various collective identities, people play an essential role in their environment.


We can see places, where people work and enterntain. It can be a busy city of stock exchange. Or a vital, ebergetic, colorful city with thousands of lights, theatres, restaurants and beaches.

 There is something tragic, cynical and absurd in the modern megalopolis that looks like a big island in the ocean. People live together, but set up barriers against each other. The contemporary man can feel himself unprotected and paradoxically lonely in the crazy, never-sleeping city.


 The last section of the exhibition was dedicated to the Imaginary City. The photographers present an unusual experiment, playing with architectural form and trying to find their ideal place to live.
 It can look like a dream, the world full of butterflies, created by Peter Blake. Or like a nightmare, an apocalyptical invention by Jiang Pengyi.

Everyone chooses his own way to live. What place will you choose? 
 
Natalia Semicheva.
All photos are made by the author
© Natalia Semicheva, 2012.