The seven channel video installation ‘Hotel Moscow’ explores the urban myth surrounding the former gigantic hotel which was situated near Red Square in Moscow, built in the 1930s under Joseph Stalin’s (1879-1953) instruction and demolished under Putin in 2005. The mystery that surrounded the chain of events in the development of this architectural project meant that the façade of the hotel became an awkward fusion of two different architectural schemes – its left side totally different from its right - which has led to it becoming an icon of Stalin’s dictatorship. ‘Hotel Moscow’ consists of recordings of six Russian citizens each filmed alone in their homes, telling their version of the hotel’s history and significance. The stories vary in tone and details, depending on each storyteller's age, background and political stance. Investigating the space between fact and fiction these stories act as metaphors for historical and political absurdities, in Russia as much as elsewhere.
