Victory Of Culture and Beauty
27.02.2025 — 29.06.2025
Dark Majesty: Art Deco and the Rise of Italian Fascism
Visiting Art Déco. Il trionfo della modernità at the Palazzo Reale in Milan felt like entering a dream woven in polished onyx, burnished bronze, and carved ivory — but one whose beauty carries a strange, ominous weight.
Italy’s Art Deco — or what I would call its “hard luxury” version — reveals more than just exquisite taste. It reveals how style becomes ideology. The exhibition is a triumph of craft, but beneath the geometric perfection and exotic references lies something darker: a coded prophecy of fascism.
These objects, from opulent ceramics to sensual sculptures and gemstone-encrusted bowls, mirror a society fascinated by control, ceremony, and ancient power. The visual language is not purely European — it draws heavily from Egypt and Babylon, with motifs of lions, serpents, horns, and gods. Their presence in closed, lavish interiors begins to feel less decorative and more liturgical, almost occult.
One senses the theatrical rituals of power re-emerging — private banquets, state-sponsored pageants, and the silent choreography of hierarchy. When beauty becomes ritualized, it can summon dangerous myths.
Art Deco’s obsession with luxury — the hardness of polished stone, the weight of gold, the perfection of symmetry — seems to anticipate the rigidity of fascist aesthetics. It is not coincidence, I think, that these glamorous surfaces came just before the collapse. After the enamel and lapis, darkness follows. And then war.
This exhibition doesn’t just celebrate a style — it inadvertently maps the energy that birthed a regime.
Highlights by VICTORYOF™
photos - VICTORYOF™
How Hot Foods and Beverages Ignite Your Inner Glow
15.05.2021 — 25.07.2021
Splendor of the Sunset:
Iran of the Qajar era
(the late 18th century - 1925)
Iran of the Qajar era
(the late 18th century - 1925)
Surprisingly, Moscow has one of the richest collection of Persian art, along with the Parisian Louvre and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Paintings, ceramics, weapons, carpets and manuscripts, historical documents and photographs of this period characterised by increasing economical and social tension, additionally to European cultural expansion, and British and Russian pressure, will be presented in The State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow till end of July
1) Rustam, fighting with White Div , Iran, 19th century;
2) Alla-Virdi Afshar. The portrait of Abbas Mirza. Iran, 1816-1817. Oil on canvas;
3) Artist Ahmad. The Dancer with castanets. Iran, 1827. Oil on canvas;
4) Unknown master. Carpet. The portrait of Shah Abbas I. Fragment of a large carpet. Iran, Kerman, late 19th century
All images - © The State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow
2) Alla-Virdi Afshar. The portrait of Abbas Mirza. Iran, 1816-1817. Oil on canvas;
3) Artist Ahmad. The Dancer with castanets. Iran, 1827. Oil on canvas;
4) Unknown master. Carpet. The portrait of Shah Abbas I. Fragment of a large carpet. Iran, Kerman, late 19th century
All images - © The State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow
Such a lovely time when You spend a fabulous evening with opera. If You are occasionally not involved in this cult, but courageous - stay tuned! Metropolitan Opera launched Aria Code Season 3 podcast
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Quatuor N°4 by Béla Bartók, Die Grosse Fuge by Ludwig van Beethoven, Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schönberg
with Stéphane Bullion, Emilie Cozette, Marie- Agnès Gillot, Karl Paquette, Alice Renavand.
Staged in October 2015
Choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Quatuor N°4 by Béla Bartók, Die Grosse Fuge by Ludwig van Beethoven, Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schönberg
with Stéphane Bullion, Emilie Cozette, Marie- Agnès Gillot, Karl Paquette, Alice Renavand.
Staged in October 2015
Available for rent at Opera National De Paris
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The Sleeping Beauty balet
in Latvian National Opera
The Sleeping Beauty balet
in Latvian National Opera
12.02.2021.- 28.02.2021