The Vertiginous Moscow

Over the last fifteen years, Moscow has undergone vast and radical transformations, which have turned it into an extraordinary urban laboratory. This photographic project by Gabriele Basilico was inspired by a desire to document this metamorphosis, and takes as its focal point the city’s seven Stalinist towers, known in Russian as the vysotnye zdania, or ‘high buildings’. Basilico’s images use the towers as a privileged viewpoint for exploration and contemplation of the changing fabric of Moscow. After half a century of history, his work allows these striking buildings to be re-evaluated in the context of the new urban landscape of the 21st century.