Exhibition project · 2026

What we called empty
is empty no longer

An exhibition project about orbital debris and the second birth of matter. Marking 65 years since Yuri Gagarin's flight. Moscow, spring 2026

View the gallery
Venues
Pechatniki Gallery
6 March – 19 April
Moscow, 14 Batyuninskaya St.
On now
Sputnik Museum
15 March – 31 December
Moscow, 21 bldg 1, 2nd Rybinskaya St.
The exhibition has been extended to the end of the year. Admission with a museum ticket; opening times and tickets on the Sputnik Museum website.
Museum website →
ART SPACE Gallery
10 – 19 April
Moscow, 9 Tverskaya St.
Aerospace Forces Officers' Club
10 – 19 April
Moscow, 8 Pavlovskaya St.

We are used to thinking that up there is emptiness. A blank page. But the emptiness has taken on density: it is filled with our presence, our ambitions, our cold metal.

0
catalogued objects in orbit
NASA estimated about 25,000 in 2022
0
fragments larger than a centimetre (estimate)
0
total mass of metal in orbit
was ~9,000 t in January 2022 (NASA)
0
speed of a fragment in low orbit
0
satellites placed in orbit during 2025
+54% against 2024 – megaconstellations are speeding things up

Press (i) on a card for the source and the date. On the debris mass you can click the number for a comparison that gives a sense of scale.

About the project

Waste on the ground and waste in orbit are one and the same substance. A single industrial trace, which we first tore out of the planet's depths and then flung above our own heads.

Space took the best for itself: clean metal went into rocket skins and satellite electronics. Down below there remained mountains of slag that we have learned to ignore. I am giving this matter back its right to be art. The method is called artcycling: burnt-out circuit boards, vacuum tubes and toggle switches of a great era are cleared of the layers of time and reassembled into new meanings.

The mountains of debris in orbit are a challenge to our intellect and our spirit. We are already full and responsible residents of the Universe. It is time to behave accordingly.

Participants
Sergey Kozhukhovsky
Eco-artist, author of the idea
Finalist of the presidential platform award “Russia – Land of Opportunity”. Turns technogenic waste into artistic images.
Elizaveta Kozyr
Monumental artist
Restorer, took part in restoring the holy objects of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem.
Tatiana Kokoreva
Opera singer, master of applied art
Works with the matter of celestial bodies.
Varvara Khazova
Video artist
Author of the documentary study “Space Debris”.
Tatiana Fateeva
Photographer and media artist
Captured the beauty of the meeting between a human being and the stars.
Elina Papas
Executive producer
Curator of the Skolkovo Art Club, graduate of the Skolkovo School of Management and the London Business School. Master's degree from RANEPA, programme “Management in the Art Business”.
Partners
Princip NOVO
Strategic partner and co-architect of the environment
Platform.web-ar.studio
Technology partner, augmented reality
Skolkovo Art Club
President: Ksenia Makarchuk
Festival-Stroy
Exhibition builder and festival organiser
Kovrizhka Zaraiskaya
Gastronomic brand of the town of Zaraysk
Ecodao.ru
Russia's main events guide for sustainable development
iFlex
Russian software developer, 20 years on the market
Moscow Department of Culture
Project history

“Space Ecology” grew out of the meeting of two artistic views on the technological trace of humankind.

2018
The monumental artist Elizaveta Kozyr created a conceptual series of works that laid the visual foundation of the theme.
2021
Sergey Kozhukhovsky, working at the Russian Environmental Operator, made the first objects out of electronic components and gave the project its official name.
2022
“Space Ecology” came out into public space. In the autumn the project was shown at the Renova Lab innovation centre.
2023
A key exhibition in Kaluga, at the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics. As part of “Ecosophy”, the show travelled to Arkhangelsk, Tyumen, St Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk.
2026
Turning industrial archaeology into the art of the future, the project goes on widening its meanings where ecology meets space exploration.
Acknowledgements
Pavel Muss
General Director of Princip NOVO
For many years of strategic support for the projects of the Osoznannost (Awareness) art group and for personal involvement in the growth of our ecosystem.
Ksenia Makarchuk
President of the Skolkovo Art Club
For help of every kind, a powerful media resource and participation in the projects of the Osoznannost art group.
Elena Volkova
Head of the Russkiy Mir Media publishing house
For the flawless organisation of the exhibition cycles at Renova Lab and at the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics.
Natalia Abakumova
Director of the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics
For hosting the exhibition and for an expert assessment so high that part of the works passed into the museum's collection and into the State Catalogue of the Russian Federation.
Denis Shcherbakov
Founder of Festival-Stroy
For the professional construction of the displays, for providing exhibition infrastructure and for an active partnership since 2022.
Andrey Belyaev
General Director of iFlex
For a reliable partnership tested by years and for unfailing support of our initiatives.
Journal
All posts →
“Hack a satellite constellation and you can leave a country without internet and crash its economy”: how space weapons work and when real space wars will begin
August 18, 2026
“Hack a satellite constellation and you can leave a country without internet and crash its economy”: how space weapons work and when real space wars will begin
✔️ International law has the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which bans placing weapons of mass destruction – nuclear and so on – in space. But the treaty does not ban conventional weapons. In principle, you can take a pistol aboard the ISS. The Salyut-era spacecraft carried pistols on purpose, in case cosmonauts landed in the taiga. So during an orbital pass the weapon is inside the spacecraft's zone – and this is where the grey zone of responsibility begins.
The films of 1902 have started to come true
August 7, 2026
The films of 1902 have started to come true
⚡ On 5 August at 09:35 Moscow time the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket plunged into the lunar surface near the crater Einstein. Approach speed – 8,700 km/h. Impact energy – almost 12 gigajoules, the equivalent of exploding 3 tonnes of TNT. The impact left a crater up to 30 metres across and about 3 metres deep.
August 7, 2026
Space crash: a rocket slammed into the Moon
On 5 August 2026 something spectacular happened on the Moon. A spent upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the surface of our satellite at 8,700 km/h (almost seven times the speed of sound). The fragment weighed almost 5 tonnes. The impact energy was equivalent to the explosion of 3 tonnes of TNT (like three FAB-3000 aerial bombs). A crater about 30 metres across formed at the impact site.