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

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Venues
On now
Sputnik Museum
15 March – 15 December
Moscow, 21 bldg 1, 2nd Rybinskaya St.
The exhibition runs until 15 December. Admission with the museum ticket; opening hours and tickets are on the Sputnik website.
Museum website →
Closed
Pechatniki Gallery
6 March – 19 April
Moscow, 14 Batyuninskaya St.
Closed
ART SPACE Gallery
10 – 19 April
Moscow, 9 Tverskaya St.
Closed
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.

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catalogued objects in orbit
NASA counted about 25,000 objects larger than 10 cm in 2022
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fragments larger than a centimetre (estimate)
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total mass of metal in orbit
was ~9,000 t in January 2022 (NASA)
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speed of a fragment in low orbit
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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.

This kinship is not a poetic figure. Vostok 1 carried 421 vacuum tubes, more than 600 transistors and about 800 relays and switches; the transmitters of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, ran on miniature vacuum tubes. Space hardware and household appliances of that era were assembled from the same class of components and differed in selection and acceptance testing, not in nature. We work with the very matter that went into orbit and stayed there.

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 →
Трава Вселенной как образ разрастающейся техносферы
September 9, 2026
Трава Вселенной как образ разрастающейся техносферы
На странице издательства «Sciencedirect» появилась статья Лукаша Ликавчана (Lukáš Likavčan) «The Grass of the Universe: Rethinking Technosphere, Planetary History, and Sustainability with Fermi…
We have amazing, truly cosmic news!
July 9, 2026
We have amazing, truly cosmic news!
With pride and joy we share an important event: our Sputnik science and education museum has officially joined the Association of Space Museums of Russia (AMKOS)!
March 26, 2026
Space is first of all about people!
Life is always buzzing in our museum. “Sputnik” is not just unique exhibits, it is a place of meetings and amazing discoveries.
Behind the project
Osoznannost (Awareness) art group

“Space Ecology” is a project of the Osoznannost art group. The artists work with matter that the technosphere has already written off: circuit boards, tubes, optics, metal. The group is led by Sergey Kozhukhovsky.

Verified
Museum Fund of Russia
Works from 2023 were taken into the collection of the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics and entered in the State Catalogue of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation: records No. 43684629, 43060104, 43684628.
Kaluga, 2023
An exhibition at the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, 20 January – 26 February 2023. Co-organisers: the museum, the Russkiy Mir Media publishing house and the Stroganov Russian State University of Design and Applied Arts.
Ekovolna, Nizhny Novgorod
July 2023, the Nizhny Novgorod Fair: the art object “The Fleeing Man” and a masterclass for visitors to the festival.
Contact

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