Ikea is commissioning contemporary artists such as Piotr Uklanski, Jeppe Hein and Jim Lambie to be part of an “airport-sized” Moscow-based development due to open in 2012, reports Art Newspaper.
The effort is part of a plan to roll out mixed-use spaces across Ikea sites, beginning with Russia and the former Soviet republics. "The idea is to create a day out, somewhere people want to spend time, especially in Moscow where it takes so long to get anywhere because the traffic is so bad,” said Simon Dance, of Simon Dance Design. Plans for the site include shops, restaurants, an ice-rink, as well as an Ikea flat-pack furniture store.
Jeppe Hein is proposing a mirror labyrinth to be placed opposite the new building’s façade, which will be 300m in length and 24m in height. Uklanski is working on a large-scale iron sculpture, which will be viewable from the 16-lane motorway that runs alongside the site, while Lambie intends to make a new version of Secret Affair, 2007, a work that inspired Dance at Sudeley.
“We want to create a better everyday life for many people,” Hakan Pehrsson, the head of commercial development at Ikea Shopping Centres Russia & CIS, told us. “With this project, we feel that we [can] give extra quality to the life of the whole family.” Dance added: “It’s about creating a series of events. Like a great Hitchcock film, you’ll turn a corner and there will be something you don’t expect.”
