DOLMEN explores brutalist architecture as an archaeological site through still and moving images of Moscow's Chertanovo housing estate (1972–1983). The circular building of this well-known architectural experiment built in 1972 by Soviet architect Eugene Stamo and engineer Aleksandr Markelov and the square one are portrayed as modern-day ‘dolmen’ – megalithic monuments drawing endlessly curious visitors who marvel at the passing of modernity. A soundscape composed of layered voices, echoes and reverberations further enable an encounter with this archaeological site of modernity.

Unlike their Neolithic counterparts, these ‘dolmen’ are still in use. Those who experience the site become engaged in synoptic surveillance, whereby the many look upon the few and behaviour is monitored – an aspect mirrored in the architecture itself, which was constructed in such a way that neighbours can easily survey one another across the interior green spaces.

The work is installed as a triptych, a format traditionally used in Christian altarpieces to communicate a narrative, yet ‘DOLMEN’s symbolic message is experience itself.

View the invite.

A record accompanies the work, it was primarily conceived for DOLMEN, and it also features four further tracks titled Ecolalia. A soundscape composed of layered voices, echoes and reverberations further enable an encounter with this archaeological site of modernity. Taking inspiration from DOLMEN and the concept of echolalia – the meaningless repetition of speech sounds – the tracks are an imaginary mapping of architecture based on sound. The music constructs mental images of our surroundings through sound, thereby allowing the listener to perceive the architecture as fluid interplay of echoes and reverberations. The album explores space through improvising with voice and sound, creating an inventive mapping of shapes and voids condensed into a musical kaleidoscopic. This album is a collaboration between Annalisa Sonzogni, Enrico Ascoli and Maya Maffioli. It can be listened to here.