Béton Center of Visual Culture presents the exhibition "From Lapot to Union". 

Photography from the second half of 19th to the beginning of the 21st century". A new project will bring together works of Russian and Soviet photographers including Sergei Lobovikov, Andrei Chezhin, Vsevolod Tarasevich, Leonid Lazarev, Evgeny Khaldei, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monro and others. The exhibition will include author's prints which are authentic to the era of their creation. At the turn of the century Russia was a multinational patriarchal empire and much of its population had no access to education. The country was perceived as deeply reactionary, primitive, and immune to progress. Everything changed. People seized by Soviet narrative with its ideas of social equality and labor enthusiasm started not only to believe in concept of an ideal shared future, but also to realize it. "Perhaps the destiny of our people <...> lies in the realization of the impossible, the pursuit of the unattainable and overcoming rational notions", writes Alexei Loginov, curator of Béton Center of Visual Culture.

The project "From Lapot to Union. Photography from the second half of 19th to the beginning of the 21th century" examines the transformation of a vast country into an ambitious project, not without flaws, but which became in world history and art. The achievements of the past are reflected in the works of photographers, sometimes in a documentary and sometimes in an artistic way.