Header: Daniil Annenkov
Suspended over the main entrance of Moscow’s Gorky Park, Time Forward is a lighting installation that completely transformed the historic landmark into a meditation on time. Designed by KULTURA SVETA, with lead designers Daria Novikova and Julia Zharkova, the installation won the Conceptual Lighting Installation category at the LIT Lighting Design Awards.
In three parts
The installation unfolds in three layers, each representing a different temporal dimension. At the top, 550 sheaves of meadow grass drape over the arch’s roof, a symbol of the past that evokes Russia’s agrarian heritage. The arch itself, built in the Stalinist Empire style, stands for the present—a solid, unchanging reference point that has survived through the changing decades. Beneath it, the future is represented by a web of 520 glowing neon forms, which resemble roots and neural networks. These elements, created with flexible LED neon on wire, were designed to suggest growth and connectivity, especially in the uncertain times that we currently live in and that are certain to continue.
With only three weeks to complete the installation, the team faced a series of design and engineering challenges. First, the delicate nature of flexible LED neon required some structural reinforcement, which led to experiments with wire thickness and coil density. Second, due to Moscow’s harsh outdoor conditions, the designers needed to ensure the fixtures’ stability, so each of the 520 neon pieces, nicknamed “Curls”, was individually hand-twisted, which ended up making the final result look organic and unique.
Sustainability
Beyond its conceptual depth, Time Forward also placed a lot of thought on sustainability, especially on the impact its development could have on the environment. To ensure the minimum impact of the structure, every component was sourced from eco-friendly materials, which also had the added effect of ensuring a minimal impact on the historic structure.
