This is not strictly art, but it's urban, so I decided that those who like industrial spaces and nice painting spots might be into it too. I used to do this occasionally when I lived in Melbourne, and I was pretty lucky to find a crew of people here in Moscow who like exploring and taking photos of abandoned sites.... There are a LOT of them here. I assume it is the case in a lot of Eastern European countries. Lots of businesses shut down for various reasons, and the sites have just been left to decay.

So far I have been to disused factories, hospitals, office buildings and even an old waterpark. All these sites bar one were pretty much unguarded, and besides, when you run into security guards here, you can bribe them to pretend they never saw you.........

I have also heard about Metro 2 - a second metro system that is apparently larger than the actual Metro, and was built under the main system to ferry Stalin et al around the city. It is supposed to connect the Kremlin with the FSB headquarters, the government airport at Vnukovo-2, and a lot of other places. This is one of those things that has never been confirmed or denied by authorities, although some urban explorers claim to have been down there. There's a 'secret map' here. These guys, the Moscow State University Diggers, are a group of students who go on regular missions/expeditions under the city. For those in Melbourne, they are kind of like the Cave Clan, and yes, it seems they have parties under the city sometimes too. They also say they've been down into Metro 2.

I watched a video made by a couple of Americans who said they were down there. You can check it out here. You can also find a general Moscow urban exploration site with pics of some pretty amazing places here.

Plus here are some of my photos from the last 6 months or so.




Abandoned printing factory, Novosloblodskaya, Moscow.

Labels: Abandoned Buildings, Metro-2, Moscow, Russia, Urban exploration