“There is always space for culture, we will always go forwards.”

These are the words of Teresa Iarocci Mavica, the director-general of the Russian V-A-C Foundation, spoken at the December opening of V-A-C’s Renzo Piano Building Workshop-designed contemporary art space GES-2, located in the heart of Moscow. Two days earlier, the building had been officially opened by Vladimir Putin, who played the piano in the venue’s subterranean recording studio. The whole project was funded by oligarch Leonid Mikhelson, thought to be the richest person in Russia with apparent close ties to the authoritarian leader.