Since being founded in New York in 2000, the company has expanded to include London and Moscow offices where designers and architects, writers and filmmakers work together to plan and produce their multidisciplinary projects.
Their journey starts in a reimagined Soviet classroom from the 1930s where visitors can gain an insight into Kosmodemyanskaya's life, hopes and aspirations through carefully recreated artefacts such as books and notebooks.
An audiovisual spectacle, consisting of flickering blue lights and cinematic surround sound, interrupts the experience and creates the impression of being under attack by German warplanes.
Lorem Ipsum also recreated the Nazi-occupied Soviet village that Kosmodemyanskaya was tasked with setting ablaze. Accompanied by dramatic lighting, an audio story based on real memoirs from fellow squadron members talks visitors through her mission and her ultimate capture.
Another section of the museum includes a full-scale trench, strewn with real war artefacts and surrounded by a 120-degree wraparound screen showing an animation of approaching German tanks.
The final section displays hundreds of personal stories from people involved in the war, alongside an interactive recording booth that allows visitors to film themselves telling the story of their own relatives, as well as scanning their photos to be immortalised in the museum.
The aim of the exhibition design was to allow visitors to both emotionally relive this historical event, and have a space where they can reflect and consider their own family background.
