El
Lissitzky served as the artistic director for the Soviet pavilion at the 1928
International Press Exhibition in Cologne. Under the authority of Stalin, he
devised a multiroom installation to demonstrate on a global stage the essential
role of printers and publishers in the new Soviet state. The exhibition
presented examples of cutting-edge design from newspapers, books, magazines,
and advertisements in a lively, experimental manner that actively involved the
viewer. Including moving text-and-image panels, documentary displays, and
large-scale sculptures, the installation created an immersive environment with
multiple points of interest. This disorienting photograph records a part of
that installation. In an angled and close-up view characteristic of European
modernist photography, Lissitzky focuses on an enormous cutout figure attached
to the floor with wires, a futuristic symbol of the modern reporter.