Presidential Center as a Hub of Media Innovation

In 2012, the Yeltsin Center and Ralph Appelbaum Associates tasked Lorem Ipsum with developing all the media content for the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center. Over the next several years, our team produced more than one hundred linear media programs and interactive installations, capturing the transformative events of Russia’s first democratic decade.

The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center (Yeltsin Center) is a museum dedicated to Russia’s first democratically elected president, Boris Yeltsin. It represents the first attempt to depict recent Russian history using modern exhibition methods. The exhibition not only chronicles Yeltsin’s life and political career but also the significant changes that occurred in Russia at the end of the 20th century, including perestroika, the dissolution of the USSR, the Chechen wars, and the economic crises of the late 1990s.

Over three years, Lorem Ipsum’s production team traveled to eighteen countries to conduct 133 exclusive interviews with world leaders, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. We sourced documentary materials from dozens of archival collections and created over a hundred diverse multimedia and interactive programs — from intricate projection mappings to complex interactive installations.

The overall planning and design of the museum were developed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Their approach structured the exhibition around seven pivotal days in Boris Yeltsin’s public life and modern Russian history. Each of these days is represented through unique narratives, composed of immersive and multimedia installations. Together, these narratives form a cohesive structure that guides visitors from the past to the present and into the future.

Opened in March 2016, the museum quickly became the most visited in Russia outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was recognized by the European Museums Association as the institution “most likely to challenge stereotypes.” In 2017, the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center won the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award — Kenneth Hudson Award for Institutional Courage and Professional Integrity.