Fifty years ago, on April 12th 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. His orbit of the Earth madehim a celebrity worldwide. His name is still synonymous with the Space Race and with Russian space exploration.Half a century after the legendary flight, Direction¿Space! looks at two of the sites that were key to the SovietSpace programme: Star City and Baikonur.Cosmonauts have lived and trained in Star City since the 1960s. In the Soviet era, it was a top secret location.Now also known as ¿The Yuri Gagarin Russian State Science Research Cosmonauts Training Centre¿ it is still amilitary research centre and consists of a training facility and a residential area for the cosmonauts and theirfamilies as well as the military and civilian personnel serving the facility.Baikonur, situated in Kazakhstan, was the world¿s first space launch facility and it is still the largest.Nowadays, the site is rented and administered by Russia.Direction¿Space! is a fascinating study of Star City and Baikonur. Incorporating unique archive materials, itexplores the reality of the space community at first hand, investigating the physical and psychological spaceas well the routine and lives of its residents. It offers a new insight into a subject central to the Cold Warhistory of the Soviet Union, and raises questions over attitudes and perceptions that have been formed overpast decades.Maria Gruzdeva is a young Russian photographer. Based in London for the past three years, she is able tooffer a unique perspective on her country of origin, its post-Soviet history and aesthetics. She held her firstmajor solo exhibition in Moscow in 2010 and has shown her work in several group exhibitions as well as atart fairs such as VOLTA6 in Basel and Art Moscow