Rosatom and American artist collaborate for art exhibit

MOSCOW – A parcel-sized concrete cube meant to house decayed nuclear waste is one of the latest art works at Moscow's Garage contemporary art museum.

This ambitious take on Russian artist Kazimir Malevich's original "Black Square" is the brainchild of American artist Taryn Simon and the product of years of coordination with Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom.

Simon says the first reactions from Rosatom were confusion and surprise, but after two years of negotiations via proxies, construction began on Simon's black square.

For safety reasons, the nuclear waste capsule is buried in a concrete-reinforced steel container at a Rosatom nuclear storage facility 72 miles outside of Moscow.

Garage has promised to add the degraded waste, buried along with a letter from Simon, in 999 years after the waste has downgraded.