Intellectual Marathon “Setting: a Museum”

The occasion to join in the discussions under the slogan “Setting: a Museum” was the premiere of the theatrical project Flora at the Hermitage, the first event of its kind to be held in the halls of the museum. In the course of the meeting, invited guests discussed the results of this project, the phenomenon of theatre in a museum, and the changes taking place within museum walls today.

In keeping with tradition, the meeting was opened by Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage. He spoke about the current life of the museum and the projects that fill it: the virtual digital art exhibition “Etherial Aether”, presenting a "celestial cloud Hermitage"; the International School of Art and Cultural Heritage – a joint project with the European University. and, of course, the theatrical–museum project Flora. The Director used these as examples to illustrate the process of creating a museum product in the era of a new synthesis of the arts.

In the introductory part of the marathon, Ilya Askoldovich Doronchenkov, Deputy Director for Research at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, shared his thoughts on the “interesting and somewhat provocative Flora project”. The project, he said, deals with concepts such as new intimacy and new emotionality, which are more important than ever in the current period of turbulence: “A museum is a place where people ask questions, and projects such as Flora help to find answers to them.”

Zelfira Ismailovna Tregulova, Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery, described the image of the modern museum. It has long ceased to be a place for simply showing artworks in the halls, but offers “exhibition–journeys, elaborate spectacles, experiences”, exhibitions that construct new routes, after which one leaves the halls transformed. It is projects such as Flora, she said, that provide a special experience and support people in difficult times.

The main part of the marathon consisted of three discussions. The first focused directly on the Flora project and theatrical forms of interaction in the museum. The conversation was joined by the art historian Arkady Ippolitov; Jacqueline Kornmüller, the director of the Flora project, and playwright Peter Wolff; Yekaterina Sirakanian, Director of the Hermitage Development Service and coordinator of the Flora project; and the writer, art historian and journalist Victor Martinovich. The guests reviewed the results of the project and shared their views about what the programme became for them

According to Yekaterina Sirakanian, the Hermitage has learned a lot from what was a challenging and interesting project with regard to organization. Arkady Ippolitov and Victor Martinovich immersed the audience in interesting discourses about the interpretation of works of art, their independent life and the new meanings that emerge over the course of their existence.

Another discussion – “The Museum as a Centre of Influence: the Culture of Participation” – featured Pavel Prigara, Director of the Manege Central Exhibition Hall; Yaroslav Aleshin, curator of exhibition projects and head of urban integration programmes for the V-A-C Foundation; Yulia Bychkova, director of the Archstoyanie festival and managing partner of the Nikola–Lenivets project; Natalia Gomberg, head of the Youth and Volunteer Department at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; and Sergei Fofanov, a specialist in the museum educational department of the PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art and senior researcher in the Department of the Latest Tendencies at the State Tretyakov Gallery. The contributors talked about the museum as a setting, a scene of action, what changes look like in traditional and contemporary museums, how exhibitions turned into festivals, about the viewer as a co-participant in shaping the environment, about a new language between museum and audience, about involving the latter in the life of the former, and about the “ideal” visitor.

The final discussion of the marathon looked at the museum as an agent of social change. This topic was discussed by Alisa Prudnikova, commissioner and artistic director of the Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art, the curator Irina Aktuganova, Konstantin Andreyev, head of the Educational Centre of the GULAG History Museum, the artist Liudmila Belova, Anna Makarchuk, Director of the Tolerance Centre at the Jewish Museum, Polina Chubar, head of the Visitor Experience Department at the Polytechnical Museum, and Ilya Shipilovskikh, director of the Yeltsin Centre art gallery. The participants discussed the roles of the contemporary museum and of the artist who constructs a laboratory within it, “the invisible museum events that take place inside of someone who comes there”, as well as plans for the future.

What was said during the three hours of discussions might be summed up in the words of Jacqueline Kornmüller: “We can’t make society healthy, but we give emotions. We never fully achieve our goals, but we try to reach and touch society.” Together with her, we hope that, despite the online format of the 2021 Marathon, we managed to reach and touch those who connected to it from all around the globe.

A recording of the marathon