The project “Invisible Art: Expanding the Boundaries of What Is Possible” breaks a primary rule of museums: “No touching the exhibits”. In this case, literally getting in touch with art is possible and even necessary.
The Hermitage, one of the foremost museums in Russia and the world, has been experimenting with inclusive formats for many years, creating replicas of artworks: bas-reliefs, tactile copies, 3D portraits. Initially, this sphere was developed for blind and visually impaired visitors to the museum, but it emerged that a tactile approach to art also appeals to the public at large. Everyone would like to touch a sculpture, or, perhaps, even an ancient carpet!
The Hermitage is not only bringing some rare exhibits to the National Museum of Serbia, but also its know-how in interacting with them. At the “Invisible Art” exhibition, visitors can indeed grasp and feel what it means to be able to touch museum treasures for yourself.
The first part of the inclusive exhibition is devoted to finds made at the site of the Zoroastrian city of Penjikent (present-day Tajikistan) and the excavations of the 5th Pazyryk burial mound in Russia's Altai mountains. Here visitors can acquaint themselves with three-dimensional versions of the subjects of 6th–8th-century AD murals from Penjikent and animated reconstructions of them – cartoon films that reveal the meaning of the pictures. Exhibition-goers will also be able to see and touch reproduced fragments of the oldest carpets presently known and figurines of the 4th–3rd century BC from the Pazyryk burial.
The second part of the display, entitled “Invisible Helpers”, is devoted to “man’s best friend” and the chief assistant for blind people – the dog. The Hermitage has selected ten images of dogs from works of art in a variety of genres and produced precise three-dimensional recreations of them. Due to their venerable age, many of the rarities selected for such replication hardly ever go on public display, remaining in the museum’s stock rooms. In this way, it is possible to make contact with such precious artefacts, albeit through their tactile versions – a very rare, practically unique opportunity.
The project curator is Igor Karlovich Malkiel, head of the State Hermitage’s Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Precious and Archaeological Metals.
