Brave new world. How to take museums with you in the era of the future?

In this material, we understand how to carry the cultural heritage from the monumental era into the new multimedia world, without losing the feeling of joy from touching art, how to promote the popularization of cultural and educational objects and save architectural monuments that are suffering from destruction from lack of funding.

The modern world is changing approaches to building design. Architecture becomes mobile, spaces flexible, interiors seasonal. We are no longer building for centuries. The passing monumental era is valuable because it left behind a number of architectural monuments. Classic palace complexes, estates and estates often become "clothes" for objects with a cultural and educational function. Museums, galleries, exhibition spaces, libraries or art centers are located here.

However, the attitude towards the consumption of cultural content is also changing. The average citizen does not go to the museum. He is bored. A modern resident will not be surprised by neatly hung paintings from the Renaissance and artifacts from the Mesozoic era standing in the corners.

Museum researcher John Falk distinguishes the following types of visitors in his classification: those looking for impressions and interesting experiences, seekers of "recharge", seekers or researchers, guides, professionals or enthusiasts of the topic. If there are few people in society who belong to the last three categories, then museums begin to suffer from a lack of financial support. This year, the situation with COVID-19 complicated the situation of museums not only in our country, but also around the world. If US museums have lost almost 30 billion dollars since the beginning of the quarantine, because a third of them remained closed, then what can be said about us?

The problem of preservation of monuments and popularization of objects with a cultural and educational function is solved by renovation. It is symbolic that the first steps in the "recovery" of these institutions are changes in naming. Let's remember how terrible abbreviations, unrealistic for use in life, were traditional in Soviet times. The thought that you will spend your free time at NMIU inspires sadness. Therefore, in 2020, the National Museum of the History of Ukraine presented a new name and an updated identity. Currently, MIST (short for "museum of history") symbolizes the unification of the left and right banks of Ukraine, as well as the connection between the past and the future.

But how to take the cultural heritage with you into the future, to transport it across this symbolic bridge, without destroying the value and relevance of art objects? We traditionally seek answers from our Western friends.

 

1 way. Work with the form

Reconstruction with expansion of function

And where is the buffet?

The first expensive, but effective method of renovation is physical intervention in the form, that is, competent reconstruction of buildings. Thus, without destroying the cultural heritage, architects try to bring freshness to the perception of old objects, and the new additional space allows adding those functions that modern society lacks. An event hall, a souvenir shop, and a restaurant are already a traditional part of the scenario of a cult trip. Successful reconstruction projects demonstrate how new opportunities are opening up for curators of cultural programs and museum guests.

2019 saw the completion of WA Museum Boola Bardip in Western Australia. The project was developed by the architectural group HASSELL and OMA Design.

Buildings with cultural and historical value were restored and became part of the modern complex. The completed futuristic volumes are combined with the red brick of the classic facade of the existing buildings both contrastingly and organically. The new museum opens to the visitor as a collection of stories about the diversity and richness of Australia, which can be read in the "tastiest" area - the so-called urban living room. This public space was created for holding cultural events and various activities. A festival dedicated to the opening was held here for nine days.

In the same year, but already in Philadelphia (USA), the first stage of the large-scale renovation of the Museum of Fine Arts (Philadelphia Museum of Art), which was built in 1928, was completed. The famous architect Frank Gehry worked on the reconstruction project. New premises for employees, halls for educational programs, a restaurant and other new areas do not at all disturb the harmony of the interior in the spirit of neoclassicism. The historic masonry, stone floors, vaulted ceilings, Doric columns and massive wooden doors have been restored and still awe every viewer who comes here for the art.

 

Using the shell

Chameleon facade

When the reconstruction of the building is impossible for financial reasons or the integrity of the object cannot be violated due to its historical value, then the "flexible material" for the transformation of the museum becomes the shell of the building, i.e. its facade.

Since 2005, the streets, bridges and facades of old buildings in Berlin (Germany) have been transformed into a backdrop for creative installations during the Festival of Artistic Illumination. The same thing happens at similar festivals in Ghent (Belgium) and Lyon (France). In Nuremberg (Germany), during the Night of Museums, you can see the city in completely different colors. It is illuminated with blue light, and a video show is projected onto the town hall.

Artist Chila Kumari Burman, whose contribution to culture was recognized in 2018 with a doctorate from the University of the Arts London, is creating a light installation for the facade of London's Tate gallery this winter as part of her fourth annual special project. In her work, the artist embodied motifs of Indian myths, her own childhood memories of the festival of lights, and echoes of Aldous Huxley's novel "Brave New World."

Artist Fabrizio Plessi, who has lived in Venice for 60 years, used 15 windows on the first floor of Venice's Correr Museum for his installation L'età dell'oro, sending the viewer to the glowing mosaics of St. Mark's Basilica. Digital technologies create the effect of pure gold flowing from the windows. Dazzling light, which is most effectively reflected in the wet cobblestones, is accompanied by a musical composition with piano sounds and the sound of rain.

 

2nd method. Work with space

Integration of new objects

Bring in the grand piano

It is possible to revive the dusty archives of monumental buildings of past eras, to make sights "wake up" without surgical intervention in architecture, if you place some element of surprise in them - a bright extraordinary art object, an installation, a sculpture, or an artistic performance, which by one fact of their existence " will "infect" all spaces and give them a new sound.

This is what artist and sculptor Vincent Leroy did in the Boreal halo project. Leroy created a mesmerizing dynamic spectacle using a high-tech inflatable ring that rotates to music inside a XNUMXth-century French church.

At the request of Emmanuel Macron, German artist Anselm Kiefer tackles the subject of Nazism, capturing it in glass, concrete, barbed wire, rusted weapons and steel in six showcases he created at the French Pantheon. Kiefer is the first author to create an installation in this historical monument.

 

Old scenery for new actions

Abstracting from classic museums, let's allow ourselves a few more examples, where architectural and historical monuments become a platform for new activities, sometimes quite provocative and daring. But maybe this electric shock is needed by the nerve fibers of dying architectural structures to bring them back to life after an age-old sleep?

In 2013, the Fendi fashion house invested 2,4 million dollars in the restoration of one of the main Roman monuments, the Trevi Fountain (Rome, Italy), and in 2016, on its anniversary, it held a show of its haute couture collection on a glass podium installed right in the pool of the fountain. Thus, part of the facade of the Palazzo Poli became the backdrop for the fashion show. In the same year, another fashion house, Gucci, went audacious by choosing Westminster Abbey to show its cruise collection, not shying away from the fact that this place is a museum, a historical monument and a burial place for English dignitaries.

An even more daring and daring story is with the Parisian catacombs. The Catacombs de Paris Museum is probably the scariest sight in the French capital. This network of underground tunnels, once created for the extraction of limestone, later turned into the monastery's wine cellars. In the 6th century the remains of the dead began to be transferred here. During the Second World War, the catacombs were a refuge for partisans. Currently, there are about XNUMX million dead in the underground passages.

Inspired by the parties and receptions that Napoleon III once held here, brave young people who refer to punk culture in the 80s of the XX century. organized underground parties, movie screenings and even drug dens here. Despite multiple bans and fines, police patrols and other measures, interest in underground parties does not weaken. Even now, theatrical performances and exhibitions are held here, and Airbnb organized an unusual concert for a romantic couple for 350 euros.

 

3rd method. Work with the presentation of content

Interactivity option

You can absolutely touch the exhibits!

In the first European museums of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries. visitors were not only allowed, but even expected to touch and interact with the artifacts. In the XNUMXth century this practice was abandoned in the name of prolonging the life of works of art, and signs "Do not touch with hands are prohibited" appeared on the exhibits. Today, interactivity is a necessary part of the cognitive process, which attracts a young audience and partially solves the issue of inclusivity.

The British Museum has long had a Hands on Desks program — separate zones (tables) within the permanent exhibition where, under the supervision of an administrator, you can hold not only replicas, but also some real artifacts in your hands, learn more about them, and share your impressions. The Louvre has created the so-called Touch Gallery, where thematic expositions are held for people with visual impairments, as well as for children and just anyone who wants to touch the casts of museum works of art. In the exposition of the Thai Museum of Ceramics of Southeast Asia, there is a separate section where anyone can hold ancient pottery in their hands.

The capital museums of our country are taking the first steps to attract the audience through game and interactive formats. Not everywhere in Kyiv yet, but some formats of tactile and interactive expositions have begun to be introduced. The National Art Museum, the Khanenko Museum, the National History Museum, and the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art already use this method.

 

New technologies

Climb into the sarcophagus and dive to the bottom of the ocean

With delight, I run through one of the most vivid impressions in London's Tate gallery in the hall dedicated to Amedeo Modigliani, when, wearing virtual reality glasses, you find yourself in the artist's workshop, you can touch his canvases and even hear the sound of rain outside the window.

The use of multimedia tools in the work of museums is a promising trend in the development of exhibition space. This helps us learn more about the exposure; affects our mood and emotions with the help of additional special effects; shows objects that cannot be shown live; makes the process of communication with art accessible to different audiences. Information kiosks, touch panels, touch tables, projections, media audio guides, video walls, 3D mapping, VR/AR technologies are very popular.

At London's Victoria and Albert Museum (UK), you can listen to audio interviews with expert art historians about some of the objects on display, send messages to museum staff, and create your own artwork by printing or emailing it. The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York (USA) gives visitors the opportunity to find themselves in a virtual interior of the chosen era.

The Pauline Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw "sends" us to a school, a synagogue, a tavern, and a city tram thanks to a video sequence and musical accompaniment. In the Danish National Maritime Museum, 11 projectors create the illusion of a sea abyss. Just don't forget to take a scuba tank with you and use an oxygen cylinder when you get breathless from the amazing emotions! In the Swedish Museum of the History of the Mediterranean in Stockholm, 3D technologies allow for a layer-by-layer study of the contents of an Egyptian sarcophagus and the anatomy of a mummy. There is a project in the museums of Greece and France that involves the creation of an individual route. When leaving the museum, in addition to impressions and memories, the visitor receives a photo or video of his visit.

The use of multimedia tools in the work of museums is a promising trend in the development of exhibition space

 

Content virtualization

If a person does not go to the museum, then the museum goes to the person

Last year, for obvious reasons, the transition to a virtual format of communication in those areas, which we used to understand as physically unchanging, became more relevant than ever. Even monumental museums have become flexible spaces.

VOMA (Virtual Online museum of Art) is the first virtual art museum that opened in 2020. Art critic Lee Cavalier became the director and curator. Now it is enough to download a free program that provides access to the works of about 20 artists represented in the museum. You can see the works of Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, and Jasper Johns in two virtual halls, the interiors of which change throughout the day depending on the weather and time of day.

 

4th method. Work with people

Format change

"Spent the night, walked all night until morning..."

Museum and exhibition complexes are popularized through the introduction of a new format of events. We are used to thinking that museums are "day mode" objects, but if they are switched to night time, society gets an opportunity to spend time interestingly and culturally after the working day.

It was for this purpose, first in Berlin, and then throughout the world, that the "Night of Museums" campaign was born, designed to destroy the myth of the latter as boring cultural places.

Holding concerts, performances, and shows in museum buildings is already the norm. In Barcelona, ​​for example, in almost every museum after six o'clock guests gather to listen to live music. At Casa Mila, once built by the great Antonio Gaudí (the house now belongs partly to the housing stock and partly to the museum), on the roof you can not only admire the amazing sunset, but also enjoy jazz music and a glass of coffee.

Artists and designers organize open events at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. It can be ceremonial openings of exhibitions, film screenings, installations, discos with the participation of fashionable DJs. Under the glass pyramids of the Louvre, you can taste dinner from famous chefs, and in Italy, as part of the "Roman Nights" festival, theaters and museum complexes are transformed to the sounds of the organ and piano.

Night tours at the Salvador Dalí Theater Museum in Figueras (Catalonia), which traditionally take place in August with musical accompaniment, open a new perspective on space

Night tours at the Theater-Museum of Salvador Dalí in Figueras (Catalonia), which traditionally take place in August with musical accompaniment, open a new perspective on the space. At night, the hemisphere of the roof is reflected in a huge glass wall, and it seems that the yard is covered by another dome. Plunging into the night's magical atmosphere, the viewer seems to become a part of the artist's surreal exposition.

In the classicist building of the British Museum in London, themed tours are held, and four times a year, interesting night quests for children are arranged. They spend the whole night in the museum listening to stories and playing games. Each night has a certain theme dedicated to one or another world culture.

The "Night of Museums" campaign is also popular in Ukraine, and many cultural venues are becoming more flexible in changing the format of events. The Odessa Art Museum recently celebrated its 120th anniversary. This architectural monument of the beginning of the 10th century. has about XNUMX works and is one of the oldest museums in the city. During the anniversary, the curators created an interesting program that includes day and night tours, with live music from guest jazz bands. During the management of the museum by the artist Oleksandr Roitburd, who introduced the format of master classes, concerts and other events, the museum became popular among Odessa residents, and its income tripled.

 

Creative collaborations

Call the rich and famous

A bright way of transforming the museum, rethinking its content and integrating it into the new era is the creation of all kinds of creative collaborations. In other words, collaboration with celebrities popularizes cultural places and attracts a fresh wave of audiences.

So, the Paris National Museum of Oriental Art (France) invited the musician Pharrell Williams to work on the exhibition, and the music video of the singer Beyoncé and the musician Jay Z, filmed in the Louvre, significantly increased the number of visitors after the release of the video with the "participation" of Gioconda.

Here we can also mention Tilda Swinton with her "sleeping" performances first in 1995 at London's Serpentine Gallery, then in 1996 at Rome's Barracco Museum, and finally in 2013 at New York's MoMA. During the artistic act The Maybe, the actress herself acts as a museum exhibit, choosing a glass cube instead of a bed, and simply sleeps in front of a stunned audience.

The largest exhibition ever held by the Museum of Art History in Vienna (Austria), entitled "Mummy Shrew in a Coffin and Other Treasures" is the result of the joint work of the curators of the exhibition and a charismatic couple: director Wes Anderson and his wife, designer and writer Julianne Manuf. The creative couple presented the most unpredictable exhibits from the museum fund in unexpected angles. The exhibition clearly refers us to the famous works of the director, such as "The Grand Budapest Hotel", "Kingdom of the Full Moon", "The Tenenbaum Family".

 

Foundations and charity

Museums are open for renovation!

In 1946, the Metropolitan Museum of Art raised funds for the reconstruction and expansion of the building in Central Park at the expense of charitable funds. In 1957, the Friends of the Tate museum fundraiser raised money to purchase works of art. In St. Louis (USA) in 2018, the funds collected in the state as a property tax in the amount of 85 million dollars were divided between the city zoo, the Art Museum and the History Museum.

Today, in three counties in the US state of Michigan, property taxes help fund the Detroit Institute of Arts, allowing residents to attend for free. In 2020, despite the deplorable state due to the consequences of the pandemic, 64% of residents of Jersey City (USA) voted for the introduction of taxes to finance the cultural sector. What conclusion can we draw?

Funds and charity carried out by local initiatives or created at the level of the city government have always worked and continue to work! The fact that even in the most difficult times people help museums shows that art is incredibly important to society.

Traditionally, in almost every volume of our publication, we touch on the topic of volunteering in one way or another. One of the articles on landscape design reflected on how difficult it is to do charity work in Ukraine. Indeed, it is. Our residents help ATO participants, pensioners, disabled people, rescue homeless animals and plant trees in city parks, reconstruct castles, clean city squares, monuments and metro stations. The topic of providing assistance to objects of the cultural and educational sphere is no exception.

"The museum is open for renovation" is an initiative to support regional museums with the participation of the Ukrainian Cultural Fund. Since 2016, project curators have been researching cultural heritage sites. Inviting creators from various fields to work, the initiators of the project implement educational and methodical workshops, exhibitions of modern art, research activities, various thematic events.

Museums of state and communal forms of ownership, in which the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine has been preserved, can become participants in the project. At the end of June 2020, as a result of the "Museum is open for renovation 2020" expedition, new objects were selected for cooperation. It remains to be believed that it will be fruitful and prompt other curators to act.

In the so-called epoch of monumentality, people went to museums for works of art. Today, communication with painting, sculpture, design is carried out by banal scrolling, sometimes, unfortunately, not completely meaningful, and the purchase or evaluation of art objects is reduced to pressing a button. Easy access to cultural content, on the one hand, helps modern people, on the other hand, it devalues ​​communication with the great and condemns museum complexes to oblivion.

By combining the benefits of the "brave new world" (Aldous Huxley's intonation is appropriate here, who speaks in his dystopian novel about the problem of mindless consumption) with the value of the cultural heritage that has come to us from the past, you can get a refined and fresh symbiosis. At the same time, the sheep remain intact, and the wolves...visit the art fairs.

 

/The material is published on pages #28 volumes of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA/