31. Erarta
Erarta is St. Petersburg's contemporary art museum, and is the largest institution of modern and contemporary art in Russia. It features painting, sculpture, and video installations created by Russian artists (plus a handful of artists from the former Soviet Republics) since 1945. It's located on Vasilyevsky Island, the largest island in St. Petersburg that is located to the northwest of the city center, across the Neva River. Erarta is a bit outside of the main tourist areas of St. Petersburg. It's not an especially convenient walk from either of the nearest Metro stations, so for most visitors, either a bus, taxi, or private vehicle will be the preferred transportation. I like to walk everywhere so I can get a feel for each neighborhood, so of course I walked the 20 or 30 minutes each way from the Vasileostrovskaya Metro station.
This museum is (obviously) several centuries younger than most of the other major museums in town, and it was designed with the international visitor in mind. All signage is in Russian as well as English, and the front desk staff are all bilingual. The museum is large but not overwhelmingly so; five floors in the south wing house the permanent collections, and five floors in the north wing house the temporary exhibitions. My favorite temporary exhibitions were ones that focused on Azerbaijani paintings, the history of underwear, large wooden sculptures from a father/son team of St. Petersburg artists, and photographs of deserted houses and factories in Leningrad Oblast.
The permanent collections focus mainly on paintings. There were also sculptures throughout the galleries (some interactive) and video rooms on each floor. Most of the video rooms required a separate ticket for a 15-minute solo immersion experience, but several were open to everyone. I spent some time watching short animated videos inspired by different paintings on display.
One of my favorite rooms featured six or eight paintings that were all sound-tracked by a local composer. Each audio collage played in sequence, and the game was to guess to which painting the audio belonged. There was also a clever display that one would not see in the United States - a painting of a man with a pickle and a bottle of vodka was hung on the wall above a table that had a sliced pickle, bottle of vodka, and a glass. There was a sign that read "21+" on the table, which I took as a clear invitation to the viewer to interact with the display however one sees fit. I did not choose to eat or drink anything, but that was certainly a clever way to more fully immerse oneself in the world of the painting.
The museum is open until 10pm daily, which is a wonderful change from the more usual 5 or 6 pm closing time of most local institutions - especially during this time of year when it's light outside until after 11 pm. The restaurant on site had an interesting menu, but I decided to walk back to the commercial area of Vasilyevsky Island to look for dinner closer to the St. Petersburg State University neighborhood. After passing by a Georgian cafe that was too crowded to find a table, I ended up at an upscale local chain called "Ketchup Burger" recommended by a colleague and ate my first hamburger in approximately 8 years. It tasted just like I remembered, and was a nice match with a Gulden Draak beer.
This museum is (obviously) several centuries younger than most of the other major museums in town, and it was designed with the international visitor in mind. All signage is in Russian as well as English, and the front desk staff are all bilingual. The museum is large but not overwhelmingly so; five floors in the south wing house the permanent collections, and five floors in the north wing house the temporary exhibitions. My favorite temporary exhibitions were ones that focused on Azerbaijani paintings, the history of underwear, large wooden sculptures from a father/son team of St. Petersburg artists, and photographs of deserted houses and factories in Leningrad Oblast.
The permanent collections focus mainly on paintings. There were also sculptures throughout the galleries (some interactive) and video rooms on each floor. Most of the video rooms required a separate ticket for a 15-minute solo immersion experience, but several were open to everyone. I spent some time watching short animated videos inspired by different paintings on display.
One of my favorite rooms featured six or eight paintings that were all sound-tracked by a local composer. Each audio collage played in sequence, and the game was to guess to which painting the audio belonged. There was also a clever display that one would not see in the United States - a painting of a man with a pickle and a bottle of vodka was hung on the wall above a table that had a sliced pickle, bottle of vodka, and a glass. There was a sign that read "21+" on the table, which I took as a clear invitation to the viewer to interact with the display however one sees fit. I did not choose to eat or drink anything, but that was certainly a clever way to more fully immerse oneself in the world of the painting.
The museum is open until 10pm daily, which is a wonderful change from the more usual 5 or 6 pm closing time of most local institutions - especially during this time of year when it's light outside until after 11 pm. The restaurant on site had an interesting menu, but I decided to walk back to the commercial area of Vasilyevsky Island to look for dinner closer to the St. Petersburg State University neighborhood. After passing by a Georgian cafe that was too crowded to find a table, I ended up at an upscale local chain called "Ketchup Burger" recommended by a colleague and ate my first hamburger in approximately 8 years. It tasted just like I remembered, and was a nice match with a Gulden Draak beer.
Comments
Post a Comment