Moscow Museum of Modern Art celebrates its 15th birthday with a traditional exhibition
The exhibition ‘Fortune Museum’ marked the 15th anniversary оf the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Visitors were given a rare opportunity to become acquainted with museum’s storage departments and earliest acquisitions.
Since MOMMA’s opening in 1999 there has been a lot of cultural and social changes. All of these changes are reflected in contemporary art, sometimes even predicted. Moscow Museum of Modern Art is like a fortune cookie for those who can read these signs. That’s how the idea of anniversary exhibition’s concept was shaped. The halls are united by the motive of a ribbon that winds up like a small scroll of paper inside a fortune cookie.
‘Strange’ shapes, derived from fortune cookies, are in fact seating benches that punctuate an otherwise neutral white environment.
The main challenge was to design a flexible structure and identity for the exhibition, as its exact contents were only specified at the last minute. We have recreated numerous storage spaces — they help the viewers to get the idea of how museum’s backstage looks like.
It is also the first time when museum’s vast library was introduced to the visitors. Rare books and albums dedicated to art history and theory exhibited in library bookcases are free to use in reading room.
Eventually the library has become a first step to the foundation of museum’s education centre. Visitors can work there with museums vast resourses free of charge.
