Pushkin Museum Launches New Department with Venice Biennale Collateral Exhibition

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts has inaugurated its new department, Pushkin Museum XXI, with the collateral exhibition "Man as Bird. Images of Journeys" at Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel during the 2017 Venice Biennale. The museum, which holds over 700,000 works from Ancient Greece to the 21st century, aims to foster dialogue between contemporary and traditional art. The exhibition features fourteen Russian and international artists, including Marnix de Nijs, Martin Honert, Mariano Sardon, and Leonid Tishkov, whose works engage with the museum's collection through new media and immersive experiences. Olga Shishko, founder of Moscow's MediaArtLab, joined the Pushkin team a year ago to lead this initiative. The show is divided into three sections: linear journey, sensory expansion inspired by Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Matyushin, and panoramic vision with big data. The venue, a recently restored palazzo, was chosen after a last-minute change; the museum hopes to return for future Biennales. Pushkin Museum XXI is supported by private donors, including the mail.ru group, as the Russian Minister of Culture does not favor contemporary art. Upcoming projects include exhibitions by Matthew Collishaw and Cai Guo-Qiang, and a loan of Impressionist works to a Tokyo show with a Claude Monet installation. The museum is also constructing 26 new buildings to house the new department.