The State Museum of Russian Diaspora in Moscow

On May 28th, 2019 in the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russia Abroad the opening ceremony of The State Museum of Russian Diaspora in Moscow took place. A number of high ranked officials such as Sergey Lavrov, the Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Alexander Kibovsky, Moscow's Minister of Culture, visited this event.

In the exhibition viewers could find historical materials and multimedia installations that reflect on the theme of emigration and fate of Russian people and culture abroad.

The main focus of the exhibition is its scenography and spatial solutions. We worked closely with the design team and the staff of the House of Russia Abroad, so considered all the specific details, that the Museum architect and its concept creator introduced.

For this project we took on a wide range of tasks related to the development of comprehensive stylistic solutions and the creation of different kinds of content.

In total, we have made 18 unique interactive installations and applications, 6 films for projections and screens, 14 audio pieces, more than 30 graphic elements of the interior and the entire labeling system of the Museum.

The section refers to the topic of the relationship between intellectuals and the Soviet regime (remember Philosopher`s steamboat, which transported more than 160 expelled Russian intellectuals and their families abroad).

The section includes 2 interactive panels: “Authorities against intellectuals”, devoted to the crucial moments in history of collisions between intellectuals a the Soviet regime and  “A few questions for you” (visitors fill out the questionnaire about their attitude towards the regime and wait for results and information about their “dispatch”, they also can search files of real exiles).

The map shows how military Russian emigration moved to the East and to the West.

Visitors can see the amount of people and different directions the troops retreated.

Installation consists of 17 monitors built in the wall, each equipped with mono headphones. Visitors see common animation on the screens - emigrant`s video interview starts, when headphones are removed.

The video presentation on four monitors, constituting a single composition, introduces the history of the Society of Russian Veterans of the Great War, the history of the Budberg Library and the figures of military Russian emigration, who preserved Russian historical and cultural heritage in exile.

Each story is told through the identity of one hero. Presentations go in a circle, replacing one another.

The logical extension of Chronicles. The spatial solution is represented in the form of emigrant museum, where visitor can find the touch screen with the collection pieces. The interactive panel is called “The Private collection” and contains a game, which shows the value of pieces in different context.

The political map of the world in 1923 is the largest non-multimedia object in the museum. It shows countries and cities, which became centers of attraction for Russian emigrants. The map was made from a single piece of polywood, the boundaries between countries were marked and cut with laser.

The visitor sits at the table and becomes a part of an audio installation, an unwitting listener of the statements of literary figures of the Russian abroad. Each literary association is characterized by its own voice and unique attitude. Voices speak out about the fate of literature and the role of an emigrant writer.

The installation include 28 emigrant stories - carefully collected biographies, which represented

as announcements on the wall and a content on the touch panel.

This section includes 2 interactive panels:

The installation is designed as a wall with photos, divided into 4-5 groups, depending of the camp. They show the structure of various military camps, its residents and daily life.

The installation is designed as a large projection of the world map on a semi-circular wall 17 meters long. Against the wall there are 5 touch panels with video interviews of people from different countries.

Sound systems for installation are installed above the panels, projectors are controlled by a separate media server, full synchronization of the launch of video and audio files was achieved by our engineers and programmers efforts.

The table is divided into six sectors with touch panels and sound system. From 3 to 6 interactive cubes are attached to each of the panels. In the space between the sectors there are graphic panels with exhibits and annotations.

Programs on touch panels start when a visitor clicks on the cube. They tell about the selected phenomenon through personalities and reflect how emigrants influenced the modern world.

CLIENT: State budget institution of culture of the city of Moscow"House of the Russian Diaspora named after Alexander Solzhenitsyn",Foundation “Perpetuating the Memory of Victims of Political Repressions”

PRODUCTION: Pitch

Exposition Design — Andrey Vovk / Project Director — Artem Rybalko / Creative Director— Boris Kislitsin / Technical Producer — Dmitry Napolnov / Production Director — Roman Kuligin / Art Director — Julia Artamonova / Design Director — Svetlana Golovchanskaya / Scriptwriters — Vasily Shatrov, Elena Papchenko / Supervisor — Nikolay Kabishchev / Content manager — Ekaterina Chernetskaya / Designers— Julia Artamonova, Regina Slovesnaya, Dmitry Elkhov, Alexey Kurbatov, Maxim Sergeev, Sergey Dmitriev, Mikhail Amirov, Sergei Kuschenko, Olga Pankova, Antonina Baydina, Mikhail Golovin, Valentina Volkova, Vera Godunova / Animation — Alexander Ugodnov, Maxim Malakhov, Roman Kuligin, Elena Opanasenko / Music and sound design — Dmitry Vikhornov / Programmers Team Supervisor — Vladimir Protsenko / Development/programmers team — Dmitry Gladkov, Alexander Kazachkov, Alexey Rastegaev, Mikhail Amirov, Ilya Komichev, Andrey Uldin / Automation Engineer — Pavel Bezrodny / Multimedia Engineers —Sergey Pervakov, Danil Gerasimenko, Yulia Pogorelova, Oleg Savichev, Dmitriy Mashnin / Film Shooting —Alexander Dashko / Film Editing — Sergey Shevchenko / Soundtrack — Dmitry Vikhornov