The Russian State Hermitage Museum will open a new branch in Moscow that is focused on contemporary art. The new branch will be called “Hermitage Modern Contemporary” and will be designed by Asymptote Architecture from New York.
There will be vast collections of 20th century art from the Hermitage collection along with new works that will be presented. This includes Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings.
The Hermitage Museum branch will be located on the former ZiL automobile plant and will be 15 stories with space of 140,000 square feet. The ZiL plant was famous for producing limousines for the Soviet leadership.
The complex will include a residential area, concert hall, and theatre to compliment the museum.
Hani Rashid, one of the lead architects at Asymptote commented that “Rather than being perceived as a museum dealing only with the past, the Hermitage is pushing itself forward into the future from its powerful historical position.”
Dmitry Ozerkov, the curator of the new project stated that “Moscow is not as conservative as St Petersburg, people are accustomed to contemporary art here and give it the attention it deserves. And the Hermitage Museum already has great experience in organizing large-scale exhibitions of this kind.”
The new museum is planned to be open in 2022.
Photo sources: Press Photo