On September 19th in the Central Exhibition Hall, the Manege launched “To be Eternally Preserved”, a museum-theater project devoted to the 100th anniversary of the transformation of the former imperial residences of Gatchina, Pavlosk, Peterhof, and Tsarskoe Selo into public museums. The project was on display in the Manege until October 15th.

“To be Eternally Preserved” is the biography of four country residences as told through the language of contemporary theatre.

During the nationalization of tsarist property following the October Revolution, particular importance was placed on the Petersburg imperial palaces and country residences, as they were not only constructed by the most revered architects of their time but were also filled with unique, priceless art collections. The transformation of these palaces into museums became a project of paramount importance for the young Soviet state, one realized on the boundary of epochs and cultures.

The centurial journey of all four museum-reserves, in many respects alike, in others strikingly distinct, can be seen as an embodiment of the critical juncture of a complex and tempestuous 20th century. Over the past hundred years, thousands of individuals have invested – and continue to invest – their strength, knowledge, and soul into the development of these residences.

In order to effectuate the aim of the project, the heads of the museum-reserves turned to a Petersburg director the artistic head of the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre, Andrei Moguchiy, inviting him to “melt” the historical facts into an artistic form. Alongside Moguchiy, Vera Martynov, laureate of the Russian National Theatre “Zolotaya Maska” Award and holder of the “Innovatsya” State Prize for contemporary art, served as artistic director. The music for the play-exhibition was written by Petersburg composer Vladimir Rannev, while the text was penned by Svetlana Shagina.

Thus, the largely experimental museum-theatrical project “To be Eternally Preserved” was born – an authorial creation within a documentary framework. Andrei Moguchiy and his creative team constructed a play in which the tragic and triumphant pages of the hundred-year journey of Gatchina, Pavlovsk, Peterhof, and Tsarkoe Selo’s museum-reserves came to life. The project’s theatrical scenery fashioned historical spaces of different periods: from the former tsarist residences, the viewer found themselves in a Soviet park of culture, taking part in the large-scale evacuation of the collections at the beginning of the war, and traversing with them the long road to victory. The triumphant revival of the palaces from ashes and their subsequent path forward toward contemporaneity acted as the driving force of the exhibition.

The most significant part of the exhibit consisted of 200 authentic museum pieces on loan from the collections of the four museum-reserves. The organic combination of light, sound, and multimedia in the project’s narrative led to a truly experimental and innovative work, one with the power to leave a multiplicity of impressions upon the viewer. The methodological basis of the project “To be Eternally Preserved” was provided by the staff of the museum-reserves.



Translated by Samuel Driver.