Mikhail Piotrovsky. Isolation. Intellectual way

We bring to your attention an article by the General Director of the Hermitage, Prof. Piotrovskiy, published in "Vedomosti of St. Petersburg" newspaper on March 31st, 2020 concerning Hermitage's work during this difficult period. Original article in Russian can be found here.

Having temporarily stopped receiving visitors and having sent its employees to work remotely the Hermitage is exploring various modern communication methods that are convenient to use today and tomorrow.

We do not say that the Hermitage has closed; it does not stop working. The time of innovation has come to remind that the museum has several functions: to keep, study and make collections accessible.

The museum is guarded more strictly than usual. The exhibits are provided with the necessary climate; the custodians regularly inspect the exhibitions and displays using security service cameras. From their home the employees comment in the social media on what these cameras show. The cameras on the Palace Square, in the courtyard and in the Raphael Hall broadcast the picture 24 hours: in the morning, afternoon, evening and at night.

The method of making the collections accessible today has been moved online. This has been actually so to a large extent. Now we are trying to combine two types of such work. One type is to “receive” the visitor at the Hermitage. The other type is to speak about the museum using various technologies.

I think this is a recipe for the future life of culture as a whole to some extent.

The Hermitage opens online at 10.30 sharp and closes at 18.00. At first these were live broadcasts. Today these are recordings specially made advance from the halls and depositories as well as excursions.

Over a week and a half, more than 6 million people have seen them. This is more than the number of the visitors of the Hermitage per year.

The museum works without visitors, but also without queues which many complain about. Now one can see what one will never see because of the queues.

There has appeared an opportunity to play the game: what the com

munication with the original is, when the museum is closed, and what complete virtuality is. These are different things.

The museum without visitors and queues is what we call intellectual way of isolation. Everyday work continues. It is somewhat opposed to the enchanting online stream that has come around which is a bit like a feast in time of plague.

We must work calmly rather than say that everything is fine now and will be even better. It will not. We are separated but we must use this moment to learn new techniques that are very necessary.

What do people get today if they virtually “come” to the Hermitage? First of all, this is a tour of the deserted halls. The first tour in Italian has been held and we have received thanks from the Mayor of Venice and the Minister of Culture of Italy for it. We prepare excursions in English, French and Chinese. A virtual walk on the museum website has turned out to be very popular.

Particularly successful is the virtual visit to the Hermitage’s depositary. It is usually open to visitors, but rarely does anyone get to the Staraya Derevnya. The Restoration and Storage Center is the know-how of the Hermitage, a special way of storing things and showing them. The reviews differ. There are enthusiastic reviews, there are negative ones. Not everyone understands why open repositories are necessary, why the story is told by the custodians rather than by professional guides. But this is the uniqueness clear to gourmets from art. Online replaces fast food with a delicacy.

Our latest exhibitions opened without an audience and ceremonies. There is a separate introduction and tour. This is the way we opened an exhibition in memory of Grand Prince Sergey Aleksandrovich and an exhibition of contemporary Korean art. Korea is the country that is fastest to start emerging from the coronavirus. The exhibits arrived earlier, went through the customs and the quarantine.

The tour of the Studio 44. Enfilade. exhibition was a success. The broadcast of the discussions held at the museum’s youth club added to the interactivity. The broadcast exhibitions will be seen by more people than could come to their opening. Many people thank us.

Such a display of the exhibitions does not bring money to the museum. In addition, an “iceberg” arises facing which threatens, however, not so much museums as theaters. The companies charging money for copyright have livened up and begun introducing restrictions. We check the rights to all our recordings and films.

Everyone is used to the fact that genuine is good, virtual is second grade. The time has come to understand how the virtual helps the genuine reach the viewer, and how it can serve the museum as such.

There are daily broadcasts from our Treasures where visitors rarely get. At the same time, there is a wide selection of ordinary Hermitage video programs in free access which, I recall, are numerous. Every day we offer a special set published on the website.

We are also engaged in electronic paper circulation, smoothly fighting our own bureaucracy. This is hard.

Another “iceberg” that we had to deal with was the rules of the work schedule and remuneration. How can a person be checked if the person is absent from the workplace, how can his stay somewhere be recorded, how can assignments be given? It turns out that everything is not that simple, our laws are not adapted to this. Due to the crisis, the order is being worked out. We help eliminate the flaws of the system.

We do not feel especially happy trying to find the maximum convenience in the modern technologies which have their pros and cons. The difficult times make us look for new techniques and ways to fulfill the functions of the museum. And this means the ability to skillfully and correctly combine virtuality and authenticity. The task is to show the museum to people almost as if it were a real visit to it.

I liked one of the reviews on our social network: “great content, and they don’t sell anything to us”. The museum does not impose interpretations. It makes one think, tells about complicated things, and poses philosophical questions. Being an innovator is also the mission of a large museum.

Another “iceberg” that arose on our way is international contacts. A certain number of Hermitage items are at exhibitions in other countries. The borders are closed, they cannot return. Our paintings, sculptures are in Italy, in France, in the Netherlands. There are things from Russian and foreign museums now exhibited at the Hermitage.

We are linked by good international cooperation. We maintain correspondence, inform each other about what is happening. There are miracles of bureaucratic urgency: the terms of insurance, the stay of items in other museums are extended. It is not for nothing that we take state guarantees.

The question is what will happen with the planned exhibitions. I hope that active museum cooperation will continue. I want to believe that the world will not close, although there is such a trend. But today I have discussed the exhibitions of 2021 with the Italian colleagues.

Our task is to maintain a unified museum space, both Russian and global. If we work, we will come out of the crisis with new communication skills relevant for the XXI century. Among them is the ability to do without direct contacts where they can be replaced. As a result, the value of direct contact, both between people and people with the museum, will finally increase.