PSC was engaged to design the multimedia part of Peredvizhniki exhibition, that presents the phenomenon of traveling exhibitions and the Association itself. The overall goal was to show how artists of the 19th century opened new horizons for themselves, their progressive views and the idea of constant movement. It turned out to be relevant and timely for the era of development of railway transport and communication lines, and how artists used the latest technologies to show art in different parts of the country.
Taking the idea of movement and speed as a basis, we created a unified spatial installation, with the entrance group representing a train station room. The train, created from metal contours according to the sketches of the bureau’s architects, departs from it. The train is combined with light forms that convey a sense of lightness, speed and forward movement.
The second is dedicated to the chronology of the art group of the Itinerant painters and has more traditional architectural and design solutions. It was important for us to show the role of the discussion about the future within the art circle. Therefore, we introduced a table, kind of King Arthur round table, where all documents, letters of the society are exhibited.
The third room is devoted to the exhibitions of the Peredvizhniki themselves. A showcase runs through it, designed in the form of a light road, a winding line — an allegory of the river of time. The sides of the showcase are complemented by large-scale light boxes with reproductions and fragments of paintings. Moving along the route of the Peredvizhniki, the viewer studies their creative path and biographical facts, including detailed details of the organization of exhibitions — from decisions on the composition of works to the peculiarities of packing canvases for transportation.
The final room concludes the conversation about the view of the Peredvizhniki “from the inside” and tells about the collectors and connoisseurs of their art among their contemporaries. Among whom Pavel Tretyakov, Ivan Morozov and others took center stage. This room is an allegory of the “final stop”, the fixation of the process of movement, the final point where the Itinerant artists were led by their creative path and passion for movement, and in what form their legacy has been preserved. The story about the life of collectors and patrons, their decisions and the process of collecting is solved in the form of animation. To create a cozy atmosphere of the house where art lives, we placed in this hall an installation in the form of a suspended railroad — a rhyming design solution with a large installation in the form of a steam locomotive at the beginning of the journey.