Publication of the catalog by State Ermitage
On 19 June 2025, in the framework of the Petersburg Economic Forum, Ilya and Emilia Kabakova first presented the catalogue of the exhibition «The Monument of the Disappeared Civilization».
And six months ago, I couldn’t imagine that the project would be printed in 500 copies and would be called «the first Russian-language publication dedicated to the exhibition of the installation».
Photo-documentation with PMEF of 19.06.2025
Photo-documentation with PMEF of 19.06.2025
The book was originally created as a training project for students in the «Tipographic» series in module 3 of the course. I had the task of choosing an exhibition for which a catalogue would be created. I have no doubt decided to dedicate the book «The Monument of the Disappeared Civilization». First of all, I’m a big fan of Kabakov creativity. Secondly, the exhibition took place at the time at Hermitage General Staff, consistent with what I had a chance to do in person to get a sense of the atmosphere. Thirdly, I could hear about the exhibition from the curator, Marina Schultz, head of the Modern Arts Division of State Ermitage, who gave a lecture detailing the exhibition, her observations and her impressions. It was after this meeting that the image of the book appeared to me, and I realized what it was supposed to be. For example, Marina mentioned in her story that it was hard enough for an unprepared viewer to understand the content of the installation because of the abundance of texts and the lack of seating positions, which is a kind of obstacle that needs to be overcome. So I had a decision to choose a deliberately difficult piece of hair with a «slide» so that the viewers would feel the same way they did when they read the exhibition. The whole book was made up and made by me under my handler, Eugenia Grigoriev.
Photos of the catalogue of the exhibition «The monument of the disappeared civilization»
Photos of the catalogue of the exhibition «The monument of the disappeared civilization»
Two months after the defense, no one remembered the book, and in March, I received a message that Ermitage wanted to print it. It was a miracle! As it turns out, it was Marina Schultz who drew attention to the catalogue. The book was then long negotiated and made some changes to fit Ermitage’s canons: we replaced images, and we added introductory and final texts. It was necessary, because when I was working on this catalog as part of my study, I used materials that I found on my own. There were no photographs and installation texts in the public domain, so I had to come to Ermitage and take pictures of the exhibition myself. Of course, this is not exactly suitable for printing, so the images were replaced by identical photographs taken by a professional photographer specifically for printing. The book was adjusted by the Mayak Polygraph, but all changes were agreed with me as the author of the book’s design. The important thing is that the principle of stripping is still the one I’ve been thinking about in the first place. The circulation of 500 copies was printed in early June for the presentation at the PMEF. There was no coordination on the part of the SCE. But after the catalog was launched, an interview with me was released on the website of the ICU School of Design.
Photos of the catalogue of the exhibition «The monument of the disappeared civilization»
You can read more about the project in the Longrid book:
Many news media broadcast information about the event. For example, the channels St. Petersburg and Russia K dedicated a presentation of the catalogue.
This catalog has become my first edition. For me, most of it is to be part of St. Petersburg’s main museum. I express my great gratitude to Eugenia Grigoriev for the work done and to Marina Schultz for the opportunity to prove himself.
