The Hermitage in General Staff Building
The display is spread across various spaces within the General Staff building and spans eleven rooms. The main part of the exhibition is presented in the attic above the vaults of the famous arch of the General Staff. This unusual, in some way mystical place, where the original wooden structures and 19th-century skylights have survived, was previously inaccessible to visitors. The opportunity to see it will be a long-awaited gift to the museum’s guests.
The display invites people to find out about the history of the General Staff building, to view rare photographs of the mammoth restoration process that turned a historical monument into a modern-day museum, and to recall the most interesting exhibitions that have been held here over the last two decades. The exhibition also features documents from the Hermitage’s archives, old exhibition posters, and archaeological finds dating from the 18th–20th centuries that were made on the site during the restoration work.
Specially for the exhibition, the studio ARKI — Kinetic Architecture is presenting the media installation Bird of the Future, a metaphor for the Hermitage’s museum activities in the General Staff building over the years. The shape of the art object was inspired by the layout of the building that resembles on the one hand the silhouette of some magical bird and on the other the lines of an ultramodern supersonic airliner.
