Moscow city is famous for its history and its history art museum in the world. The variable history of this land from the time before the birth of Christ up until the Russ princes' monarchy in the 15th century, the growth of Tsarism in the 16th century up to the rise of communism in 1917, and finally the current time which the government made many efforts to keep the history and culture of this variable past for the future generation. With the rise of technology, culture, and the presence of many platforms, the view on contemporary art has changed a lot in the world. For instance, the Museum of Contemporary Art in the heart of Moscow is one of the best contemporary museum in the world in one of the most historic cities in Russia.
At the Obraztsova distract in the north section of Moscow, Konstantin Melnikov designed and constructed an enormous structure for the bus company to be used as a garage for the buses; however, Melnikov designed a few offices and workshop rooms inside the building as well. The enormous structure which was left in bad maintenance for years and nearly demolished by the city council, saved by the Dasha Zhukova to become one of the first steps to establish the Contemporary Art Museum in Moscow. She had bought the building in 2008 and on the opening night, she invited the famous singer at the time, Amy Winehouse to perform for guests of the museum.
The Garage Museum relocated to a temporary place in the Gorky Park as its main building in the park was under reconstruction by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and scheduled to be ready in 2015. Since the location and atmosphere are relevant in contemporary art, the design of the museum is quite important. Rem Koolhaas turn the old and famous Vremena Goda Restaurant into the current Garage headquarter.
Dasha Zhukova, co-founder and CEO of the Garage Museum who started the non-profit project with Roman Abramovich, was born in Russia but grew up in the USA. The Russian-American businesswoman who was fascinated by Russian art and history, at first start a clothing brand in Russia, but then in 2008, she co-founded the Garage Museum to become one of the platforms for Russian artists to display their modern artworks. After a few successful years with the Garage Gallery, she founded the Garage Contemporary Art Magazine to introduce the new artists in the field. She believed that the museum and magazine are both developing and presenting Russian culture.
The garage began the online project RAAN with the help of some other companies which was an enormous online archive of arts or documents of artists from the post-war era and after, in 2012. You can find the name of artists such as Vladislav Mamyshev, Andrei Erofeev, Leo Talochkin, Nina Zaretskaya, and many more in this archive. The architecture of the museum building is a tourist attraction inside the Gorky Park, but there are several other interesting parts about the museum such as the temporary exhibitions by well-known artists, music concerts, and art performances that took place in there. Since most of the exciting parts of the contemporary art museums are temporary, it's recommended that tourists check the work calendar of the museum before they visit it to get the satisfaction of the experience.
The museum is also famous for its lectures and seminars about contemporary art. Through the year many educating programs, lectures, workshops are taken place in the museum for the ones who want to meet with the trend artists and learn something from them. Since educating was one of the principal purposes of the founders and director of the museum, a reliable library and also several courses have provided for the students and researchers.
Since producing digital contents such as movies, documentaries, and animations are intimate parts of contemporary art, Garage had opened several movie theaters all over the city, and inside the headquarter as well. Live performances, music concerts, and interactive exhibitions are also an important part of the museum programs. Besides all of these, Garage Publishing is a great platform to introduce or exporting Russian culture or even international artists in the form of literature and graphic books to the world.
One of the many attractions of Moscow which is at the top of the Russian tour attend-list is the Gorky Park in the heart of the city which welcomes Muscovites and tourists since 1928. The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art locates at the heart of this park as well. However, the scope of the museum’s building might trick people of the contents inside, but the museum utilized all of its potentials to work no matter of the conditions. Contemporary art indeed requires a certain taste and different way of thinking, but we recommend you to check this museum out if you ever visited the Gorky Park in Moscow to learn about the Russia modern art and culture as well as its glorious history.
If you admire the contemporary and modern art, be sure to check out the Alexander Pushkin Museum Fine Art in Moscow as well as the Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art in Saint Petersburg.
If you think that you would enjoy the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in your travel to Moscow, be sure to check out our blog at the Star Travel Group to find more about the top places that you should see when you visit Russia.
