Theatrical staging as a method of museum space designer’s projecting

Abstract

The article considers the problem of creating new expositions of the State Museum Reserve “Peterhof ” on the basis of modern interaction between the museum and theater. Historical displays in Peterhof palaces are analyzed first, and then the focus is shifted to the history of emergence of new diverse expositions designed by means of theatricalization of the the historical space of the museum-reserve. The comparison of the principles of organising these expositions, called “historical cultural projects”, as well as the comparison between the types of museum and theater entertainment, receives a fundamentally new theoretical understanding. Nowadays, the creation of the museum exposition is considered to be a specific sphere of art, architecture and design. Traditionally, it was perceived as the main form of presenting historical and cultural heritage in the form of an artificially created spatial structure displaying objects. At present, the latest innovative information technologies have introduced dynamics into this process, made it possible to present an original interpretation of the theme of the exposition on the basis of musical, dramatic, audiovisual and other means. Today, the exhibition is characterized by the complexity of conceptual solutions and a diversity of plastic expression, which brings this genre closer to the theatrical action, and the museum environment is constructed according to the principles of scenography. In this regard, the traditional exhibitional techniques based on the display of the totality of museum items selected according to a certain system are replaced with methods of museumification of cultural phenomena. To implement such tasks, museum specialists work together with theater directors and stage designers, following a specially written scenario. As a result, museum theatricalization rises to the level of a complex interdisciplinary phenomenon, manifested in a subject-shaped context. Synthesizing research, aesthetic and emotional components of the exhibition, entertainment becomes an  understandable medium between the past and the present, determines the connection between the museum and the visitor, fully enables to create “museums of lost events” and to museumify the phenomena of culture.

Keywords:

The State Museum Reserve Peterhof, museum space, theatrical staging, exposition design, synthesis of museum and theatrical art language, methodical of designer’s exposition projecting, expositional dramaturgy, innovative artistic design