Documentation of Creative Projects by the Baltic Branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

The Baltic Branch in Kaliningrad has existed since 2020. It is the most westerly part of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The branch specializes in contemporary art (new media, video art, science art, and sound art) and in activities connected with the understanding of the heritage of territory and the transformation and aestheticization of the urban space. The institutional archive of the Baltic Branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts comprises documents from exhibitions, festivals, and educational programs, photographs, and audiovisual collections. The archive is based on the project principle and covers current activities.

The archive includes materials from major projects by the Baltic Branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts: the annual Sound Around Kaliningrad festival of sound art and experimental music and the educational program Art and Science: The Twentieth Century in Detail.

The publication of the third alternative art guide to Kaliningrad‑The Kronprinz Barracks: A History of the Quarter (2021), compiled by Ilya Dementiev and Elena Tsvetaeva‑was a continuation of the branch’s publishing activities. The main aim of the research was to define the role of the quarter in which the Kronprinz Barracks is located in the history of Königsberg/Kaliningrad. This architectural complex, a nineteenth‑century building of federal importance, was the focus of the branch’s attention for many years thanks to the idea of creating a contemporary art museum there.

The documentary street promenade/performance Kronprinz Routes (2021), a collective walk with theatrical elements, represented a new format for the branch. The performance, which was made as a mockumentary, was based on archive research by Ilya Dementiev, who is a Candidate of Historical Sciences. The annual educational program Art and Science: The Twentieth Century in Detail (2021–2022) involved research and analysis of the interaction of artists, scientists, and engineers in the twentieth century. Twelve lectures by leading Russian specialists in the fields of art, philosophy, and cultural studies and six masterclasses by well‑known Russian media artists explored the history of technoculture from the point of view of the archeology of new media.

An important part of the archive is made up of documentation of the exhibition Pulsating Ellipsis (2022), which opened the branch’s new exhibition space in Kaliningrad. The works shown incorporated motifs of borderline states, uncertainty, expectation, and hope.

Documentation of Creative Projects by the Baltic Branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts