PERMM, the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art officially opened in spring 2009, although the initiative for creating a Museum of Contemporary Art came from senator Sergey Gordeev already in 2008. The museum is located in the former Perm River Station Hall, an abandoned “architectural monument,” which had been renovated to host the museum since then onwards.
The art dealer Marat Guelman has served as director since the museum’s outset. In July 2011 The Art Newspaper web edition described Guelman as “the Moscow gallery pioneer who transformed Perm, a rough industrial centre in the Ural mountains region of Russia, into a contemporary art destination.” (Sophia Kishkovsky, The Art Newspaper, web edition, published on 13.07.2011.)
The venue’s first project was the exhibition
Russian Povera (2008). The exhibition, curated by Marat Guelman, became the new museum’s manifesto and the main guide line for its acquisition policy.
For Guelman: “Initially, Russain Povera art appeared because of the absence of those technologies and possibilities that were available to the artists abroad. In course of time they found beauty, protest, tradition and ascesis in it and, in my opinion, created what is called “Russian identity. (...) Of course, in naming the show
Russian Povera, I fully realize the consonance with the Italian Arte Povera, but even given the many similar formal elements, I also find the difference obvious – as obvious as the difference between starving out of poverty and refusing to eat for the benefit of one’s health and figure. The artists taking part in “Russian Povera” have never thought of themselves as a single group with a common aesthetic – unlike Arte Povera, which was a movement with a unified aesthetic manifesto.” (Marat Guelman, Permm website)
Still at an early stage of activity, Permm organised other two key-exhibitions:
The new Testament Project by the artist duo Dmitri Vrubel and Viktoria Timofeeva and
MoskvApolis. The first exhibition provoked a vivid discussion among the local audience. It presented contemporary forms of “good news” by referring bible quotations to reportage images circulating in the media and the Internet.
The art critic Boris Groys remarks: “In order to illustrate the texts of the Gospel, Vrubel and Timofeeva use visual material supplied by the international news agencies, specifically Reuters, to the contemporary mass media. This decision is quite justifiable since the word “Gospel” literally means “good news.” In this sense, one might consider the Gospel as the prototype for modern media. The bad, when it becomes news, becomes good. On this paradox of faith – faith in the Gospel and faith in modern media – all of modern conscience is based. Vrubel and Timofeeva’s work brings this paradox of modern faith out with great precision”. (“Good and Bad News,” Boris Groys, Permm Website)
MoskvApolis represented an overview of Russia’s capital art scene, as it brought together works from a wide range of Moscow museums and galleries. Through this exhibition Permm defined one of its main principles: representing all genres of international contemporary art, such as installation, sculpture, video, photography and authorial prints.
In September 2010 the Moscow architectural office Project Meganom won the competition for the renovation of the River Station building. The architects proposed a new additional pavilion, which will function as a riverside station and a new space on the poles to host an exhibition space with an overall surface of 5000 square metres.
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The museum program consists not only of exhibitions, but also of festivals, artist talks, lectures, workshops, concerts and performances, serving as a cultural hub for the city.
The Museum of contemporary art aims to establish a new model for cultural institutions, becoming an important agent for the socio-economic development of the Perm region.
Offering an attractive cultural program in a new urban environment, the museum strives to facilitate the emergence of new artist generations as well as of new cultural institutions. Furthermore the museum’s goal is to play a central role in the reshaping of the city’s image as a new cultural destination, by cooperating with media, foreign museums and creative industries.
Regarding the role of Permm in the Russian contemporary art system, Marat Guelman states:
“In the 1990s the contemporary art lost support of the public. Nowadays this conflict has not disappeared. Though the contemporary art has become a part of public space, it still has not a social support, but is still being publicly haunted. I think that the reason for this situation is a lack of institutions for contemporary art that would have as its mission the development of social communication. Shaping of a favourable environment around the contemporary art – it’s a mission of the museum (…) I am confident, that no other type of art institution is able to wake an interest of the public to contemporary art and to shape a new creative urban environment.” (Marat Guelman, Permm website)
