In 2013, the capital of Lithuania opened «Guggenheim-Hermitage»

St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum and New York's Guggenheim Museum (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) are working on joint projects - the Museum of Contemporary Art in Vilnius. It was expected that the museum will open its doors in 2013.

The Prime Minister of Lithuania Gediminas Kirkilas said that this project is very important for the country's image and attract tourists. The former mayor of Vilnius and one of the chapters of the draft Arturas Zuokas said that according to studies, the new museum could count to 400 thousand visitors a year, half of whom come from abroad. The museum will be located in the green zone on the bank of the river Vilia (Neris), in a place where the old and the new part of town.

cost of the project amounts to 260 million litas (117 million dollars), of which the Government of Lithuania will pay 10-15 per cent, while the remaining amount will make the municipality of Vilnius and private investors.

The museum has several exhibition spaces will be created the permanent exhibition. It is also planned to exhibit paintings, sculptures, installations and objects from the collections «older brothers» - the New York Guggenheim Museum and the Hermitage. A feature of the museum will center on «Litvak» - of Lithuanian Jews. Before World War II Jewish community in Lithuania, there were 220 thousand people, but 95 percent of Jews were killed during the Nazi occupation. The Center will be a tribute to the deceased.

The main partner of the new museum will be the Hermitage, to which the project will become a continuing program of bringing contemporary art to the Hermitage. Hermitage's participation in the project suggests that, at the present time, the famous museum, more than ever, interested in showing the works of contemporary artists.

But the foundation collections of the Vilnius «Guggenheim» be the work of local artists. 2000 square meter museum will be given to the Center of Visual Arts Mékas Jonas (Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Centre). «The Godfather of Avant-garde cinema», director and film critic Jonas Mékas is one of the main Lithuanian «stars» of Modern Art. The exposition will include installation and architectural projects of a friend and ally Mékas, father of the movement Fluxus Jurgis (George) Machyunasa.

In April, it was announced that the architect of the Vilnius museum will be Zaha Hadid. Hadid, English architect of Iraqi descent, was born in Baghdad in 1950 and studied architecture in London. Its projects include the development areas in China, Southeast Asia, the United States and Great Britain. Hadid is famous for its «sensory» architecture, a synthesis of organic flowing form. For his «spacecraft» she received in 2004 Prittskerovskuyu Prize, becoming the first (and so far only) woman - the winner of this prestigious award.

Pre-including the possible construction of new temple of contemporary art known as such famous architects as Daniel Libeskind (the author of the recently opened Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco) and Massimiliano Fuksas.

The new museum will become one of the numerous «Guggenheim», which are being built all over the world. In 2009 the museum opened in Guadalahare (Mexico) in 2010 - in Abu Dhabi (UAE) in 2011 - Bucharest (Romania). The project in Vilnius, however, is not just «Guggenheim», and «Guggenheim-Hermitage». In 2001, in Las Vegas opened the first museum, established jointly by the two giants.

In recent years, there has been a great interest of the former Eastern bloc to contemporary art. In February 2006, the Estonian capital of Tallinn Art Museum opens KUMU (KUnstiMUuseum), where the exposition of contemporary artists from Estonia and other countries. Recently, the National Museum in Krakow (Poland) Open Division on contemporary art from the collection of the famous gallery Rafael Jablonka . In 2011, the first to open the Museum of Modern Art in Latvia (architect Rem Koolhaas). However, all these projects «Guggenheim-Hermitage» Vilnius - the most ambitious. I wonder whether the museum could become as popular as its «brother» - the famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which was built by Frank Geri? Will the investments are justified, we will know in ten years or fifteen.

Julia Maksimova

Sources: ejpress.org , hermitagemuseum.org , artsjournal.com , designboom.com , archi.ru , artinvestment.ru