Invisible Art
Exhibition
24 October — 21 January 2023
National Museum
of Serbia
The project Invisible Art. Pushing the Boundaries breaks the main rule of museums: do not touch exhibits! At this exhibition, exhibits may and even must be touched.
The Hermitage, one of Russia’s most prominent museums, has been experimenting for many years with inclusive formats, creating replicas of works of art: bas-reliefs, tactile copies, 3D portraits. Initially, this kind of art was developed for the visually-impaired and blind visitors to the museum, but it turned out that people from the largest variety of backgrounds took the tactile approach to art close to their hearts. Everyone wants to touch a sculpture or, for instance, an antique rug!
The Hermitage is not just bringing rare exhibits to the National Museum of Serbia, but also a unique and special interactive experience. At the Invisible Art exhibition, visitors can really understand and feel what it is like when you can touch museum treasures.
The first part of the inclusive exhibition is devoted to the finds of the ancient Zoroastrian settlement Panjakent (Tajikistan) and excavations of the 5th Pazyryk burial mound (the Altay Mountains, Russia). Here you can see three-dimensional themes from mural paintings of ancient Panjakent (6th-8th century A.D.) and their animated reconstructions — cartoon films revealing the meaning of the paintings. Exhibition guests can also see and touch the reproductions of fragments of the oldest known rugs and figurines from Pazyryk burial ground dating back to 4th-3rd century B.C.
The second part of the expositions, Invisible Helpers, is devoted to the man’s best friends and main assistants to the blind — dogs. The Hermitage selected ten images of dogs from among the artworks of various genres and created their exact three-dimensional copies. Many of the rarities chosen to be replicated, due to their vulnerable old age, are hardly ever shown to the public these days and are kept in the museum storage. So being able to touch such rare artefacts, even if just in their tactile versions, is a rare and unique chance.
The Hermitage is not just bringing rare exhibits to the National Museum of Serbia, but also a unique and special interactive experience. At the Invisible Art exhibition, visitors can really understand and feel what it is like when you can touch museum treasures.
The first part of the inclusive exhibition is devoted to the finds of the ancient Zoroastrian settlement Panjakent (Tajikistan) and excavations of the 5th Pazyryk burial mound (the Altay Mountains, Russia). Here you can see three-dimensional themes from mural paintings of ancient Panjakent (6th-8th century A.D.) and their animated reconstructions — cartoon films revealing the meaning of the paintings. Exhibition guests can also see and touch the reproductions of fragments of the oldest known rugs and figurines from Pazyryk burial ground dating back to 4th-3rd century B.C.
The second part of the expositions, Invisible Helpers, is devoted to the man’s best friends and main assistants to the blind — dogs. The Hermitage selected ten images of dogs from among the artworks of various genres and created their exact three-dimensional copies. Many of the rarities chosen to be replicated, due to their vulnerable old age, are hardly ever shown to the public these days and are kept in the museum storage. So being able to touch such rare artefacts, even if just in their tactile versions, is a rare and unique chance.