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Permanent Exhibition Project for the Bulgakov Museum
Bulgakov Museum
2012
2012
Theme:
Bulgakov and Moscow — the reflection of the city, the home, and the apartment through the "lens" of the writer’s imagination and his readers' perceptions.
By constructing a "Bulgakovian network" across Moscow, the museum expands beyond its physical walls to encompass the whole city and, through partnerships and a robust digital platform, reaches a global audience, directly engaging Bulgakov’s readers around the world.
Moscow:
Bulgakov created one of the richest and most multilayered portrayals of Moscow in Russian literature—simultaneously everyday and fantastical, historical and mystical. The museum, scaled to the city, reveals how Bulgakov’s images and myths were born and demonstrates their enduring relevance and influence on present-day Moscow.
Bulgakov:
The museum’s exhibitions and programs present Bulgakov from multiple angles—as a prose writer, playwright, journalist, Muscovite, reader, and man of his time—not through the lens of biographers, but as he envisioned himself in his highly autobiographical works.
Goals
Objectives
Internationally:
Within the City:
Exhibition Concept
The exhibition is built around the ambivalence of the apartment’s identity—as a biographical and historical space, and at the same time, a mythical one. It is presented in two simultaneous but distinct layers:
1
Literary-Biographical Layer
An evolving display with interactive elements, presenting Bulgakov’s key Moscow-themed works through documents and material artifacts. It includes two "memorial capsules"—Bulgakov's 1920s Room and the Blue Cabinet of the 1930s—containing only original objects.
2
Media Layer (dedicated to The Master and Margarita)
Audio-visual "episodes" emerge spontaneously in several zones of the apartment, linked conceptually to the novel’s spatial logic (i.e., "passages into the fifth dimension"). This immaterial layer of the exhibition emphasizes the symbolic power of tangible artifacts. The flexibility of the media installation allows a wide range of contributors—artists, composers, and fans—to shape the museum’s experience.
Room-by-Room Exhibition Themes
1
Arrival (Prologue)
City: Early 1920s Moscow; landscapes and urban life
Bulgakov: First impressions, conflict with the city. Notes on the Cuffs, diaries from 1922−1924, letters
2
Offices and Editorials
City: Bureaucratic machinery, clerks, typists
Bulgakov: Journalism at Gudok, The Diaboliad, Notes on the Cuffs
3
Elpit-Rabkommuna House
City: Social upheaval through the story of a single building
Bulgakov: Life in the Pigit House (The House of Elpit-Rabkommuna)
4
The Professor’s Study
City: "Old Moscow," intelligentsia and survival in new conditions
Bulgakov: Science, GAChN (State Academy of Art Sciences), Heart of a Dog, The Fatal Eggs, Adam and Eve
5
Kitchen ("Mirror" Space, connected via black staircase)
City: Everyday life in communal apartments
Bulgakov: Class conflict, Heart of a Dog, On Housing, The Master and Margarita
6
Bulgakov’s Room
City: Isolation
Bulgakov: Memory of Kyiv, early manuscripts (The White Guard, Notes of a Young Doctor).
Includes the only media object in the literary zone: a live video feed from the window of Bulgakov’s room at 13 Andriyivsky Descent in Kyiv.
7
Living Room
City: Masks of the city, literary and theater circles of the 1920s
Bulgakov: Fame, salons, Zoya’s Apartment, Theatrical Novel, The Master and Margarita
8
The Blue Cabinet
City: Stalinist Moscow—grandiosity and control
Bulgakov: Return to the "classics," Bolshoi Theatre, Molière, The Master and Margarita
9
Three Epilogues
Media Layer
Activates at dusk, shifting the focus from the literary exhibits to immersive media (highlighting key memorial items).
The video projections engage walls, furniture, ceiling, and floors, and are produced by Russian and international media artists, either commissioned or selected via open calls.
Bulgakov and Moscow — the reflection of the city, the home, and the apartment through the "lens" of the writer’s imagination and his readers' perceptions.
By constructing a "Bulgakovian network" across Moscow, the museum expands beyond its physical walls to encompass the whole city and, through partnerships and a robust digital platform, reaches a global audience, directly engaging Bulgakov’s readers around the world.
Moscow:
Bulgakov created one of the richest and most multilayered portrayals of Moscow in Russian literature—simultaneously everyday and fantastical, historical and mystical. The museum, scaled to the city, reveals how Bulgakov’s images and myths were born and demonstrates their enduring relevance and influence on present-day Moscow.
Bulgakov:
The museum’s exhibitions and programs present Bulgakov from multiple angles—as a prose writer, playwright, journalist, Muscovite, reader, and man of his time—not through the lens of biographers, but as he envisioned himself in his highly autobiographical works.
Goals
- To reinterpret Bulgakov’s legacy and his contribution to global culture in a contemporary context.
- To shape a literary identity of Moscow as "Bulgakov's city," occupying the still-vacant niche of a "Moscow writer" (comparable to Dostoevsky in St. Petersburg, Kafka in Prague, or Joyce in Dublin).
- To foster new forms of civic interaction, both locally and citywide.
- To define a new format for the literary museum.
Objectives
Internationally:
- To become a communications hub for literary and historical museums across Russia, serving as a new gateway for global partnerships with international institutions.
- To develop a powerful online platform, creating a comprehensive virtual space for Bulgakov readers around the world.
- To establish a new cultural tourism brand for Moscow, becoming a must-visit destination in the city.
Within the City:
- To extend the museum’s "shadow" throughout the city by marking key Bulgakov sites and creating a network of satellite display/info zones in partner venues using visual design, mobile installations, and augmented reality tools (apps, QR codes, etc.).
- To serve as a central hub for educational and scholarly programs related to 20th-century Moscow and Bulgakov’s world, curated both internally and by invited experts.
- To revive and engage the museum’s long-standing community of readers and fans (via volunteer programs and a Friends of the Museum Club), and plan its activities around principles of participatory culture that encourage repeat visits.
Exhibition Concept
The exhibition is built around the ambivalence of the apartment’s identity—as a biographical and historical space, and at the same time, a mythical one. It is presented in two simultaneous but distinct layers:
1
Literary-Biographical Layer
An evolving display with interactive elements, presenting Bulgakov’s key Moscow-themed works through documents and material artifacts. It includes two "memorial capsules"—Bulgakov's 1920s Room and the Blue Cabinet of the 1930s—containing only original objects.
2
Media Layer (dedicated to The Master and Margarita)
Audio-visual "episodes" emerge spontaneously in several zones of the apartment, linked conceptually to the novel’s spatial logic (i.e., "passages into the fifth dimension"). This immaterial layer of the exhibition emphasizes the symbolic power of tangible artifacts. The flexibility of the media installation allows a wide range of contributors—artists, composers, and fans—to shape the museum’s experience.
Room-by-Room Exhibition Themes
1
Arrival (Prologue)
City: Early 1920s Moscow; landscapes and urban life
Bulgakov: First impressions, conflict with the city. Notes on the Cuffs, diaries from 1922−1924, letters
2
Offices and Editorials
City: Bureaucratic machinery, clerks, typists
Bulgakov: Journalism at Gudok, The Diaboliad, Notes on the Cuffs
3
Elpit-Rabkommuna House
City: Social upheaval through the story of a single building
Bulgakov: Life in the Pigit House (The House of Elpit-Rabkommuna)
4
The Professor’s Study
City: "Old Moscow," intelligentsia and survival in new conditions
Bulgakov: Science, GAChN (State Academy of Art Sciences), Heart of a Dog, The Fatal Eggs, Adam and Eve
5
Kitchen ("Mirror" Space, connected via black staircase)
City: Everyday life in communal apartments
Bulgakov: Class conflict, Heart of a Dog, On Housing, The Master and Margarita
6
Bulgakov’s Room
City: Isolation
Bulgakov: Memory of Kyiv, early manuscripts (The White Guard, Notes of a Young Doctor).
Includes the only media object in the literary zone: a live video feed from the window of Bulgakov’s room at 13 Andriyivsky Descent in Kyiv.
7
Living Room
City: Masks of the city, literary and theater circles of the 1920s
Bulgakov: Fame, salons, Zoya’s Apartment, Theatrical Novel, The Master and Margarita
8
The Blue Cabinet
City: Stalinist Moscow—grandiosity and control
Bulgakov: Return to the "classics," Bolshoi Theatre, Molière, The Master and Margarita
9
Three Epilogues
- Batumi: Power and death. Bulgakov & Stalin
- Rest: Afterlife of the word — Bulgakov Library
- Flight: Afterlife of ideas — media art collection
Media Layer
Activates at dusk, shifting the focus from the literary exhibits to immersive media (highlighting key memorial items).
The video projections engage walls, furniture, ceiling, and floors, and are produced by Russian and international media artists, either commissioned or selected via open calls.
Team
Aleksandra Selivanova
Anna Sherbakova
Alexey Petukhov
Alexandra Kihai
Scientific Adviser
Alexey Varlamov
Animation
Philip Vinogradov
Videos and 3D models
Vasily Moulin
Music
Music for the answering machine
by Pavel Karmanov
Aleksandra Selivanova
Anna Sherbakova
Alexey Petukhov
Alexandra Kihai
Scientific Adviser
Alexey Varlamov
Animation
Philip Vinogradov
Videos and 3D models
Vasily Moulin
Music
Music for the answering machine
by Pavel Karmanov
