EDITORIAL NOTE



Сontemporary artwork is a complicated and unaccommodating exhibit; it is willingly disputing with other museum pieces and with the viewers; it rushes out of museum beyond the institutional rooms, and at the same time it demands being added to the category of museum objects. It completely changes the museum system requiring principally different forms of keeping, exhibiting and perceiving. It makes museum workers rack their brains over the question what to do with this new art that may live for a few days and then disappear, that has no sense without contact with the viewer and that requires absolutely different architectural solutions than classical art. And this very art suddenly appears to be able to make a museum truly popular and asked for. Contempo-rary art suggests new forms of communicating with the audience, ranging from the possibility to alter exhibits with one’s own hands, and to the museum nightclub parties. Thus recently the world has faced a real “museum boom”, though its aftershocks are very slightly felt in Russia. And it is not only a question of conservatism of our museums and our government; the truth is that the viewer lacks knowledge, good books and right articles. That is the reason why we made an issue devoted to the Contemporary Art Museum.