‘Inversion’ is a project that offers the spectator to take a look on Gatchina Palace’s past and present through a wall of a transparent cube and reflect on cultural heritage conservation. Thanks to the capsule-cube the spectator is given a chance to discover the museum’s “backstage” and see the rooms that still remain untouched by restoration and are still full with the living history of the palace’s remote and recent past.

The designers got their inspiration from the war-time field ambulances. An airy tent made of light fabric should transform the space for the temporary exhibition into a unique display that awakens reminiscences.

The visitors will find themselves at the archeological site where they can try and be archeologists. Every object an archeologist finds carries a whole body of information and a set of finds allows to recreate a bit of history. The visitors of the exhibition get a chance to learn how to solve mysteries of the found objects, acquire information and draw their own historical conclusions. The exhibition is designed to make “excavations” an exciting game and, at the same time, to show where the “history” we know from textbooks and novels comes from.

The exhibition tells the story of the St. Petersburg most well-known monuments using post-cards from the collection of the Petersburg City Sculpture Museum. Post-cards serve as specific iconographic material enabling visitors to get an idea of how the monument looked like at different times, how its details survived, how the cityscape around the monument has changed over time, how the monument witnessed city festivals and dramatic events that took place in the city.

The exhibition features graphic and sculptural portraits of people, whose will and genius created the Narva Arch, sculpted medallions and engravings depicting battles commemorated in gold letters on the pylons of the gate, miniature tin figures of soldiers and generals of the two empires, replicas of banners and models of armour and weapons.

St. Petersburg Biennale of Museum Design will feature opening of Educational Center for Children in the Museum’s new building and two exhibitions.

The designers were to develop a new navigation system for the museum: from street-lines and information stands to introduction and object labels for the display.

The design of the navigation signage for the Gatchina Palace visitors is based on the idea that a modern museum cannot and should not be static – both literally and figuratively. In the world that is constantly changing people tend to perceive information “on the go”, “on the move”.

The exhibition presents the identity created for the St. Petersburg Biennale of Museum Design by Barnbrook, London.