Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum
Encyclopedia
Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum was a proposed art museum
in the city of Vilnius
, the capital of Lithuania
. On April 8, 2008 an international jury named Zaha Hadid
, a British-Iraqi architect
, the winner of the international design competition for the museum. The museum was scheduled to open in 2011 but faced doubts about its viability. On February 5th, 2011, the Guggenheim Museum initiative passed over Vilnius and gave the honor, instead, to Helsinki. Allegations of corruptions involving funding are cited as the cause for this rejection.
s of new media art, parts of the New York City
anthology film archive, and Fluxus
art. The Fluxus art movement flourished in New York during the 1960s, and was led by Lithuanian-born artist Jurgis Mačiūnas. Another important part of the exhibition will be a collection of works by Lithuanian avant-garde
film maker Jonas Mekas
. These works are currently held by the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center
. Collections from Saint Petersburg
's Hermitage Museum
and New York City's Guggenheim Museum
will be on display as well.
It is estimated that the museum would have cost up to 170 million litas
(75 million USD
). Completion was initially scheduled for 2011. A feasibility study
was conducted to explore various aspects of the project's implementation, including market and economic impact analyses.
However, the funds used for this feasibility study were allegedly misappropriated and directed towards individuals representing the Jonas Mekas art center.
, Massimiliano Fuksas
, and Daniel Libeskind
.
Daniel Libeskind, winner of the competition to rebuild the World Trade Center
, presented his work under the name "Nexus" (see Daniel Libeskind's visualization). According to Libeskind, his concept links the history of Vilnius
to its present via a Connection. He stated that "This connection is revealed through the structure, which with its wide and slashing arcades covers history and innovation, old panoramas
and new skyscraper
s, the city and the Neris river". Libeskind also asserted the need to connect nature and architecture: "Tightness between landscape, which turns to building, and building, which converts to landscape, ravels unheard possibility to create a sculptural form, which opens to visitor".
The dominant features of Massimiliano Fuksas' project are crossed domes, which leave an impression of movement (see Massimiliano Fuksas' visualization). According to Fuksas, huge "eyes" looking into the sky would point and filter daylight into the building. Fuksas asserted that such design principles would allow "visitors to clearly distinguish the exposition halls from other spaces - restaurants and shops - and provide comfortable access to the river." The center of the building would be reserved for permanent Mekas and Mačiūnas collections.
Zaha Hadid, a Pritzker Prize
winner, proposed a "mystical object, hovering over spindled artificial landscape strip" (see Zaha Hadid's visualization). She chose to draw a contrast between the building's forms and the vertical
forms of nearby skyscrapers. The top of the building reflects surroundings of the Vilnius city. Hadid asserted that "It is especially important today to acknowledge cultural buildings, that they have unique and special morphologies. Those buildings should make an impression on people, people should accept them."
The director of the Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky
, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Thomas Krens
, the director of Frankfurt
's Museum of Architecture Peter Schmal, and the vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Architects Union, Gintaras Čaikauskas, were members of the jury that evaluated the designs. Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas
and Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas
also participated in the decision-making process.
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in the city of Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, the capital of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
. On April 8, 2008 an international jury named Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...
, a British-Iraqi architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, the winner of the international design competition for the museum. The museum was scheduled to open in 2011 but faced doubts about its viability. On February 5th, 2011, the Guggenheim Museum initiative passed over Vilnius and gave the honor, instead, to Helsinki. Allegations of corruptions involving funding are cited as the cause for this rejection.
Concept
As envisioned in 2008, Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum would have presented exhibitionArt exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
s of new media art, parts of the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
anthology film archive, and Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
art. The Fluxus art movement flourished in New York during the 1960s, and was led by Lithuanian-born artist Jurgis Mačiūnas. Another important part of the exhibition will be a collection of works by Lithuanian avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
film maker Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...
. These works are currently held by the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center
Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center
The Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center is an avant-garde arts centre in Vilnius, Lithuania.In opened on November 10, 2007 by the acclaimed Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Mekas. The premiere exhibition featured The Avant-Garde: From Futurism to Fluxus . Part of recently purchased Fluxus art collection,...
. Collections from Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
's Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
and New York City's Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
will be on display as well.
It is estimated that the museum would have cost up to 170 million litas
Lithuanian litas
The Lithuanian litas is the currency of Lithuania. It is divided into 100 centų...
(75 million USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
). Completion was initially scheduled for 2011. A feasibility study
Feasibility study
Feasibility studies aim to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of the existing business or proposed venture, opportunities and threats as presented by the environment, the resources required to carry through, and ultimately the prospects for success. In its simplest...
was conducted to explore various aspects of the project's implementation, including market and economic impact analyses.
However, the funds used for this feasibility study were allegedly misappropriated and directed towards individuals representing the Jonas Mekas art center.
Designs
Three architects submitted their designs for the final competition: Zaha HadidZaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...
, Massimiliano Fuksas
Massimiliano Fuksas
Massimiliano Fuksas is an Italian architect, born in Rome in 1944 to an Jewish Lithuanian father and Italian Catholic mother. He received his degree in architecture from the La Sapienza University in 1969 in Rome, where he opened his first office. Subsequent offices were opened in Paris and Vienna...
, and Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...
.
Daniel Libeskind, winner of the competition to rebuild the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, presented his work under the name "Nexus" (see Daniel Libeskind's visualization). According to Libeskind, his concept links the history of Vilnius
History of Vilnius
This article is about the history of Vilnius, the capital and largest city of Lithuania.-Middle Ages:The earliest settlements in the area of present day Vilnius appear to be of mesolithic origin. Numerous archaeological findings in different parts of the city prove that the area has been inhabited...
to its present via a Connection. He stated that "This connection is revealed through the structure, which with its wide and slashing arcades covers history and innovation, old panoramas
Vilnius Old Town
The Old Town of Vilnius , one of the largest surviving medieval old towns in Northern Europe, has an area of 3.59 square kilometres . It encompasses 74 quarters, with 70 streets and lanes numbering 1487 buildings with a total floor area of 1,497,000 square meters...
and new skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
s, the city and the Neris river". Libeskind also asserted the need to connect nature and architecture: "Tightness between landscape, which turns to building, and building, which converts to landscape, ravels unheard possibility to create a sculptural form, which opens to visitor".
The dominant features of Massimiliano Fuksas' project are crossed domes, which leave an impression of movement (see Massimiliano Fuksas' visualization). According to Fuksas, huge "eyes" looking into the sky would point and filter daylight into the building. Fuksas asserted that such design principles would allow "visitors to clearly distinguish the exposition halls from other spaces - restaurants and shops - and provide comfortable access to the river." The center of the building would be reserved for permanent Mekas and Mačiūnas collections.
Zaha Hadid, a Pritzker Prize
Pritzker Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
winner, proposed a "mystical object, hovering over spindled artificial landscape strip" (see Zaha Hadid's visualization). She chose to draw a contrast between the building's forms and the vertical
Vertical direction
In astronomy, geography, geometry and related sciences and contexts, a direction passing by a given point is said to be vertical if it is locally aligned with the gradient of the gravity field, i.e., with the direction of the gravitational force at that point...
forms of nearby skyscrapers. The top of the building reflects surroundings of the Vilnius city. Hadid asserted that "It is especially important today to acknowledge cultural buildings, that they have unique and special morphologies. Those buildings should make an impression on people, people should accept them."
The director of the Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky
Mikhail Piotrovsky
Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky is the Director of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. He was born in Yerevan in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic on 9 November 1944 to Boris Piotrovsky, a notable Orientalist and himself the future Director of the Hermitage, and Armenian mother...
, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and artist Hilla von Rebay. The first museum established by the foundation was the "Museum of Non-Objective Art", which was housed in rented space on Park Avenue in New York....
Thomas Krens
Thomas Krens
Thomas Krens is the former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York City, and currently the Guggenheim's Senior Advisor for International Affairs, overseeing the completion of the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi...
, the director of Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
's Museum of Architecture Peter Schmal, and the vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Architects Union, Gintaras Čaikauskas, were members of the jury that evaluated the designs. Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas
Gediminas Kirkilas
Gediminas Kirkilas is a former Prime Minister of Lithuania . He was appointed on 4 July 2006 after Zigmantas Balčytis, the provisional Prime Minister, failed to gather the required support from the Seimas. Kirkilas managed to get the necessary support from the Seimas on 4 July 2006...
and Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas
Juozas Imbrasas
Juozas Imbrasas is the former mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania. He is a member of the political party Order and Justice.-Controversy:...
also participated in the decision-making process.