Talking with strangers is now allowed in Moscow

October 10, 2012

In previous news items you could read that Inna Mishina, the director of the Museum M.A. Bulgakov in Moscow was dismissed because of internal struggles, and that the Department of Culture of the city of Moscow organised a contest in order to assign the winner as the new director of the museum. The decision has been made. Henceforth, you can talk with strangers in Moscow - preferably in Italian.

As you could read in a previous post, there were four finalists selected by the Department of Culture of the city of Moscow.

Last week, things accelerated quickly. On October 3, the four finalists were invited to make an audiovisual presentation on their projects five days later, on October 8. The next day, on October 9, the jury would then announce the winner of the competition.

On October 8, three out of the four remaining candidates actually made their presentations. The Italian architect Gabriele Filippini did not show up. Nevertheless, after a 30 minutes discussion, the jury declared that she had decided to assign the management of the Museum M.A. Bulgakov to the absent.

In a reaction, Filippini declared that he wants to cooperate with the other finalists, and in particular with Marietta Chudakova, the sister of the former director Inna Mishina who was fired in May. Chudakova would not be engaged with the museum spaces themselves though, she would see herself assigned to "another workspace", where she could focus "on discussions and research with experts, critics and scholars".

"We intend to include the interesting ideas of the other finalists and the public in our project," Filippini said. "We want to integrate the best of their ideas in our concept". Furthermore, he explained that he wants to develop a partnership with the Bulgakov House, the sympathetic museum and theatre on the ground floor of Bolshaya Sadovaya ulitsa number 10, and also one of the other finalists.

The winners

The winners

The winners posing as Woland and his retinue with, from the left to the right:
Maurizio Morini, Gabriele Filippini, Giorgio Pantanelli, Olga Moskvina