Darya Ilyina’s Diary
Hello diary!
Impressions from the preparation process
I definitely liked the attitude: active and intense preparation period with a lot of exercises, text rehearsals, support from colleagues from other departments and external institutions, plus free pizza! I mean, the training process is well organized, with money invested in the project and authors anticipating a certain level of outcome from mediators. This focus on results has impressed me.
December 20
Morning rehearsal after montage: emotional and inspiring. My thoughts: “Let everything work out”.
December’s group featuring patrons was a pleasure, as it formed as a chamber collective of young and curious people. On the other hand, it gave me a chance to immediately notice my mediation’s weak points quickly, so I had just enough time to fix time before the main flow of visitors in January.
January 2–5
Once in January I had four workdays in a row, which is objectively hard because of intense emotional engagement in each group and the necessity to coordinate participants and colleagues on site. The good thing was that I had friends and relatives visiting me during the last couple of days, which motivated me to keep on going till the end. During the final shift, I had the good fortune to have a friend of mine and her mom as my guests. They aren’t much into contemporary art, I mean, not at all. But they enjoyed it a lot because of the New Year spirit of the show which combined a dose of classic art with scents, customized perfumes, the hilarious Where Dogs Run, peaceful meditation, and a flower bouquet. As if you had the chance to taste a bit of everything that is trendy today.
On January 5, I was on air with a live broadcast for Garage’s Instagram profile. This is when I realized completely that I am not afraid or embarrassed of performing in front of an audience, be it an online or offline performance. I can be nervous in the beginning but then gain momentum and start enjoying the process itself. By the way, it is also a great exercise for one’s “presentation skills”. It is
My thoughts overall
It is difficult to foresee everything, it’s a fact. But the organizers are experienced enough, so generally, everything went smoothly. Well done guys, thank you for such an experiment. It is cool to get a glimpse of the life of a famous contemporary museum and not be disappointed! From my experience, such impressions with the “+” can only be found at Pushkin Museum or the Museum of Russian Impressionism.
It was a pleasure to do mediation for Garage, because I like the format of a guided tour where the mediator works as an agent between the art and the viewer. I believe, in general, we’ve managed to demonstrate that education or visitor’s experience are inferior in comparison with the simple ability to observe the artwork’s form and details by merely asking oneself a number of questions.
LOVE EVERYONE ;)
Thank you!