State Museum of
Contemporary Art
“Scientific documentation, creation of internet promotion and digital repository infrastructure, and utilization of the collections and archives of the State Museum of Contemporary Art”
http://www.greekstatemuseum.com
info@greekstatemuseum.com
2300 works of the Costakis Collection and Archive as well as of the Museum’s Greek Collections were digitized and documented. A new portal has been established and is about to function fully within this month ( http://www.greekstatemuseum.com ), while the educational CD addressing to students is already being distributed to relative Institutions, Schools, Universities etc.
In order to make the audience familiar with its collections and especially with the Costakis Collection, a complete digitized system of scientific documentation, internet promotion as well as of utilization for educational purposes was created by the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki. The project is financed by the Operational Program “Information Society”, Priority – Education & Culture, MEASURE 1.3. – Documentation, Utilization and Promotion of the Greek Culture. The total budget of the Program is 1.150.000 Euros (Co-Financed by European Union (ERDF) 80% and Public Spending 20%), including 6 sub-projects, one of which was materialized by the Museum’s Means, while the contracting companies - Trek Consulting, Hypertech S.A. and Tehniki S.A. realized the rest of the subprojects.
Costakis Collection is representative of all artistic movements and trends of the Russian Avant-Garde, one of the most innovative and interesting artistic periods of the world art, which flourished in Russia during the first three decades of the 20th century. The collection consists of 1277 works of art (paintings, designs, constructions, porcelains e.a.) and rich documentary material of Russian avant-garde artists such as K. Malevich, L. Popova, V. Tatlin, A. Rodchenko, I. Kliun, G. Klutsis, S. Nikitrin, O. Rozanova, V. Stepanova, M. Matiushin, P. Filonov e.a. The Greek Government purchased the Costakis Collection in 2000 and after the decree of the Ministry of Culture it came into the S.M.C.A.’s possession.
Digitization and Scientific Documentation of the Cultural Collections
The S.M.C.A. acquired and installed an integrated and complete system of organizing procedures, storage, multi-language documentation and of general administration, having at the same time upgraded its material and technical equipment. Analytically, the procedures used are:
Digitization of paintings, designs, prints and collages
Two-dimensional (2D) digital scanning of the documentary material
Three-dimensional (3D) digital scanning of objects (constructions, sculptures, porcelains), aided by special devices for three-dimensional scanning
Furthermore, a scientific documentation of the Museum’s 2300 works of art has been completed and translated into three languages: Greek, English, Russian, containing information mostly relative to:
The descriptions of the works of each collection
The artists’ biographies
The history of each work of the collection, the exhibitions it has been shown at and its provenance.
The detailed descriptions of methods and styles used in each work
The trend, movement or group the work belongs to
Each work’s condition and the record of its conservation
Bibliography and references for particular works
Development of the S.M.C.A. Portal
The new S.M.C.A. web gate covers all the spectrum of the Museum’s identity, goals and activities, while its basic objective is to develop a complete web net dealing with contemporary art, not only in Greece but in the Balkan region as well, in three languages (Greek, English, Russian).
The visitors of the new gate have access on the following:
Presentation of the Museum and its history, the Society of its Friends
The works of the Museum’s collections in whole
Information on current, former and future exhibitions, events, conferences and other activities
Educational programs, guided tours, international collaborations and co-productions
Creation of the Electronic Educational Version
The Electronic Educational Version mostly focuses on students of Primary educational grades and comprises texts, pictures, innovative games and multi-dynamic applications, in three languages (Greek, English, Russian).
Its goal is to pass on in a comprehensive way to children the information on the history of gathering of the collection’s works by the collector Costakis, the new ideas which Russian avant-garde artists brought into art and the context in which these ideas were born.
