Arsenal (Center for Contemporary Art)

Brief Information

The Arsenal got its name not as a metaphor, but literally: the contemporary art center operates in a building constructed in the second quarter of the 19th century as a storage facility and repair base for artillery. Later, the same space served as a repository for topographic maps, and after reconstruction, in 2011, it became an exhibition venue. Since 2020, the Arsenal has been part of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts as its Volga-Vyatka branch.

The main feature of the place is that the contemporary gallery appeared not in spite of the building’s old structure, but largely because of it. The interior spaces already had dimensions and geometry suitable for exhibitions. So here it is interesting to read not only the displays, but also the shell itself: the former military utility building turned out to be a convenient framework for art, although it had to be reinforced almost from scratch.

What to Notice First

It is worth comparing three levels of the building’s structure: the nearby Kremlin wall, the vaults with arches inside, and the rows of supports. The Arsenal was built along the stone Kremlin wall, while the arches and vaulted ceilings were designed to echo the geometry of its internal load-bearing supports. This idea proved more beautiful than the engineering reality: already during construction, the ceilings had to be supported by massive wooden columns.

After reconstruction, the former columns did not simply disappear. They were replaced by metal tubes of the same diameter, with a reinforced-concrete core, so the new structure preserves the memory of the old forced reinforcement. Another important layer is hidden in the material: the brickwork was strengthened with injections, and damaged elements were replaced one by one. A newly created basement level and a new pile foundation appeared beneath the building. Thus the Arsenal reads as a museum inside a building that itself has gone through repair, restoration, and reassembly.