Bernaskoni

On the 29th of January, 2012 in Zurich the Government of Perm Region has signed a contract with Peter Zumthor’s architectural bureau “Zumthor & Partner” for development of a Perm Art Gallery project. According to the agreement, Zumthor must submit a sketch of the new building in a year.But it needs to be recalled, however, that in 2007 a major international competition PERMMUSEUMXXI was held on the same project; 320 participants from 50 countries worldwide have submitted applications to it. In 2008 it was announced that the 1st and 2nd prize were shared by the Bureau BERNASKONI (Moscow, Russia) and Valerio Olgiati (Chur, Switzerland), and third place was taken by Zaha Hadid. Peter Zumthor was a chairman of the jury at that time, that makes the current situation even more paradoxical. However, Zumthor’s transition from judging the competition to participating in it was not sudden: in early 2011 in an interview with the Permian magazine «Sol’» Boris Bernaskoni said that Zumthor was designing a separate building for the Perm wooden sculpture exhibition, and that he fully supported that idea. So the project of the museum in the form of a large glass box which won the contest had already undergone several transformations. But Bernaskoni continued working. “The project of Perm Art Gallery continues — the architect said in the interview. — It is in the research stage by now”.

In the summer of 2011 the governor of Perm, Oleg Chirkunov, invited Zumthor as a construction consultant of a new museum center. Zumthor unveiled his idea of “Pearl necklace”: a series of small pavilions, each of which must accommodate the museum’s collection department. It is interesting to note the elements of the Bernaskoni project in the idea of glass pavilion which overlooks the promenade. In December 2011 the Federal Agency for State Property Management decided to give the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral, place where Perm Art gallery was situated, to the Russian Orthodox Church. It means that moving the gallery to the new building should be realized within a six years. Perhaps this event has caused “forgetfulness” of the city administration, which dreamed of the new Bilbao-on-Kama for several years. Now the question is not so much about the building — an ambitious symbol of modern culture — but about a new building for the museum’s permanent collection. So, the results of a pompous international competition were “forgotten” together with its young winner – Boris Bernaskoni.