Europe 2019: The Shadow Museum

Europe 2019

The Shadow Museum

Saint Petersburg, Russia

This is another one of our stops that was put in for Samantha, and she loved it, but I think it was just as interesting for the rest of us. It's pretty much what it sounds like - the shadows are the art - but it's fascinating to see all the creative ways artists come up with to create shadows.

That said, it's not the nicest place in St Pete. To get to it we parked on a busy street and had to squeeze through a gate into what seemed like a private courtyard and then find a marked door that was down some stairs - basically a basement. It didn't get more inviting inside. It was just dark narrow corridors and what appeared to be a single exit point...which I tried to keep a bearing on. I've seen this movie!

To make matters worse, Anya had never been here before so she was in the dark (pun intended) as much as we were. 

Once we got inside though it was a fun surprise. They assigned us a guide - a young girl who was good with Samantha - and she took us from room to room showing us everything.

What she would typically do is walk us into a room without the spots on the art. You'd see something like above that looks like a bunch of foam bath toys glued to the wall and then she would turn on the spotlight and BAM!

These pieces were made out of toothpicks stuck in foam board. I found it all fascinating.

Artists found ways to do color as well using opaque materials. 

Some of the most interesting were these types of sculptures that just looked like modern art garbage...until you turned the light on. We had fun trying to guess what each piece was going to be before it was illuminated. 

Another prevalent type of art were these pieces that would look like a wall sconce type of art on their own and then become another piece with the light on. This was bears playing in the woods and the shadow art was the Saint Petersburg skyline.

I think this piece looked like a running horse on the wall.

They had an entire room set up to play with shadows that was awesome to Sam. You could even "burn" your shadows on to the wall for a few minutes. We had a hard time getting her out of there.

Any idea what she's trying to make? I worry about that girl sometimes.

This was a very pleasant stop and we all had a lot of fun, even Anya I think. It's just a basement with a bunch of rooms full of shadow art but it was extremely interesting. I kind of want some now, but it's harder to find than you would think.