The exhibition, which has recently opened in the Enfilade of the General Staff building, has three main features. First, this is a full-fledged anniversary exhibition of one of the nation’s largest and most famous architectural companies of the last thirty years. Second, it is actually hosted inside its largest exhibit, because the Enfilade is actually a space that appeared after “Studio 44” reconstructed the building in 2002-2014. Before that, this space did not exist; there were only semi-dilapidated backyards of some obscure state agency in its stead. This is why the exhibition is called “Studio 44. The Enfilade.”

Third, the exhibition does not just use the Enfilade space for showcasing the company that created it, but makes an attempt of intensifying the “museum” use of this space – specifically, demonstrates all of the functions, which were included in the project but were either not implemented or not used to their full potential. Such functions are pretty numerous, and they are spectacular enough to make people go “wow!” For the first time in several years, we see the cyclopean doors between the atriums – one of the main features of the Enfilade – open and shut every day. Also, one of the halls gets transformed every few hours, changing its exposition; one of the atriums next to it has trees planted in it – part of the “winter garden”, although designed and technically implemented, but still waiting for its first seeds, saluting to the Ekaterininsky and Hermitage gardens on the other side of the plaza.

This place is worth visiting at least to come here and see how a modern automated museum can operate – it is shown very much the same way as Gonzaga back in the day showed the pictures of his decoration theater – and one can see the theater of an architectural mechanism. The sheer opportunity to see for yourself that such thing is at all possible in this country, is also worth a lot. What matters, however, is that it is not just an “amusement ride” but rather architecture in action, even though, of course, for a modern composition, an element of gamification is extremely important – and it is totally unclear why the Hermitage Museum has not yet used such possibilities to their full potential.

What is also important is the fact that the architects used this exhibition as an opportunity to make their creation work in accordance with the principle “never surrender”. Probably, such perseverance leads to the ultimate mastery.