Erte. Genius of Art Deco

Erte. Genius of Art Deco
Saint-Petersburg, Russia
S: 150 m2
Design area according to the brief: permanent exhibition space without technical rooms
Permanent exhibition dedicated to the artist Erte

We created an immersive, narrative-driven exhibition for a permanent museum spacededicated to the legacy of Roman Tyrtov (Erte). The project involved the careful presentation of rare graphic works on delicate black paper, requiring a site-specific interior installationthat balanced conservation needs with a captivating multi-sensory experience.
Erte – a master for whom line was the primary tool of expression. At the core of our concept is Erte's "line of fate." The red thread becomes not merely a metaphor for his creative journey but also the main navigational element of the exhibition: it runs through all the display panels, connecting different stages of his life into a single narrative and guiding the viewer from the entrance to the climax. This red line, plastically changing its thickness throughout the route, becomes a symbol of woman — changeable, multifaceted, yet invariably beautiful. Throughout the artist's life, woman was his guiding star, serving simultaneously as muse, symbol, and his greatest work.

Functionally, the exhibition is divided into three zones, each referencing the theatrical nature of Erte's work. The first is the introductory "Foyer" zone, featuring his biography and a timeline, which sets the context for the artist's journey. Then the red thread, already established in the navigation, smoothly leads the visitor to the "Wings" zone, where the evolution of the artist's style is revealed. From the "Wings" zone, the visitor passes through a velvet theater curtain into the "Stage" zone — the culminating exhibition space.

The architectural dominant and semantic center is the small architectural form — a spatial installation forming a cylinder made of several layers with red threads. This is the architectural embodiment of the project's main metaphor: here the line, which previously existed in the graphic field of the panels, acquires a physical, three-dimensional form. Inside this cylinder, as if in a precious case, we have placed a female image from Erte's silk-screen prints. Piercing through layers of reality — sketches, magazines, theatrical costumes — the red line of fate leads the viewer to the primary source, to Eternal Femininity. In Erte's work, woman is not merely a theme or subject, but the very substance of his art. Changeable and eternal at once — such was Erte's woman. Such we invite you to see her. The route is structured like a graphic score: from simple to complex, from a stroke on paper to a line that permeates space. Inside the installation with red threads, a space of silence and contemplation is created — a place where the viewer is left alone with the ideal image that the master celebrated. Here the line of fate comes full circle: the visitor sees how the muse becomes a symbol, the symbol becomes the master's greatest creation, and how the artist's very life turns out to be subordinated to that single, beautiful line — the line of Woman.