"New Holland" will turn into St. Petersburg Center for Contemporary Art

Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky sure that the project "New Holland" will make St. Petersburg the center of contemporary art and culture.

"Right now in St. Petersburg," New Holland "is restored, and if all succeed, suddenly becomes the center of Petersburg, contemporary culture, contemporary art, to go the way of Venice - this is a good way" - said Piotrowski at a joint meeting of the Council on Culture and the Arts Council and Science, technology and education under the Russian president, which takes place in Vladimir on Friday.

According to him, it is important to understand "that culture has its own economy, whose role is increasing." "It's not just tourism, it is a way to revive the abandoned and dying areas" - he added.

That, in view Piotrowski, and is a "big cultural economics."

The architectural ensemble of the XVIII-XIX centuries "New Holland" is located in the heart of St. Petersburg on an artificial island. In July, the island was opened to the public and will run all summer.

The authorities tried to reconstruct the northern capital, "New Holland" in 2006. Then in the competition won LLC "CT" New Holland "Shalva Chigirinsky and Igor Kesayev. In their order of architectural firm of Norman Foster has developed a project to create a multifunctional complex with theaters, conference halls, galleries, hotels and restaurants. Chigirinsky However, later left the project because of financial problems. The authorities of St. Petersburg had to re-look of the investor.

In November last year, Ltd. "New Holland development" - the structure of Roman Abramovich's Millhouse - won the tender to carry out reconstruction of the architectural complex, committing themselves to invest at least 12 billion rubles. All work on the reconstruction of the island should be completed in 2017.

Topic: LLC "CT", "New Holland", XVIII, XIX