CROC MarTech Lab Digitizes Exhibition Atelier E.B: Passer-by for Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow)

Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2020 –(PR.com)– Since March 14, Garage has been self-isolating and operating online. Jointly with CROC MarTech Lab, a business unit of IT company CROC, the Museum created a virtual 360° panorama of the Atelier E.B: Passer-by exhibition. The digital version of the project contains artworks, explanatory texts, and videos displayed at the real-life exhibition.

The system acquires information when visitors interact with virtual panorama objects, and also collects anonymized visitor data. This allows for the calculation of the number of unique expo visitors and identification of exhibits of particular interest, communication channels preferred by the audience, as well as visitor categories that interact most with the panorama. Museum staff can analyze these metrics in real time.

“Data analysis has been widely adopted in the enterprise market to solve a variety of marketing and sales tasks. However, analytics, a common e-commerce tool, is now penetrating new areas, such as culture and art. As a result, museums, galleries, and theaters account for an increasing share of our customer base in line with growing awareness of the importance of using modern communication channels to attract new generations of consumers. A good example here is the British Museum, which relies on data analytics when making any change, be it open hours extension or audio guide improvement. Our project for Garage is unique to Russian cultural organizations and initiatives,” said Elena Volkovskaya, Head of CROC MarTech Lab and Chief Strategic Marketing Officer at CROC.

Atelier E.B (Atelier Edinburgh-Brussels) is the name with which designer Beca Lipscombe and artist Lucy McKenzie sign their collaborative projects. Formed in 2007, Atelier E.B is a fashion label that produces using local and exploitation-free manufacturing. It operates through networks outside the system of fashion, reinventing conventional modes of display and distribution. This often involves gallery presentations, which combine art, design, and cultural research.

The exhibition Atelier E.B: Passer-by is based on a two-year research project focused on issues around display and the people behind the rich and sometimes undervalued history of the twentieth-century world expos and fairs, iconic department stores, ethnographic museums and fashion in the former Socialist Bloc.

Such projects not only give everyone an opportunity to see an exhibition, but also help museums better understand their audience, make navigation even more user-friendly, and improve information delivery channels. Since 2016, the Garage Museum has been running an audience research program to learn more about their visitors and improve their experience as much as possible.

“In 2016, we established a ‘know your audience’ program, which is still running. Although the museum is now closed as a physical venue, it is still functioning online. Therefore, visitor analysis tools should also be adjusted to this situation. I believe this project will help us take a fresh look at our online audience,” said Egor Sanin, Head of Audience Experience, Garage.

About the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art

Founded in 2008 by Dasha Zhukova and Roman Abramovich, Garage is the first philanthropic institution in Russia to create a comprehensive public mandate for contemporary art. Providing opportunities for dialogue, as well as the production of new work and ideas, the Museum’s extensive program of exhibitions, events, education, research, and publishing reflects current developments in Russian and international culture. Central to these activities is the Museum’s collection, which is the only public archive in the country related to the development of Russian contemporary art from the 1950s through to the present.

The organization was initially housed in (and received its name from) the renowned Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage in Moscow, originally designed by the Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov. In 2012, Garage relocated to a temporary pavilion in Gorky Park specifically commissioned by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. A year later, a purpose-built Education Center was opened next to the Pavilion. On May 1, 2014, the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture became the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.

On June 12, 2015, Garage welcomed visitors to its first permanent home. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA, this is a groundbreaking preservation project that has transformed the famous Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) Soviet Modernist restaurant built in 1968 in Gorky Park into a contemporary museum.
The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art reserves the right to make changes to its exhibition plan. For more information, please contact the museum’s press service: Alexandra Serbina, a.serbina@garagemca.org, +7 (926) 810-18-35.
Garage Museum of Modern Art activities are supported by UNIQLO and Ingosstrakh.

About CROC MarTech Lab

CROC MarTech Lab is a business unit of international IT company CROC, focused on developing and implementing marketing technologies. CROC is one of the Russian IT market leaders, creating a new digital ecosystem for society and completing projects in 40 different countries. The company provides a comprehensive range of IT solutions, including systems integration and managed B2B and consulting services. In addition, CROC also offers off-the-shelf products and promising end-to-end technologies, such as Big Data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, Internet of Things, robotics, and machine learning.

For more information, please contact: avoronkova@croc.ru