When I entered Kunstkamera, I thought I was going to visit a museum. When I left, I found myself thinking about how, for centuries, human beings have tried to understand themselves by giving names to things. This is not just a museum where display cases bring together old objects, garments from different peoples, fragments of everyday life, and unusual examples related to the human body. After a while, you stop merely looking at what is exhibited and begin to wonder why you are looking at it so carefully in the first place. Human beings love to classify what they do not fully understand. They give it a name, attach a date to it, place it behind glass, and then believe they have grasped at least part of it. As I walked through Kunstkamera, this thought stayed with me constantly. Perhaps museums do not only preserve the past; they also preserve the ways in which humanity has tried to cope with what it could not entirely comprehend. In some halls, curiosity prevails; in others, discomfort. But to me, that discomfort is not a flaw of the museum. On the contrary, it is part of its strength. Because here, one does not simply look at other cultures, other bodies, or other centuries. Without noticing it, one also begins to look at one’s own way of seeing. I remember standing for a long time in front of one display case. Before me was something left behind by a person who had lived long ago, from a distant geography, from a way of life that no longer exists. I was looking at it. But after a few seconds, a strange thought came to me: centuries from now, which parts of our own lives will stand behind glass? What will people understand about us from our phones, our clothes, our ordinary objects? And what will they completely misunderstand? That is why Kunstkamera did not remain, for me, just another tourist stop in Saint Petersburg. When I came out, I looked once more at the building itself. That green-and-white structure on the bank of the Neva appears elegant from a distance. Inside, however, are gathered the curiosities of the world, the persistence of human curiosity, and several centuries of the effort to understand. Then I found myself thinking this: Had I not, throughout my own life, placed people, cities, and vanished days into invisible display cases within my mind? This city had made me feel something. On that street I had been someone else. I had never forgotten that face. That evening would never return. I had arranged them all in silence and called it memory. Inside Kunstkamera, I looked at the strangeness of the world. When I stepped outside, I was no longer entirely sure which of us had really been standing behind the glass.

Susan JYAKHWO

Level 7 Local Expert

Cool museum but lots of parts were closed due to reconstruction. I will visit again to cover the remaining part

Sarani Batabyal

Level 7 Local Expert

Very good and full of knowledge and culture

View all 15777 reviews

Sources