Anna Skladmann is a visual artist who pre-dominantly uses the medium of photography and text to study social documentary phenomenas. She is interested in the physiognomies of the time. Her projects range from portraying the first generation of children born into wealth in Russia to studying hybrids of narcissist flowers winning golden medal at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Your secret art venue when you seek peace and quiet
The Kolumba in Cologne is a mysterious and timeless space. Suddenly everything falls into place: from archeological excavations to contemporary art. This place reveals all layers of history that I often question myself and wraps up in calmness and odd timelessness. It feels like it has a historical center and then slowly reveals its contemporary layers. It engages all senses and gives a spiritual experience to art. It shows that with respect to architecture and curation, history can be retold in a new narrative.
The best food experience in an art space
Aromatic coffee in front of the Serpentine Gallery to share the experience and shift perception.
A museum gift shop that you never leave empty handed
As soon as there is a Walter König book store it is hard for me to leave a museum without adding to my library.
Your museum with a wow-factor
The Zoological Museum in Moscow was founded as a Cabinet of Natural History. You enter another era and another time. The display engages in the separation of humans and animals ranging from land to sea. In their displays you can find extinct species such as sea mammals that once lived off the coast of Kamchatka to brightly coloured butterflies that are often placed back into their ‘natural habitat’ created by Russian painters.
Please share with us a special personal memory related to a museum experience
I was once invited to take a trip to Storm King Art Center. Needless to say that our group entered this place on a magical consciousness already, we explored Serra, Lewitt and Bourgeois merging subtly their sculptues into nature. Apart from the art, you talk a walk through hills, meadows, ponds and allées that embrace the essence of art in their own nature and give it a new life. It brings you closer to the notion of the sublime combined with the beauty of art.