Museums build bridges across countries

The 2026 Intermuseum BRICS+ Festival, held in Russia's capital city of Moscow at the end of May, brought together museum directors, scholars and experts from 26 countries, including Russia, China, Brazil, India, South Africa, and the UAE. Under the theme "Museum — Territory of the Future", participants explored how cultural institutions can serve as bridges between generations and technologies — and, more importantly, between civilizations.

At a forum focusing on how to help audiences understand foreign cultures, a discussion between experts from China and Russia offered fresh ideas for deeper Sino-Russian museum collaboration and the transformation of cross-cultural communication.

Both Chinese and Russian museum professionals reached a consensus during the discussions: a high-quality cross-cultural exhibition is by no means a simple transfer of exhibits or a pileup of symbols. It is a dialogue between civilizations based on deep research, two-way communication, and adaptation to local conditions.

Ai Lin, director of the Deji Art Museum in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, shared the case of a world tour of the digital art exhibition, An Era in Jinling, which is inspired by a 10-meter-long ancient painting depicting prosperous street scenes in Nanjing, which was called Jinling during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Wearing electronic bracelets, visitors can travel back 1,000 years to experience a day in ancient China by "walking" into the 110-meter-long digital painting. They can create their own digital avatars that can interact with characters in the painting, talk to street vendors, stroke cats and dogs, and even set off fireworks.

In the past few years, the digital show has toured cities in France and the US, attracting large audiences.

Ai said that during the exhibition's international tours, in-depth research is conducted on the local culture of each host city and country, seeking points of connection and resonance between local heritage and the culture portrayed in the ancient painting.

As an example, she said that the Qinhuai River, which is depicted in the exhibition, runs through the entire city of Nanjing and carries profound historical significance. However, simply telling audiences,"This is the Qinhuai River, and it is very important", does little to create an emotional connection. To solve this, they look for an "urban mother river" in the host city of the traveling exhibition — a river that, like the Qinhuai, has supported transportation, trade, agriculture, fisheries, and a rich cultural heritage. In the case of Moscow, they found such resonance between the Qinhuai River and the Moskva River.

Ekaterina Pronicheva, director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, spoke highly of An Era in Jinling, and said that there is currently an excellent opportunity for cooperation between Russian and Chinese museums. At the moment, Russian people's interest in Chinese culture and Chinese cities is at an unprecedented high. More and more Russian audiences hope to visit famous historical and cultural cities like Xi'an in Shaanxi province and Nanjing to further explore China's rich heritage.

Ksenia Guseva, curator of the Museum of Moscow, agreed that many people in Russia are interested in Chinese culture. Previously, the Museum of Moscow hosted the exhibition New Year in Old Beijing, focusing on traditions during the Chinese New Year.

In February, red Chinese lanterns, along with spectacular dragon and lion dances, filled Moscow's streets, giving the city a festive Chinese New Year atmosphere that was enjoyed by locals. But Guseva found that behind the lively scenes lay a common challenge in cross-cultural communication: Russian audiences could only appreciate the visual symbols of the Chinese festival, yet knew nothing about the underlying meanings of reunion, the culture of blessings and the millennia-old folk traditions.

"Everyone loves to watch and take photos, but they cannot understand the culture behind the celebrations," Guseva said. This is a widespread problem of "surface-level communication" faced by foreign cultural exhibitions today.

Therefore, in the show New Year in Old Beijing, a large number of folk artworks were displayed and there were many performances of intangible cultural heritage, which explained to the audience their significance. These included why fireworks are used during Chinese New Year, at what time they should be set off, and how Chinese families traditionally decorate their homes.

"We hope that through exhibitions, the audience can truly step into the culture and realize that these cultures still exist today and continue to radiate new vitality," Guseva said.