In 'European Year of Heritage four cultural institutions of the cityà di Torino take up the challenge of putting into dialogue artefacts and finds from the past and works d'contemporary art.
Even statues die è the title of this ambitious project, whose name è taken from a documentary of the French Alain Resnais and Chris Marker Part 1953, and whose face è that of a Greek statue, partially crumbled and captured in black and white in the'opera history di Mimmo Jodice present at Egyptian museum.
An enlarged exhibition, made possible thanks to the collaboration of Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Egyptian Museum of Turin e Royal Museums which investigates the role of museums, of heritage conservation in relation to the creation or destruction of shared memories.
The narration built around the theme wants to make us sharers in recent and painful historical facts such as the destruction of the archaeological site of Palmyra, to which the room dedicated to Khaled al-Asaad, el'attack of'September 11, 2001, told through all the images of the front pages of the major world newspapers placed next to each other by'artist Hans Peter Feldmann.
L'iconoclasm, the systematic cancellation of memory are transversal phenomena that involve both l'ancient Egypt of the XV-XIV century BC, as the Hapu statue , stele of Amenhotep exhibited at the FSRR, as well as the disfigurement of the Cairo museum by a group of demonstrators during the Egyptian popular uprisings of 2011, of which the 16 display cases violated in Arab spring they tell us about Kader Attia.
The story that is proposed does not è never sensationalist but wants to ask questions, propose a critical look at issues involving different historical periods and different geographical places.
Testimony of this specific approach è the video documentary dedicated to the looting perpetrated against the Baghdad museum collection during the regime Saddam Hussein.
The events of As statues die, made with the scientific advice and archival material of the Archaeological Research and Excavation Center of Turin, highlight how the presence of the museum as a place does not è sufficient to ensure knowledge of the heritage, which è its true protection.
The video takes us through the various events that have touched the national museum of'Iraq, newly reinstated with the new mission of making the Iraqi people share their own history and how much è kept in the collections so thaté these can escape'oblivion.
A message of rebirth that ends with the images of children entering the reopened museum and giving a possible answer to the universal questions on the protection of the artistic and archaeological heritage, possible only by keeping the history of the'material object as well as its integrityà physics through study, research and knowledge.
The exhibition creates an unprecedented circuit between city museums and sees the'contemporary art at the Egyptian Museum and archaeological finds at the FSRR meeting the taste of different audiences of the'art.
The exhibition at the FSRR will closeà on 29 May 2018, while at the Swiss Guard Hall at the Royal Museums it will beà open until 3 June and then ending on 9 September at the Egyptian Museum.
On May 28 and 29, it will be heldà the international symposium Statues also die. Destruction and Preservation in Ancient and Modern Time in the headquarters of the FSRR and at the Cavallerizza Reale. The symposium will beà l'opportunity to establish a multidisciplinary dialogue through the themes covered in the exhibition ed è It is possible to register through the website of the Egyptian Museum of Turin.
Cover image: Arab spring (2014) by Kedar Attia
Martina Di Iulio – Master MaSvic Ca' Foscari University of Venice
