Issue OO01 of 19 March 2000

The Founding of Cities at Barcelona

Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome
An Exhibition at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
6th April - 23rd July 2000


The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona is presenting the exhibition The Founding of Cities. Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. The exhibition deals with the myths and rituals linked to the founding of cities in these three ancient civilisations. The exhibition illustrates and documents these myths and rituals by bringing together over two hundred pieces, including ceramics, terracotta, coins, gems, cylinder seals, reliefs, frescoes and mosaics, from some fifty museums from around the world, such as the Musée du Louvre (Paris), the British Museum (London) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).

The exhibition is set out in three main sections, devoted to Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Each of them looks at the founding myths and building rituals which were carried out.

According to ancient mythology, the creation of urban space has a divine origin. The founder of the city, chosen by the gods, sets off on his adventures, which follow a similar pattern in all three civilisations, in accordance with the following figures and events:

- the sun-god who enlightens the founder;
- the figure of the founding hero, marked by a tragic destiny which justifies his exile, like Orestes, who murdered his mother Clytemnestra;
- the arduous wanderings, led by animals which show him the way to go (magpies and dolphins); 
- the fight with the monster, guardian of a water goddess and jailer of a nymph,  who awaits the founder in the new land (for example, Aquelous, the river-god, defeated by Hercules);
- obtaining the horn of plenty which the hero snatches from the monster; and the union with the water nymph, which ensures the future of the new city and its fertility.

The archaeological exhibits which make up the exhibition, illustrate the different chapters of the founding myths in the great ancient cultures of the West and the Near and Middle East: Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. An additional section of the exhibition is devoted to Egypt. The works document a number of episodes from the adventures of the founding hero -such as Cadmos, the founder of Thebes, Philoctetes and Telephus(, in search of a new land to live in.

In order to illustrate the building rituals of cities, the exhibition brings together funerary objects found in the tombs of the heroes, artefacts used in the founding rituals (keys, tables, amulets, etc.), magic objects which were placed underground to protect cities and their inhabitants from evil spirits and the chaotic world of shadows. Other exhibits, however, illustrate the dances and ceremonies performed by ancient civilisations to commemorate the freeing of the metropolis from infernal powers or to remember the hero's feats. Among the objects featured, we highlight the Mesopotamian founding objects, which are the subject of an exhibition for the first time. These statuettes of gods and supplicants who put their hands together and raise their eyes fervently and in fear, were painstakingly sculpted to be looked at, not by human eyes, but only by the dwellers of the beyond: the gods and spirits. They show that men were aware they were (and we are) just passing through the city of God.

The founding myths and rituals, therefore explain how and why man (ancient and modern) builds cities, and how he values the delimited area constituted by urban space. Legends and events show that, in ancient times, the city was conceived as an ordered world, stolen from chaos and the shadows, which needed constant protection.The city was the cradle of civilisation, a redoubt of light, order, harmony and memory. A place to include, communicate with and know the people who lived inside and outside the city walls. And although the city emerged as a bastion against savagery, we should perhaps ask ourselves if the above view is still valid today.

The Founding of Cities continues the same line of exhibitions begun with Spirit Houses, which was also curated by Pedro Azara, and presented by the CCCB in 1997 to great critical and public success. The exhibition makes extensive use of light, and is set out on a labyrinthine trail, which seeks to immerse the visitor in an uncertain journey. The exhibition can be read on different levels, depending on the visitor's needs and requirements. On the one hand, we can read the text explaining the founding myth, and, on the other, comprehensive information about the building rituals practised in the ancient world. At the same time, the show gives information about Mesopotamian, Greek and Roman mythology and, finally, includes a complete description of the pieces on display.

The exhibition catalogue contains a series of texts by internationally renowned professionals such as Marcel Détienne, Jean-Claude Margueron and Jean-Jacques Wunenburger. Pedro Azara, Ricardo Mar, Eva Subías and Eduard Riu have written the preface. The catalogue is published by the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and the Publications Institute of Barcelona County Council.

The exhibition and catalogue are the result of research carried out by an interdisciplinary team who received a grant from the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles.

On Thursday 6th April, to mark the opening of the exhibition, there will be a performance of Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas, with a libretto by Nahum Tate. It is based on episodes in the life of Dido, who, according to Greek mythology, founded the city of Carthage. The opera will be staged in collaboration with the Conservatori Municipal de Música de Barcelona.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the CCCB and the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona (as part of its 125th anniversary) are staging the international symposium Founding Myths in the Cities of the Ancient World (Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome), on 8th, 9th and 10th June, 2000. It will bring together renowned experts such as Jean-Claude Margueron (École Practique des Hautes Études, Paris), Marcel Détienne (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore), François de Polignac (Centre Louis Gernet, Paris), Irad Markin (University of Tel Aviv) and Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux (College de France, Paris). The symposium seeks to outline the image the ancients had of the founder and the founding act with talks by philosophers, anthropologists, archaeologists, art and religious historians. The Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona will publish the preliminary schedule of the symposium during the course of the year and will publish the minutes and contributions in 2001.

Examples of works on show
- Roman fresco: Theseus and the Minotaur (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli)
- Copper statuette of a man carrying a basket on his head (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
- Bronze sculpture: Ur-Nammu founding figure (The Pierpont Morgan Library)
- Marble sculpture. Acrolithic head:: Apollo, from the Temple of Apollo at Ciro (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Reggio Calabria)
- Small ceramic vessel in the shape of Romulus, Remus and the she-wolf. (Musei Vaticani, Rome)

Lending museums
- Agyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin
- Antikensammlung, Berlin
- Antiquario Forense, Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma, Rome
- Archäologischer Park Carnuntum, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Austria
- Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
- Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem
- Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
- Leo Mildenberg Collection, Zurich
- Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
- Galleria Numismatica del Museo Nazionale, Siracusa
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels
- Musei Capitolini, Rome
- Musei Vaticani, Rome
- Museo Archeologico "Antonio Salinas", Palermo
- Museo Archeologico di Taranto, Taranto
- Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples
- Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Reggio Calabria
- Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Ferrara
- Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence
- Museo Archeologico Regionale, Gela
- Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, Siracusa
- Museo Archeologico, Paestum
- Soprintendenza Archeologica di Salerno, Avellino e Benevento, Salerno
- Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid
- Archaeological Museum, Olympia
- Archaeological Museum, Eretria
- Benaki Museum, Athens
- Museo di Villa Giulia, Rome
- Museo Gregoriano Etrusco
- Musei Vaticani. Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie, Vatican City
- Museo Etrusco Guarnacci, Volterra 
- Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome
- Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, Barcelona
- Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, Girona
- Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
- National Museum, Athens
- Museu d'Arqueologia de l'Orient Bíblic de Montserrat, Barcelona
- Petrie Museum, London
- Soprintendenza Archeologica dell'Umbria, Perugia
- The British Museum, London
- Service Archéologique de la ville, Aix-en Provence
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
- Vorderasiatiche Museum, Berlin
- Yale University, New Haven ( USA)


TECHNICAL DETAILS
Dates: 6th April - 23rd July 2000
Space: Gallery 3 at the CCCB
Curator: Pedro Azara
Designers: 	Carles Guri, Carolina Casajoana and Pedro Azara
Production and coordination: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona


GENERAL INFORMATION
- Exhibition opening times
* Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 11 am - 2 pm and 4 pm - 8 pm.
* Wednesday and Saturday: 11 am - 8 pm.
* Sunday and public holidays: 11 am - 7 pm.
* Special opening times on 24th, 26th and 31st December and 6th January: 11 am - 3 pm.

Summer opening times (20th June - 21st September)
* Tuesday to Saturday: 11 am - 8 pm
* Sunday and public holidays: 11 am - 3 pm.

- Admission prices for exhibitions:
* Tickets for one exhibition or combined ticket for two exhibitions: 600/800 pts 
* Reduced admission on Wednesdays (not public holidays) for senior citizens, the unwaged and students: 400/600 pts 
* Free admission for under 16s and Friends of the CCCB.

- Guided tours of the exhibitions:
Tuesday to Friday, at 6 pm, and Saturday, Sunday and public holidays at 11.30 am.

- Tours for schools and groups:
From September to June. Advance booking only. Phone  933 064 1.35 (Educational Service, Tuesday to Friday, 10 am -  1 pm) or send an e-mail to Seducatiu@cccb.org.
In summer phone 933 064 100 (ticket office)
For further information or printed material, please contact the CCCB Press Office
Phone: 00 34 93 306 41 00 / Fax: 00 34 93 306 41 01
mmunoz@cccb.org / www.cccb.org

Editor's Note: Text and images submitted to Anistoriton by Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.


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