3RD TOUR OF THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN LISBOA, PORTUGAL

2ND EXHIBITION TOUR OF THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN MADRID, SPAIN (MAN)

1ST ITINERANT EXHIBITION OF THE PROVINCIAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN ALICANTE, SPAIN (MARQ)

EXHIBITION “IDOLES, MILLENARY VIEWS”. MARQ – MUSEOGRAPHY

COMMUNICATION ARCHITECTURE OF THE IDOLE EXHIBITION

From the access to corridor one, the visitor can put the object, the architecture of the object and the human scale in context, through a set of two sculptures with their eyes painted in red, one of them making an idol, and behind it a context of the place of the scene, a dolmen.

The exhibition is divided into two rooms.

The first one talks about typology, exposing the visitor to typological situations of the idol in relation to the user and his body, and other geographical situations, in relation to the Iberian Peninsula. The second room talks about the place and the possible use of the idol. It exposes the visitor to situations of use and place of discovery. The narrative museographic architecture speaks of the space of life, the space of death, the village, the burial, daily life, the ritual.

In the first room the exhibition space is resolved by means of a Mediterranean cave architecture. Architectures by means of bases in the form of stalactites (light) and truncated stalagmites (bases), which speak of the appropriation of the place and natural architecture as the basis of the object. The way the idol is exposed in bases in the shape of a pyramid trunk, makes the idol be exposed as a unique piece, meaning the whole (base and piece) as an altar. Room one is developed through 11 showcases with more than 35 pairs of stalactites and stalagmites, which serve as support to the objects as unique pieces of art. The inverted base (stalactite) that floats over each one of the pieces, is what builds the intimate space of each one of the pieces, bringing the point of light closer, placed in the lower base of the stalagmite and closes the piece – base – point of light as an iconic, intimate and precious whole. As a unique piece of art…

Accessibility and communication by means of other tools in room one are diverse, with special emphasis on a peninsular model with almost 50 idols that mark the geographical space to transmit parameters such as density and place to the visitor. Another line of reproductions offers the visitor a clear and concise understanding of the typological equalizer, touchable, and with Braille reading. These two didactic and accessible installations provide the whole visitor, whether a group of children or visually impaired people, with a tool parallel to the scientific discourse that rigorously complements it and that permeates all the profiles of those who visit the exhibition.

Another audiovisual didactic tool that has been introduced in a new way in this exhibition has been, in parallel to those that had already been used of audiovisual narrative type, some video pieces that give the visitor a sequence and succession of images that communicate, in parallel to the archaeological piece, details on a larger scale of the pieces, global scale of the detail, movement, typological comparison and three-dimensional comparison, in a comfortable, powerful and simple way. These videos allow the visitor to have additional information beyond the contemplation of the archaeological object.

The second room constructs the narrative space through curved walls that bring the visitor the psychology of the architecture of the place, where the idol is found. Four rooms, of different scales and with two finishing materials, serve as a museographic support for some twenty sites. These two finishes, natural wood and stone, serve as a support for daily life in the village and the usual burial sites. Natural wood and stone, architectural finishes, bring us two surfaces, organic and stone, bring us life and death.

In relation to the elements of accessibility in this room 2 is resolved with a model of the town of Millares de Almería, of great format of 1.50×1.10m. By means of touch and its contemplation, in the centre of the room, it facilitates the understanding of the architecture of the place of the village and of the daily life to every visitor.

The scientific context of the object is developed through small exhibition strips with showcases, images of the different sites, scientific texts, concatenated through the museographic envelope of the succession of short walls that make up the curved architectural space.