250,000th Visitor Views PERGAMON: Masterworks from the Ancient Metropolis with a 360 Panorama by Yadegar Asisi

26.09.2019
Pergamonmuseum. Das Panorama

Since its opening in November 2018, a quarter of a million visitors have viewed the exhibition project PERGAMON: Masterpieces from the Ancient Metropolis with a 360° Panorama by Yadegar Asisi in the Pergamonmuseum’s temporary exhibition building on the Museumsinsel. On 26 September Andreas Scholl, director of the Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities), and artist Yadegar Asisi greeted the 250,000th visitor.

Angela Markham (41) and her fiancé David Brenner (43) from Wellington, New Zealand, are currently travelling through Europe and visiting the city for a performance of New Zealand’s star tenor Simon O’Neill at the Berlin State Opera. The concierge at their hotel recommended the exhibition, which they found fascinating: “You feel as if you have been transported back in time to the ancient world and are experiencing everyday life in the metropolis firsthand.”

Andreas Scholl: “Ten months after its opening I remain quite impressed with the public interest in PERGAMON: Masterpieces from the Ancient Metropolis with a 360° Panorama by Yadegar Asisi, the large exhibition devised to substitute for the temporarily inaccessible Pergamon Altar, which is closed to the public because of restoration work. Our display of important original works from the Pergamon Altar’s sculptural ornamentation and from the ancient city’s sacred sites and royal palaces melds compellingly with Yadegar Asisi’s monumental panorama. State-of-the-art visual techniques are used to provide an international public with a vivid impression of the Hellenic metropolis.”
Yadegar Asisi: “After years of work together with the Antikensammlung we have succeeded in carrying out an exciting experiment involving close cooperation between science and art. I’m thrilled with the visitors’ positive response and hope the project will also benefit future museums.”

The exhibition "PERGAMON. Masterpieces from the Ancient Metropolis with a 360° Panorama by Yadegar Asisi"

The exhibition, which was honoured with the Red Dot Design Award in summer 2019, combines outstanding original works from the Antikensammlung with the monumental 360° panorama by Yadegar Asisi and other installations integrated into the exhibition design by Studio asisi.

Around eighty works of art from Pergamon preserved in the Antikensammlung are presented in the temporary museum building. The city, located in present-day western Turkey, has been under excavation since 1878, initially under the direction of the Berlin museums and later by the German Archaeological Institute.

The exhibition also visualises those monuments currently inaccessible because of renovation measures in the Pergamonmuseum – above all the Pergamon Altar. The internationally unparalleled collaboration of the Antikensammlung team with Yadegar Asisi and Studio asisi transforms museum exhibits displayed in conjunction with the work of a contemporary artist into a pioneering exhibition project. Space, light and video installations are used in combination with Yadegar Asisi’s originals to innovatively stage the ancient artworks and offer visitors a new type of museum experience. The central work of art is Yadegar Asisi’s 30-metre-high 360° panorama, which visually, acoustically and emotionally unites archaeological features and artistic creativity in a unique installation space.

PERGAMON: Masterpieces from the Ancient Metropolis with a 360° Panorama by Yadegar Asisi can be viewed on the Museumsinsel in Berlin through 2024.