Half a million visitors see Pergamon. Panorama of the Ancient Metropolis. Pergamon Poems published!

15.02.2012
Pergamonmuseum

Michael Eissenhauer, Director General of the National Museums in Berlin, the panorama artist Yadegar Asisi and Andreas Scholl, Director of the Collection of Classical Antiquities, were on hand this week to welcome the 500,000 visitor to the exhibition 'Pergamon - Panorama of the Ancient Metropolis' - just 19 weeks after it opened. It is the third exhibition on the Museum Island within a year that has broken visitor records for the National Museums, after the successes of 'The Tell Halaf Adventure' and 'Renaissance Faces'.

Berliner Ulrike Sack (42) used the school holidays to finally get round to visiting the exhibition and the panorama with her two sons Leonhard (7) and Maximilian (5). The visitors were presented with gifts, including an annual subscription to GEO magazine and catalogues to the exhibition and the panorama.

To coincide with the ceremony marking the exhibition's 500,000 visitor, the National Museums in Berlin today also released five video clips, entitled 'Pergamon Poems', which have been produced in collaboration with Berlin's prestigious experimental theatre, the Schaubühne (production: BBOXXFILME). The 'Pergamon Poems' all revolve around the museum highlight: the Great Frieze of the Pergamon Altar itself. As viewers cast their eye along the masterful relief frieze they witness the battle of the Gigantomachy raging between the gods and the Giants. The German poet Gerhard Falkner has now transposed the blood and sweat of the dramatic scenes depicted on the frieze into words. Members of the Schaubühne ensemble have joined together in interpreting his verses and pose the question: '…how many gigabytes does this frieze have, what gigantic archive is hidden in this stone?'