13.04.2010
Vorderasiatisches Museum
The National Museums in Berlin will be appearing at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai in the 'Pavilion of Urban Footprints', where it will unveil world famous artworks from the Pergamonmuseum on the Museum Island Berlin. Priceless loans from the Museum of the Ancient Near East will enrich several elaborate and vibrantly coloured reconstructions of the world renowned Processional Way and Ishtar Gate of Babylon.
The pavilion, curated by the Shanghai Museum, explores the history of urban development from its early beginnings to the present day. The ancient city of Babylon, one of the most important cities of the ancient world, occupies a prominent place in the second of the pavilion's four sections, in the area of 'Urban Development'. Reconstructions of the world famous Processional Way and the exquisite Ishtar Gate, the original of which can be found on the Museum Island Berlin, are embellished by animal reliefs composed of glazed brick fragments: a prowling lion from the Processional Way and a dragon from the Ishtar Gate. The replica of a bull from the Ishtar Gate is the last of the three symbolic animals to appear and together they represent the triad of Babylonian deities: Ishtar, Marduk and Adad.
The artworks from the Museum of the Ancient Near East on display in Shanghai are the direct fruits of the German excavations in Babylon that took place from 1899 to 1917 under the guidance of Robert Koldewey. Those parts of the finds that were officially confirmed to the Berlin museums in 1926 were only able to be incorporated into the Museum of the Ancient Near East's collection some time later. The spectacular finds have augmented the permanent collection since the opening of the museum on the Museum Island Berlin in 1930 and include several artefacts and monumental structures of great cultural-historical significance from the city of Babylon, from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BCE) in particular.
Alongside the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London, the National Museums in Berlin's Museum of the Ancient Near East is one of the most important museums in the world for antiquities dating from the Ancient Near East and was especially conceived as a museum to house the finds of monumental architectural structures retrieved from excavation sites at Uruk, Sam'al, Babylon and Assur/Assyria. Commanding an area of 2000 square metres of exhibition space, it gives visitors to the Museum Island Berlin an impression of the history, culture and art of the Ancient Near East over a period spanning more than 6000 years.
The National Museums in Berlin has in its keeping important artefacts of great civilizations that range from over 6000 years. Since 1999, the Museum Island Berlin has itself been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, as a museum and architectural ensemble, is unique in the world.
EXPO 2010 Shanghai will be held from 1 May to 31 October 2010 in exhibition grounds that cover approximately 3.3 square kilometres. Organizers expect around 70 million visitors.
The National Museums in Berlin will also be appearing in Beijing
In conjunction with the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections) and Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections) from Munich, the National Museums in Berlin will be holding a major exhibition on the art of the Enlightenment, from March 2011 in the National Museum of China in Beijing. The show, which will see more than 350 exhibits go on display over an area of 2700 square metres, will feature at its heart artworks which best exemplify the great ideas of this period, their influence on the visual fine arts and their reception history, from the artistic revolutions of the 18th century right up to the present day.