FOREWORD

The organization and the realization of this exhibition, born from the tight collaboration between the Museo Egizio and MondoMostre, makes me personally very proud and is part of an intense cultural programme which promotes a progressive approach between different cultures.I strongly believe in the potential of such projects, and in their inner ability to valorize the archeological heritage that I, along with my team, have the honour and the duty to preserve.

The exhibition dedicated to the great Egyptian Civilization was conceived by the curator Paolo Marini with the focus on the vitality that the ancient Egyptians can hand down to us through archeological findings,texts and material culture.Several precious objects from the collection in Turin were selected, with the intention to introduce visitors to a dreamlike journey, not only in the Pharaohs' Egypt but also in that of the peasants, the artisans and the priests.The thematic disposition has prevailed over the chronological order.For this reason, each theme presents a variety of different objects that can be dated back to historical periods ranging thousands of years.But the central idea of the project gradually leads to the comprehension and contextualization of each object, giving it a double value: that of showing the habits and the beliefs of ancient Egyptians and that of telling the peculiarity and the anecdotes on the objects' history, their“biography and that of the Museum where they are preserved”.

This is the way the Museo Egizio has the honour to showcase itself to China through the objects it preserves and valorizes, promoting their global understanding.Realizing an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities curated by an Italian Museum in China, bonds three entities with a heavily different historical, artistic and cultural development.For this reason, the achievement is even more incredible.In the vast geographical distance and chronological difference, the three entities find themselves in a historicized“non-place”, the exhibition space, as a result of the harmonic combination that through a synergic centripetal force attracts towards itself all the elements of this new alliance.

“Egypt.House of Eternity”marks the beginning of an intense friendship between the Museo Egizio and the Henan Provincial Museum in Zhengzhou, the Shanxi Museum in Taiyuan, the Liaoning Museum in Shenyang, the Hunan Provincial Museum in Changsha and the Guangdong Provincial Museum in Guangzhou, following a deep and reciprocal interest.All my enthusiasm is fully matched by the success obtained by the exhibition thanks to this fruitful and certainly enduring collaboration.

The Director of the Museo Egizio, Turin

Christian Greco