Following the great success of the Chinese Tour, Contemporanea Progetti participated in the inauguration of the North American Tour of the exhibition “Egyptian Mummies and Eternal Life” in Halifax, Canada, and Mobile, Alabama-USA.
An exhibition featuring more than 100 exceptional original artifacts, including mummies, painted sarcophagi and burial items that evoke the mythical, mysterious landscape of the tombs and pyramids of ancient Egypt.
For centuries, the culture of Ancient Egypt has fascinated and intrigued the contemporary imagination in many of its manifestations: its architectural monuments, the artistic splendors of the treasures of the mighty Pharaohs, but also in its system of religious beliefs based on an afterlife. While the concept of eternal life is fundamental to many religions, it is the interpretation and practices of the ancient Egyptians in preparing the deceased for the life to come that is still so fascinating today, in particular the practices of mummification and embalmment. This unusual exhibition retraces the Egyptian concept of the life of the soul in the afterlife and the meaning of all those objects that were usually placed in the tombs of the deceased for his quest for immortality. For the ancient Egyptians, in fact, death didn’t define the end of life, but represented a moment of transition to another form of existence, which continued into the afterlife.
The exhibition is organized in two parts: the first dedicated to the concept of the survival of the soul and of the “mummification” of the deceased’s body, the second part dedicated to the objects that accompanied the deceased to the tomb. These were funerary objects with ritual functions (stele, ushabti, offering tables), and everyday life’s artifacts that could serve the deceased in the life to come (clothing, jewelry, various types of furniture).