Gallery Review - Visualising An Ancient Legend: The “Troy: Myth And Reality Exhibition” At The British Museum

Consisting of echoes of the Trojan War from different periods and supported by BP (British Petroleum), the exhibition “Troy: Myth and Reality” was staged by the British Museum in London between 21 November 2019 and 8 March 2020. The first section was mostly devoted to the “myth”, the timeless tragedy of the Trojan War and its consequences, which were narrated by Homer in two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Four episodes related to the war form the first section, Discord – Έρις, War – Πόλεμος, Fall – Άλωσις and Return – Νόστος, which visualise the legend with artefacts uncovered in the mound of Hisarlık, the archaeological site of Troy in northwest Asia Minor now in modern-day Turkey. In order to display more artefacts in a small space, the second section was placed in a rotunda, and is dedicated to Heinrich Schliemann, a German businessman and fame-seeking amateur archaeologist who “comprehensively” excavated Hisarlık for the first time in the nineteenth century. In the third section of the exhibition, the first books published telling the story of Troy take pride of place; along with modern artworks and contemporary interpretations of the Trojan War, including the controversial video clip, Queens of Syria. Inspired by the ancient tragedy of Euripides, “The Trojan Women”, 13 Syrian refugee women in the video correlate Trojan and Syrian women who have been killed, tortured and abused in conflicts. In the course of the exhibition, the British Museum was exposed to climate protests targeting BP, who, according to activists, ‘caused the climate crisis’. In memory of my visit to Bloomsbury in person, this paper aims to evaluate how the British Museum utilised contemporary display techniques to visualise the ancient legend and to analyse socio-politic cases targeted in the exhibition.