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EXPO. The Mucem (Marseille) invites you to rediscover this mythical city of the Mediterranean, between archaeology, history, religions and contemporary art.
By Valérie Marin La Meslée
Greek or Macedonian? ‘Gordian Knot’, by Asli Cavusoglu (2013), after a sculpture of the head of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) from the IIe century BC. J.-C. The artist questions here the memorial rivalry around the founder of Alexandria in 331 BC. J.-C.
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Putter only the name of Alexandria and stand a library, a museum (mouseion), a lighthouse, the seventh wonder of the world… Mythical city, the beautiful Egyptian is both the heroine of Quartet by Lawrence Durrell and the Quartet from the “Books” collection, which brings together the texts of great travelers of Antiquity, Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Cheremon. She is still one of Drifting cities from Stratis Tsirkas… Alexandria has its poets, from Callimachus of Cyrene (c. 305-c. 240 BC) to Constantin Cavafy (1863-1933). His bards, from Georges Moustaki to Claude François, of course, and we are not aiming to be exhaustive here…
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Hadiye Cangokce/SPHadiye CANGOKCE/SP – National museum of Antiquities Leiden – Maha Maamoun/Courtesy Gypsum gallery – Alamy Stock/Mucem – Lille Palais des Beaux-Arts, repository of the Institute of Papyrology and Egyptology of Lille/photo: Thomas Nicq-Mucem