YEREVAN — An international exhibition titled “Myths, Cults and Cosmology: Berlin’s Museum Island at the History Museum of Armenia” will open at the History Museum of Armenia on September 22.
The exhibition is being organized to mark the 35th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia’s independence and the 200th anniversary of Berlin’s Museum Island. Organizers describe the project as a platform for cultural dialogue, institutional memory and a renewed examination of the collections of the two major museum centers.
Ahead of the exhibition’s opening, a press conference was held at the History Museum of Armenia featuring Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan; German Ambassador to Armenia Claudia Busch; History Museum of Armenia Director Davit Poghosyan; and Matthias Wemhoff, director of Berlin’s Museum of Prehistory and Early History. Deputy Minister Alfred Kocharyan and Ministry Secretary General Hasmik Hakobyan were also in attendance.
Andreasyan congratulated the public on the 35th anniversary of Armenia’s independence and noted that, for the third consecutive year, the occasion is also being marked through initiatives devoted to cultural heritage.
“We are celebrating the 35th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia, and I believe the chosen theme concerning an enduring state is particularly meaningful,” Andreasyan said. “Having traveled a difficult path, we are firmly on a course toward making our state stronger and more enduring day by day. And this is also being achieved through culture.”
Andreasyan said it was symbolic that an exhibition opening in connection with Armenia’s Independence Day was being organized through international cooperation and with the participation of prominent museums.
She noted that Armenian cultural heritage is being presented within the broader context of world cultural heritage. International exhibitions, she added, provide opportunities to explore the connections, similarities and interactions among different cultures while helping improve the quality of museum activities in Armenia.
The exhibition will feature 50 exceptional artifacts from six museums on Berlin’s Museum Island, including several objects from German collections that will be displayed abroad for the first time. Organizers said the exhibition will take visitors through different civilizations and historical periods and will also include an educational component.
