Connectivities

About

The Mediterranean Gallery is getting a new look, and its second section will house a new semi-permanent exhibition. Connectivities tells the story of the great Mediterranean port cities of the 16th and 17th centuries: Istanbul, Algiers, Venice, Genoa, Seville and Lisbon were the strategic sites of power and trade in a Mediterranean that saw the birth of the modern era, between great empires and globalization.

Taking The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II as its foundation, the exhibition follows in the footsteps of historian Fernand Braudel and approaches this 16th and 17th century Mediterranean region not as an object of study with strict chronological limits, but rather as a character with a lengthy story to tell, even extending into the contemporary period.

Inviting visitors to leap backward in time, this urban history continues today, through changes to contemporary port territories like the megalopolises of Istanbul and Cairo and the metropolises of Marseille and Casablanca. This exhibition shows expanding cities as places where influxes, connections trade and therefore power converge and intensify.

From 7 November 2018, the exhibition will be refreshed with new items that build on the richness of topics that are addressed — a new opportunity to find out about new objects, new works and new audiovisual devices.