Roads of arabia Archaeological Treasures of saudi arabia
Temporary Exhibition at The Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum (8 November 2018 - 16 February 2019)
A project with Youssef El Khoury
More than lines in the sand Our environment shapes us and we shape our environment. The exceptional and outstanding artefacts curated in this milestone exhibition substantiate well this statement, showing the rich cultural diversity and complexity of the societies in the Arabic peninsula. This diversity was in perfect symbiosis with the environment, and the landscape that produced it.
The artistic and scientific magnitudes of this selection of artefacts are of significant importance, especially today, in times of so-called civilizational clashes. Nowadays, this region is often reduced to the exotic image of desert and dunes, and its societies depicted as monolithic and conservative.
This exhibition sheds the light on the complexity of the societies that tamed and appropriated these landscapes, ever since the dawns of time until today, as open crossroads and bridges between cultures and continents. It reminds us, visitors and locals, of the role these societies played in the adventure of the human race. These roads, crafted as lines in the harsh deserts and the rocky steppe and mountains, are the predecessors of nowadays fast networks, through which the Gulf region is still a nodal point.