FITUR hosts the presentation of the exhibition, which can be visited at the Archaeological Museum of the Diputación de Alicante from 13 April until 16 October.
Gladiators. Heroes of the Coliseum' comes to Spain for the first time thanks to MARQ.
Carlos Mazón assures that "in the province we hold unique events of international relevance, because in culture and tourism we also compete to offer the best of our land".
Julia Parra stresses that "with Gladiators we are once again putting the spotlight on Alicante, it is a great commitment to culture and the telling of the story of our roots".
The Costa Blanca stand at FITUR hosted the presentation of 'Gladiators. Heroes of the Coliseum', the new exhibition at the Alicante Provincial Council Archaeological Museum (MARQ) which will open on 13 April and remain in Alicante until 16 October.
The president of the Provincial Council, Carlos Mazón, and the first vice-president and deputy for Culture, Julia Parrapresided over the event at which the first exhibition organised in collaboration with the Colosseum in Rome was presented at this international showcase. The presentation was attended by the head of the Office of Cultural Cooperation, Justice and Social Affairs of the Italian Embassy, Teodora Danisi, the director of the museum, Manuel Olcina, and the managing director of the MARQ Foundation, José Alberto Cortés.
The president of the provincial institution highlighted the importance of this exhibition, which he predicted would be a great success. "If with the Etruscan exhibition, which in the midst of the pandemic has already had 60,000 visitors, we have reached the sky, with the Gladiators exhibition we are going above the clouds", Mazón pointed out, who warmly thanked the Italian people and the Italian Embassy for their collaboration in bringing to the MARQ pieces from 9 museums which until now had not left the country.
"We have a museum that makes us proud and the level we are offering is spectacular," said the Alicante leader. In this line, he specified that "in Alicante and in the MARQ we carry out unique events of an international reference because in culture and tourism we also compete and we offer the best of our land".
The Deputy for Culture, for her part, confirmed that "this is the first time that this exhibition has visited Spain after a successful international tour of numerous countries, which endorses it as a great exhibition that has the approval of the public and with the participation of the Coliseum and eight leading Italian cultural institutions".
Julia Parra highlighted the cultural and touristic value of the initiative. "With Gladiators we are once again putting the spotlight on Alicante, it is a great commitment to first class culture and the story of the history of our roots," she said and also defended "the need to offer, especially in these difficult times, powerful attractions that serve as a vital stimulus and contribute to the revival of the economy and the tourism sector. This is our clear objective and our greatest motivation".
As part of the presentation at FITUR, the official poster for the exhibition was unveiled. Gladiators will bring together original pieces from nine major Italian museums and institutions, some of which have never been exhibited outside Italy. The design and project has been developed by the Italian company Contemporanea Progetti, based in Florence, under the curatorship of Dr. Rossella Rea, who has been director of the Colosseum in Rome for more than three decades, in close collaboration with the technical teams of the MARQ.
Gladiators. Heroes of the Colosseum' is made up of around 140 works from nine Italian museums. Participating in the exhibition are the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum in Rome, the Archaeological Park of Paestum, the Bardini Museum in Florence, the Civic Museum of Rieti, the "Antiquario Alda Levi" Museum in Milan, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Museum of the Baths of Diocletian in Rome, the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia and the Sopraintendenza de Beni Culturali in Bologna.
The exhibition has visited numerous cities around the world and has been a great success at the Gallo-Roman Museum of Tongeren in Belgium (2015), Moesgaard Museum of Aarhus in Denmark (2016), Het Valkhof Museum of Nijmegen in the Netherlands (2017), Queensland Museum of Brisbane in Australia (2018) and the Musée de la Romanité de Nimes in France (2019). It can be seen for the first time in Spain from April to October at the MARQ, where it will occupy its three temporary galleries.
The exhibition 'Gladiators. Heroes of the Coliseum' at MARQ aims to illustrate this traditional Roman figure in its many complexities, through a careful display of art objects and original pieces, but also through replicas and modern models, based on rigorous scientific research, cutting-edge interactive technology, graphics, suggestive scenographies and other multimedia devices.
The exhibition focuses on the two main protagonists indivisibly intertwined: the Gladiators and the Colosseum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980 and recognised as one of the seven wonders of the world.
Among the most outstanding pieces are those related to weaponry, especially the four helmets belonging to a Thraex (Thracian gladiator), a Murmillo (Gaulish gladiator), a Secutor and a Provocator, with their two visors from the Barracks of the Gladiators of Pompeii. Also from the same place, a galerus or protection of a retiarius gladiator, those who carried a net as a weapon, greaves or leg protectors of a secutor gladiator, a pilum or a splendid gladius, a short sword, with the hilt of worked ivory.
In addition, it will be possible to admire some original marble funerary inscriptions of real gladiators, such as that of the secutor Urbicus, that of the murmillo Quintus Sossius Albus and that of personalities associated with the ludus, houses or training schools where the gladiators were trained, such as the daughter of the supervisor of the armoury of the Ludus Magnus.
A significant section of the pieces on display in Alicante is the important set of surgical objects, with spatulas, scalpels and scissors used to treat the wounds of those gladiators who survived the arena. Also on display will be personal toiletries that these heroes of the coliseum used on a daily basis, such as the strigilum, to remove dirt from their skin, and various glass bottles containing perfumes and oils, together with pieces related to their diet, such as spoons, knives, oinochoes (jugs), sigillata (Roman pottery) and glass vessels, as well as a collection of skylights and terracottas with various scenes of gladiators fighting.
The remains of bones, olives and fruit found in archaeological excavations carried out in recent years in the Colosseum in Rome, as well as dice and game pieces, with which they gambled in their barracks, will be on display.
The emperors who built the amphitheatres and coliseums throughout the Roman world promoting gladiatorial fights play an important role in the exhibition, represented above all in the numismatic coins of the period, with portraits of Titus and Vespasian, two of the rulers who did most for the construction of these enormous recreational spaces in ancient Rome.
Various carved stone pieces from some of the most important coliseums of the Roman world will also be on display. The exhibition route will end with an important selection of original objects featuring scenes of gladiators, amphitheatres and coliseums. Among them, the relief with the combat of two provocateurs, found in the Via Ostiense in Rome, and the famous fresco of the Amphitheatre of the city of Pompeii stand out.
The exhibition is accompanied by various mannequins that will show the public the most common types of gladiators, as well as the animals that frequently appeared in the arena as a complement to the combats and a large interactive model of the Colosseum in Rome with which visitors can enjoy this great monument.
The exhibition has a large number of panels with explanatory texts, several audiovisuals that immerse the visitor in the life of the gladiators and an important didactic element with a ludus or gladiator school or training camp, the latter aimed at children who visit the MARQ from 13 April to 16 October this year.
The collection commemorates the gladiators who engaged in deadly combat for the entertainment of the public and filled the most important arenas of the Roman world. More than two thousand years later, he is still a little-known figure who arouses great interest.
