This exhibition was selected as part of Turin Oomph / Rome Oomph, a roundup of the best shows in these towns during November 2022.
In the new display of the Museum of Civilizations’ Prehistoric collections, “Prehistory? Stories from the Anthropocene” questions the very definition of “prehistory,” a “history” that it asserts is made up of material testimonies that collectively evidence complex systems of thought, cultural inventions, as well as economic, political and social organization.
The selection of objects on display—including the Neanderthal Guattari 1 skull from Circeo, the three “Venuses” from the sites of Savignano, Lake Trasimeno and La Marmotta, the pirogues recovered from the bottom of Lake Bracciano along with hundreds of finds from the Neolithic village of La Marmotta, and the Fibula Prenestina—tell a story of the Anthropocene, i.e., the age spanning millennia where humans have co-inhabited with other living species. The section ends with the first chapter of the imaginative omination, designed by the artist and graphic designer Goda Budvytytė and the nanotechnology scholar Laura Tripaldi who imagine potential evolutionary developments, and thus make us aware, responsible participants in the creation of the new story yet to come. This section also features the interventions of two contemporary artists: the Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, recent winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale, whose film The Digger was acquired by the Museum of Civilizations, and the artist and anthropologist Elizabeth A. Povinelli, member of the Australian indigenous collective Karrabing Film & Art Collective, who intervened on the walls of the exhibition path to reflect on the concept of “prehistory”, re-interpreted as continuous “sedimentation”.
at Museo delle Civiltà, Rome