Aztecs, Mayans and Incas on display in Faenza: cultures of ancient America at MIC

On view from November 11, 2018, to April 28, 2019, at the MIC (Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche) in Faenza is the exhibition Aztecs, Mayas, Incas and the Cultures of Ancient America: the show presents about three hundred artifacts (terracottas and textiles) from the collection of the MIC in Faenza along with other works (golden propellers, sculptures, stelae and many other objects) from the most important Italian museums of anthropology and two private collections.

The exhibition, curated by Antonio Aimi and Antonio Guarnotta, offers a new and updated synthesis on the most important cultures of ancient America while presenting some of the most interesting themes that have emerged from the most recent research: the conquest of America as seen from the side of the vanquished, the condition of women, the calculation systems of ancient Peru, and pre-Columbian art presented as art and not just archaeology.

The MIC in Faenza has one of the most interesting Italian collections of pre-Columbian art, consisting of nearly nine hundred artifacts. The first important nucleus dates back to the prewar period. The collection was later enriched after the war, thanks to donations from museums and institutions such as theInstituto Nacional de Arqueología y Historia in Mexico City, The University Museum in Philadelphia, Museo Nacionál de Antropología y Arqueología in Lima, Museo Nacionál in San José and has grown to date thanks to numerous private donations, some of them recent.

“This will be a proudly countercultural exhibition,” declares Claudia Casali, director of MIC - Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche. “Certainly this presents itself as a very important and original art exhibition. The pieces gathered here are authentic masterpieces. In the extensive introduction and sections of the itinerary, in a highly evocative setting, visitors will admire exhibits of incredible formal beauty, true masterpieces of art, but above all they will be accompanied to understand their provenance, use and meaning, in a journey within the cultures of a continent that in many ways has yet to be discovered or at least investigated.”

Curators Aimi and Guarnotta point out, "at a time when ethnoanthropological exhibitions often tend to focus on a single culture, Aztecs, Maya, Incas and the Cultures of Ancient America aims to present an overall vision of pre-Columbian America that can offer visitors both a synthesis of the pan-American traits common to the various cultures and the most interesting specialized and monothematic insights. In one case and in the other, the exhibition takes nothing for granted, does not reiterate outdated views, but starts from the most recent and advanced archaeological and ethnohistorical research to present the most fascinating elements of ancient America in a new way. The exhibition pays special attention to Mesoamerica and the Peruvian Area. And it does so by drawing on MIC’s considerable collections, mostly with pieces held in its repositories and hitherto never exhibited to the public. And the fact that an exhibition of this level and size could be built by resorting mostly to home treasures confirms the richness and uniqueness of the heritage of the Faenza Museum, considered the most important in the field in the world."

It will then also be an original exhibition for its vision: “Of these cultures we wanted to offer,” the curators anticipate, “a vision that goes beyond the admiration of the artistic level achieved in ceramic art. We are on the threshold of the Fifth Centenary of the Conquest of Mexico, and it seems to us that the time has come to share a new reading of that event, one that stems from the vision of the vanquished, thus contradicting many stereotypes about ancient America. And speaking of stereotypes, we want to emphasize that our exhibition highlights a new and highly topical fact: that the condition of women in some warrior and seemingly macho societies (Aztecs, North Coast of Peru) was better than in Europe at the time.”

The protagonists at MIC will first be the Aztecs, the most powerful empire in Mesoamerica, who were able to amaze the conquistadors with the level of their social organization, not dissimilar to that of Europe at the time, despite the presence of aspects, such as cannibalism and human sacrifice, unacceptable to the newcomers. Then the audience will delve into the Maya, of the Classic Period, a people who were able to develop highly refined calendrical systems and a logo-syllabic script that has only been deciphered in recent decades. And finally here are the Incas, who built the largest empire in the entire New World. With a social organization that has prompted some scholars to speak of “socialism.”

Other focuses will bring visitors closer to important aspects of these civilizations, from Mayan writing (found in some of the vases on display), to calculus. At MIC, for the first time in the world, an exhibit will offer visitors the chance to try their hand at calculations as the Incas did, using base-10 and base-40 abacuses. In terms of firsts, again a world first, anyone will have the opportunity to know their date of birth “translated” into the three Mayan calendars. Or to discover the oldest team game in the world: the ball game practiced in Mesoamerica, although more than a sport it was a religious ritual. On display, alongside evidence in this ancient tradition, videos will allow visitors to admire today’s players in action. Music will also contribute to complete the emotional journey, spread by recordings made with the ancient musical instruments on display. The MIC announces, therefore, an exhibition where charm, beauty, history, technology and scientific research intersect and merge to offer the public, a spectacle for the eyes and questions for the mind.

The exhibition is enriched by a number of exhibits, also of the highest level and in some cases unique in the world, from the collections of the MDS(Museo degli Sguardi) in Rimini, the MNAE(Museo Nazionale di Antropologia ed Etnologia) in Florence, the MUCIV(Museo delle Civiltà) in Rome and the MUDEC in Milan, along with loans from a number of private collectors. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the contribution of Regione Emilia Romagna and La Bcc imolese, ravennate e forlivese. It also enjoys the patronage of the Municipality of Faenza. To learn more you can visit the Faenza MIC website.

Pictured: left, Anthropomorphic jar (Nasca culture, monumental style, 100-700 AD. Area: South America, Peruvian Area, Southern Coast. Terracotta). Center, Bottle-portrait with stirrup handle (Moche culture Moche style 4, 100 BC. - 850 AD. Area: South America, Peruvian area, North Coast. Terracotta). Right, Anthropomorphic bottle with stirrup handle (Moche culture Moche style 3, 100 B.C. - 850 A.D. Area: South America, Peruvian Area, North Coast, Terracotta).

Aztecs, Mayans and Incas on display in Faenza: cultures of ancient America at MIC

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