Last week, the ambassador of Colombia, Eduardo Ávila Navarrete, attended the official presentation of the exhibition The Gold and the Universe. The Indigenous Knowledge of Colombia, organized by the Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ) and coming from the Gold Museum of the Bank of the Republic.
As Diplomacy News reported on May 20, the exhibition brings together nearly 300 pre-Columbian pieces and represents the largest loan made by the Gold Museum of Colombia to a museum in Spain, bringing to the European public the cultural, spiritual, and ancestral wealth of the indigenous peoples of Colombia.
In his speech, the Colombian ambassador thanked the Archaeological Museum of Alicante, the Alicante Provincial Council, and the Gold Museum for working together to create this unique exhibition.
The exhibition is designed for the European public to explore the relationship of ancestral peoples with the cosmos: Gold and tumbaga pieces, representations of fauna, flora, and human figures, shamanic symbolism, objects that narrate transformation and spiritual power, ancient techniques, samples of the technological mastery of cultures such as the Muisca, Quimbaya, and Zenú.
Considered one of the most impactful and unique exhibitions seen in Spain, the exhibition will bring together for the first time in our country an extraordinary selection of 291 archaeological pieces -157 of them made of gold- from the Gold Museum of Bogotá.
Masks, breastplates, nose ornaments, hybrid beings, ancestral sounds, ceremonies, immersive landscapes, and a powerful sensory setting will turn the rooms of the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ) into a unique journey into the indigenous thought of Colombia and its way of understanding the universe.
The Embassy of Colombia continues to promote cultural initiatives that enhance the recognition and international projection of the indigenous cultures and ancestral knowledge of the country.