Life imitates art (if the return of the mummy can be considered that way) and the other day I arrived at the exhibition on Tutankhamun at the Saatchi Gallery in London ( Tutanhamun, treasures of the golden pharaoh , until May 3) to aboard a typical red double-decker bus, as in the scene of the Stephen Sommers movie in which the good guys, with Brendan Fraser in the lead ("I hate mummys!"), are chased by a bunch of evil mummies. La Saatchi, in Chelsea, near the John Sandoe bookshop, Patrick Leigh Fermor's favorite, has been occupying a spectacular building (Duke of York's Barracks) since 2008 and with a military pedigree since historically it has served as headquarters for various units and during the II World War was held there the war council against the spy of the Abwehr Josef Jakobs, later shot in proximity on a Windsor-style chair in the Tower of London.
The day of my visit to Tutankhamen, last week, it was rainy and cold, in shocking contrast to the usual weather in the Valley of the Kings, and people entered the gallery with umbrellas, raincoats and quite wet. The exhibition was about to hit, in fact I miraculously got a ticket at the box office (28 pounds of the wing) because it was announced that they had sold out for the day. I was really morbid for visiting the show since Tut had given me a corner in Paris last summer (La Villette, where his sample was, I was far away) and twice I had already met in London with the “sold out” sign . Then he goes to Sydney, which catches me a little more out of control even than La Villette.
The exhibition is a blockbuster , as it is said now even for an issue with antiques of more than three thousand three hundred years, and seeing it has become almost a social imperative (in Paris it has been the most seen in the history of the city, with 1.3 million visitors, which is as if all the citizens of Valencia had passed twice). In the Saatchi, where it occupies several floors connected by stairs, the exhibition is somewhat constrained and the route is a bit labyrinthine and claustrophobic, which does not stop giving an adequate atmosphere to the visit if you think that the tomb of Tutankhamen is Tiny and practically had to stuff all the king's grave goods in very little space. Before entering you are shown a very generalist and effective video to locate you (and to pause the access a bit). But once inside all the hits that you could put to the experience disappear: there it is, wrapped in a successful preternatural atmosphere, all the magic of Tutankhamen, of its mysterious time, of its wonderful treasures - of an overwhelming quality and beauty. The exhibition presents 150 objects from the tomb of the pharaoh (with some additions from other sources, such as the colossal quartzite statue at the end of the tour, found near the Medinet Habu temple in Luxor).
There are numerous pieces that had never been seen outside of Egypt and that is so thanks to the fact that the treasures of Tutankhamen are currently halfway, as we said, between the old Egyptian Museum of Tahrir Square (where still part of the collection can be seen) and the disgustingly new and monumental Great Egyptian Museum (GME) - where other objects of the trousseau are already found, pending opening at the end of this year, according to forecasts, in Gizah, near the pyramids. It is surprising that in all the objects of the tomb exposed in London figure already noted as its place, next to the inventory number, the "Grand Egyptian Museum". The exhibition thus becomes an excellent advertising embassy of the future museum, presented as “the new house of Tutankhamen.
The rooms are almost dark, with the pieces concentrating all the attention illuminated exquisitely in their showcases. Information is offered about Tutankhamun, his time and his family, and about the discovery and characteristics of his grave, as well as Egyptian beliefs, but the visitor is mostly absorbed by the magnetism of objects. Among the most remarkable and impressive, one of the two iconic statues of guardians (actually representations of the pharaoh's ka ) that were standing guard in the antechamber before the sealed wall of the burial chamber. The black color of the bitumen-painted wooden body - a symbol of fertility and rebirth - contrasts with the gold of the nemes skirt and headdress ; the white limestone eyes with the obsidian irises show an hypnotic eternal look. Another fascinating and overflowing magic statue is the routinely golden god Ptah with a turquoise blue crockery cap.
There it is, wrapped in a successful preternatural atmosphere, all the magic of Tutankhamen, of its mysterious era, of its wonderful treasures of overwhelming quality and beauty.
But the most seductive, epitome of all the wonders of the grave, is probably one of the four calcite heads of the canopic vessels where the viscera of Tutankhamen were kept. Beautifully modeled with delicate facial features underlined in black, the head is accompanied by another wonder: one of the four small inlaid gold coffins where the king's entrails rested. Many more admirable things: a wooden chair with claw-shaped legs, the mysterious golden chapel without a statue inside (perhaps stolen by thieves who entered the grave shortly after closing it), an extraordinary selection of jewels, including a bracelet with a beetle-shaped amethyst; ornaments of the mummy (placed on an effective reproduction of it), ushebtis, a ship model, one of the silver trumpets, the tall golden fan with ostrich hunting scenes (however without the feathers of this bird that adorned), a bed, a boomerang, swords and daggers, a ceremonial shield, a bow and its decorated case, the famous statuette of the young king on the back of a panther (which, like other objects in the tomb, could have been originally made for another member of royalty, perhaps, by traits, Nefertiti).
The exhibition, which includes a space on the tutmanía and allows to hear the voice of Howard Carter himself in a recording of the time, closes with an evocative audiovisual montage in which a screen shows from inside the boarded door of the tomb, the opening of a hole made by Carter and Carnarvon and the entrance of light that illuminates a final exceptional piece, the famous lotus-shaped alabaster chalice - baptized as the Cup of Desires by Carter - found in the access corridor, recreating very emotional the famous moment of the phrase "wonderful things".
It is surprising that the encounter with Tutankhamen in London is also with Zahi Hawass, who despite not currently having any official position and devoting himself to private initiatives, is omnipresent in the exhibition. He signs the catalog (40 pounds), his books are practically the only ones that can be purchased in the store and he is up to his hat (at 42 pounds the unit). The exhibition makes no reference to the hypothesis (recently reopened) that there could be unknown cameras in or next to the tomb of Tutankhamen and that Carter was left, by the hair, other "wonderful things" to discover.
In any case, the visit, with its feast of history, art and mystery, encourages the desire to know more and a deep yearning for more beauty. You leave the exhibition wrapped in the melancholy of abandoning the golden glow of the king to return to the rainy haze of a winter afternoon in Chelsea. I looked back to see if any mummy followed me; Unfortunately not.