Fondazione Merz, Museo Egizio in Torino and MAH-Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève present Gaza, the future has an ancient heart. Materials and memories of the Mediterranean, a major international exhibition which, through a dialogue between archaeology and contemporary art, restores the historical and cultural depth of Gaza - a millennia-old crossroads of trade, cultures and beliefs - freeing it from an exclusively contingent interpretation and inviting reflection on the universal value of heritage as a place of memory, identity and future.
The project brings together around eighty archaeological artefacts from the MAH and the Museo Egizio - spanning from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period - with works by contemporary Palestinian and international artists such as Samaa Emad, Mirna Bamieh, Khalil Rabah, Vivien Sansour, Wael Shawky, Dima Srouji and Akram Zaatari.
The exhibition is complemented by a selection of photographs of Gaza courtesy of the archives of the UNRWA-United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.