Panel & Label Writing: Thoughts on Object in Focus Progress (Ioan Oprea, ITP 2019, Romania)
Written by Ioan Oprea, Conservator, National Museum of the Union Alba Iulia (ITP 2019, Romania)
As the Expeditio Britannica explains, lots and lots of new things and ideas continues to show up. I have always believed that a look inside of how the things are made is the best opportunity for anyone who wants to learn, to discover, to become better. In this context, the ITP is doing a perfect job at the British Museum and I am more than happy to be here.
As the time flies, we are getting closer to the ‘Object in Focus’ presentation – a single artifact around we must build a mini-exhibition and to display it in our last days at the BM. I never worked just with one artifact and this idea is more than interesting and, in the same time, challenging for me. The museums are constantly changing and in search for new ways to get closer to their visitors, to bring others inside of their collection and it looks like the new concept of ‘Object in Focus’ is doing it very well. I hope our exhibition will also prove this.
After getting to know this idea better, Benedicta Gokah (Ghana) and I started to work on our exhibition. We are exploring this time the Coins and Medals Department under the supervision and coordination of Dr. Vesta Curtis (Curator of Middle Eastern Coins). Our ‘Object in Focus’ is a banknote issued in Iran, 1944, by the last king of the country, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Why is this banknote relevant for this year’s Object in Focus?! Well, from several reasons we could say. There is a main theme which we all must to follow and it’s called “Journeys”. This banknote has this story in it and talks about a long, long history of the region and it’s not a simple one at all. It’s a story about money, power, identity, national rebirth, drama and the history of all this through the eyes of one nation: the Iranians.
More info will follow soon. Until then, we can “report” that we have creatd an interesting title for our exhibition: “Shahanshah” (we hope is interesting for you too and come to find our more). We’ve also created the short description of our banknote in 75 words (not more, because otherwise it will lose it’s purpose and people won’t read it) and we made our general ideas about the panel, which must have 300 words. In the panel we will have more information about the object, it’s history, theme and why is relevant for this.
I hope you will enjoy our exhibition.
Ioan