Antequera Dolmens celebrate ten years as a World Heritage Site with two new exhibitions

The Antequera Dolmens are celebrating ten years as a Unesco World Heritage Site, looking back to the past but also towards the future. The archaeological site is marking the occasion with a programme of activities that will run throughout the second half of the year, kicking off with two exhibitions designed to offer new perspectives on megalithic culture: one based on archaeological research and the other on contemporary art.

The first offers a tour of some of the main prehistoric sites in the province of Almeria; the second brings together works by artists such as Soledad Sevilla, José Manuel Broto and Ross Bleckner to establish a dialogue with the symbolic and spiritual dimension of the monuments at Antequera.

The Regional Minister for Culture and Sport, Patricia del Pozo, opened both exhibitions on Monday and emphasised that the tenth-anniversary celebrations should serve to further raise the profile of the archaeological site.

“The designation as a World Heritage Site provided a decisive boost to the site's international profile,” she noted, before adding that the anniversary celebrations represent “an opportunity to continue making progress in research and outreach through innovative initiatives that connect our heritage with the public”.

The Unesco declaration, adopted on 15 July 2016, made the Antequera Dolmens one of the few Spanish sites recognised for the exceptional value of the relationship between a man-made structure and the surrounding landscape, the dolmens being orientated towards the Peña de los Enamorados rock and El Torcal nature reserve.

The main new addition to the programme is El Megalitismo en Tierras de Almería. Resistencias y Resiliencias (Megalithism in the Almeria region: Resistance and Resilience), an exhibition that offers a fresh perspective on the communities that inhabited the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula more than five thousand years ago.

Curated by Margarita Sánchez, Professor of Prehistory at the University of Granada, and featuring an exhibition design by transmedia writer Clara Peñalver, the exhibition brings together artefacts from the National Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Almeria and the University of Granada.

The exhibition combines archaeological artefacts with audiovisual material, soundscapes and immersive experiences to introduce visitors to some of the main lines of research into megalithic societies. The exhibition centres on themes such as memory, identity, social inequality, death and the adaptability of these communities, and brings together finds from such iconic sites as Los Millares, Los Milanes and El Barranquete.

The organisers explain that the exhibition aims to move away from a purely chronological or museum-style presentation in order to offer an experience that connects scientific knowledge with the general public.

The second major exhibition in the commemorative programme is entitled La Huella Permanente (The Lasting Imprint) and marks a new chapter in the collaboration between the Antequera Dolmens Archaeological Site and the Andalusian Centre for Contemporary Art (CAAC), following those dedicated to Carmen Laffón and the group exhibition Resonancias de la Tierra Sagrada (Resonances of the Sacred Earth).

On this occasion, the exhibition's theme centres on symbolism, abstraction and spirituality as elements capable of establishing a dialogue with megalithic architecture.

Among the selected works, Altar B stands out - a large-scale installation by Soledad Sevilla, winner of the Velázquez Prize for the Visual Arts - as does Lumbre by José Manuel Broto, a series of twelve canvases created to mark the fourth centenary of the death of Saint John of the Cross.

The exhibition also features 38 Vaciados de Río, an installation created by Antonio Sosa for the Pabellón de Andalucía at Expo 92, alongside another sculpture by the Seville-born artist. The exhibition is rounded off with Todo es Presagio by Jordi Teixidor; Invisible Heaven by the American artist Ross Bleckner - whose work is held in collections such as those of MoMA and the Guggenheim in New York - and the audiovisual piece Rosa by the Argentine artist Marcela Cernadas, which will be screened in the auditorium of the archaeological site.

In addition to these two exhibitions, the tenth-anniversary celebrations will include a film series, heritage outreach events and a scientific conference dedicated to reviewing the progress of research on the site since its designation by Unesco.