Ulysses and the Sirens, third century A.D. — Bardo Museum

The Bardo Museum, a universal temple

Interview by Valentina Porcheddu, il manifesto global, Oct. 30 2015

It’s for­bid­den to enter the Bardo Museum in Tunis with dogs or wea­pons, accor­ding to the 1993 ver­sion of the museum pam­phlet. A pro­vi­sion that then might have see­med strange, reread today evo­kes sad­ness and mour­ning for the 22 vic­tims of the jiha­dist assault this spring on the spec­ta­cu­lar for­mer Bey’s residence.

The museum is the win­ner of this year’s Pae­stum Archaeo­lo­gia prize for its con­tri­bu­tions to cul­tu­ral dia­lo­gue and archaeo­lo­gi­cal tou­rism, and it was recen­tly hono­red at a con­fe­rence, “#per­non­di­men­ti­care il Museo del Bardo, 18 marzo 2015,” in Pae­stum, Italy, as part of the XVIII Medi­ter­ra­nean Archaeo­lo­gi­cal Tou­rism Exchange.

The star of the event was the direc­tor of the museum, Mon­cef Ben Moussa, who before rea­ching Pae­stum (and before the “Touil case,” in which Italy decli­ned to extra­dite a Moroc­can man suspec­ted of sup­ply­ing wea­pons for the attack) spoke with il mani­fe­sto from Tunis.

Fol­lo­wing the ter­ro­rist attack, the Bardo Museum reo­pe­ned its doors almost imme­dia­tely. An act of cou­rage by the museum and the staff, but also of per­se­ve­rance, empha­si­zing that, in this dif­fi­cult period of demo­cra­tic tran­si­tion in Tuni­sia, the cul­tu­ral insti­tu­tions should not back down. Today, what is the Bardo?

The Bardo Museum con­tains the essen­tial com­po­nents of Tunisia’s iden­tity, which firmly rejects ter­ro­rism. Before the attack of March 18, 2015, the Bardo was a sym­bol of our cul­ture and that of the Medi­ter­ra­nean, and it is pre­ci­sely for these rea­sons that it was tar­ge­ted. The speedy reo­pe­ning was a pea­ce­ful response, not only on the part of deci­sion makers but the entire Tuni­sian peo­ple, against Isla­mic extre­mists. Today the Bardo has become an exam­ple of how to fight vio­lence with cul­ture. More than a museum, it is a tem­ple where we gather amid the kno­w­ledge of Medi­ter­ra­nean history, in which we disco­ver the pride of Tuni­sians in pro­mo­ting the uni­ver­sal values ​​of dia­lo­gue and tolerance.

The Bardo, with its rich and valua­ble col­lec­tion of Roman mosaics [the lar­gest in the world], is the pre­e­mi­nent museum in Tunis and one of the main tou­rist attrac­tions of the coun­try. Regar­ding its par­ti­ci­pa­tion in the Medi­ter­ra­nean Archaeo­lo­gi­cal Tou­rism Exchange, what can the museum say to Ita­lian and inter­na­tio­nal visi­tors to encou­rage them to resume tra­vel in the sou­thern Mediterranean?

Every Bardo guest, while tra­ve­ling in a “foreign” land, will find among the works on display some­thing that belongs to him, because cul­ture invi­tes encoun­ters with one­self and with others. In Pae­stum, I would like to con­vey a mes­sage that is par­ti­cu­larly close to heart. If you don’t go where ter­ro­rists have struck, it pro­ves to them they have achie­ved their goal: to build bar­riers bet­ween peo­ples. Tuni­sia, from its ancient ori­gins, has always been a wel­co­ming coun­try, and it will remain so because vio­lence is not part of the beha­vior of its inha­bi­tants. Cur­ren­tly, the Bardo has a tou­rist flow lower than a year ago, but we orga­nize ongoing events that attract a large num­ber of people.

In Italy there is talk of trans­fer­ring works from the Bardo to Lam­pe­dusa for an ini­tia­tive to recall the memory of migrants who have lost their lives at sea.

It is a pro­ject which we are enthu­sia­stic about and that we hope will come true soon. Howe­ver, col­la­bo­ra­tions with Italy abound. In the coming weeks some works from the Bardo col­lec­tion will be on display at the Museum of Aqui­leia and this is a source of great joy.

The Ita­lian archaeo­lo­gi­cal mis­sions in Tuni­sia, which in recent years have not aban­do­ned the field, con­sti­tute an impor­tant instru­ment for dia­lo­gue bet­ween the two coun­tries. Howe­ver, it remains the pre­serve of a pri­vi­le­ged group of citi­zens. What can be done to pro­mote the broa­der invol­ve­ment of both communities?

Italy and Tuni­sia have a long tra­di­tion of coo­pe­ra­tion. It is true that cul­tu­ral acti­vi­ties take place mainly within the fra­mework of scien­ti­fic pro­jects. I am con­vin­ced, howe­ver, that other means of exchange are pos­si­ble and neces­sary to encou­rage, in par­ti­cu­lar, the youn­ger gene­ra­tion. With them and for them, we must com­mit our­sel­ves — from one shore to the other — to build a world without bor­ders, where cul­ture beco­mes a right equally acces­si­ble to all parts of society.

Originally published at il manifesto global.