From 16 July to 20 October, the House of European History at the European Parliament in Brussels and the National Ethnographic Museum in Sofia are organizing an exhibition "Truth or Lie? A History of Forgery and Counterfeiting", which can be visited in the halls of the National Ethnographic Museum at Pl. "The exhibition can be visited at the National Ethnographic Museum, Knyaz Alexander I, No 1 (the building of the National Gallery - the Palace).
The official opening of the exhibition will take place on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at 6 pm at the National Ethnographic Museum in Sofia with the participation of representatives of the House of European History, the National Ethnographic Museum, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, representatives of local authorities and the diplomatic corps.
The history of mankind is filled with countless examples of lies disguised as truth. Over the centuries - in war, politics, economics and other spheres of human activity - falsification and deception have been used by their creators to achieve desirable ends. Meticulously prepared, these falsifications conceal facts in a maze of half-truths and complete fabrications. To get to the truth, one must follow the thread to the heart of the maze, discovering and exposing each lie along the way.
The exhibition, whose original title is "Fake (f)or Real", explores exactly this kind of themes by presenting various forgeries in a historical context. An important place is occupied by the circumstances explaining the reasons, interests and motives that were involved in the creation of these forgeries. Attention is also paid to the impact they had on people's expectations, values and beliefs and how they were subsequently debunked.
The Truth or Lies exhibit chronologically explores six themes: Power and Prayers, Knowing the World, Uniting and Disuniting, Fighting War, Counterfeits and Riches, and The Age of "Post-truth". The stories told are supported by numerous examples and visualized through artifacts, many of which are from the collection of the House of European History. The exhibition includes more than 100 objects - works of art, photographs, documents and maps containing imaginary territories, descriptions of magic, forged biographies of Christian saints, forged works of art and consumer goods. The exhibition also offers interactive spaces where visitors, through games and videos, can take on the role of fact-checkers, faced with the difficult task of figuring out what is true and what is false; what can be published and what cannot.
Further information
European Parliament House of European History, Brussels
The main task of the House of European History is to interpret and present European history in different perspectives. Its mission is to better understand European history, to stimulate the exchange of ideas and to question popular perceptions and their veracity. The museum is located in the heart of the European Quarter in Brussels and opened in May 2017.
The museum's permanent exhibition gives visitors an insight into the 19th and 20th centuries and charts the evolution of European integration over the period. Each year the museum creates thematic temporary exhibitions, as is the case with Truth or Lie? A History of Forgery and Counterfeiting', which is currently being presented in a number of European cities.
National Ethnographic Museum
The National Ethnographic Museum collects, researches, presents objects and stories of everyday life and culture in the past and present. The museum seeks to preserve the memory of the lives of the people who inhabited Bulgarian lands; to present unknown areas of life past and present; to document and present the stories of individual objects from the collections; to provoke debate through the exhibitions and to provide an experience and opportunity for education for its visitors. In this way it has the ambition to be a museum of the people and for the people, a museum about the links between nature and civilization, between Bulgarian and other cultures.
The museum is part of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with the Ethnographic Museum - BAS - a national center for ethnological, folklore, cultural anthropological and museological research. I BGNES
