Journey to the Country of Gods. Mexico. Monuments of the Past

On 23 July, 2002, an exhibition opened in two grand halls of the Winter Palace, Nicholas Hall and Anteroom (NN191,192). The exhibition is dedicated to the art of Mesoamerica, an area covering most of Mexico and Central America.
The show includes over 270 exhibits from 16 museums of Mexico including the country's largest National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
The exhibition is organized jointly with the Mexican Ministry of Culture and Nieuwe Kerk Foundation (Amsterdam), in cooperation with CONACULTA-INAH, with the support of the Embassy of the United Mexican States in the Russian Federation and the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the United Mexican States and the companies AON Artscope, Fortis Bank, Buhrmann, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, KPMG, Getronics and Stichting DOEN. In March 2002 the exhibition was showed in Nieuwe Kerk International Exhibition Center.
Alongside exhibits loaned by Mexican museums, the Russian version of the show contains 9 artifacts from the Hermitage collection including the world famous masterpiece, Aztec golden breast decoration in the form of an eagle warrior, also known as the "Aztec Bell".
The exhibition shows ceramic, stone and golden works created from the 2nd millenium BC to 1521 (conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortes) by the civilizations of Olmecs, Mayas, Aztecs, Totonacs, Mishtecs, Sapotecs and West Mexican peoples.
Unlike the traditional organization of exhibitions of this kind according to ages, cultures and regions, this exhibition is divided into the following sections: Gods, Rituals, Ball Play (ending in loser's execution), Rulers, Everyday Life, Animals and Plants, etc. This system of organization reveals the kinship of the cultures of Mexico and Central America.
Sergei Eisenstein's film Mexican Fantasy showed in connection with the exhibition was not finished by its author in the 1930s. It was finally completed and issued in 1998 by producer Oleg Kovalev and provided specially for the Hermitage exhibition by STV Film Company, St. Petersburg.

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Mrs. Sari Bermudez, President, Mexican National Council for Culture and Arts,
St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev and State Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky opening the exhibition

At the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition