Comic strip featuring UAB student included in the new La Draga exhibition

Until 13 January 2019, the Darder Museum of Banyoles will be hosting the exhibition “La revolució neolítica. La Draga, el poblat dels prodigis”; a new version of the exhibition including a comic strip by artist Quim Bou,which connects the past and present through Joana, a UAB archaeology student.

08/10/2018

The new exhibition will be on display until 13 January 2019 at the Darder Museum of Banyoles. Commissioned by Antoni Colom, curator of the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia, the exhibition will travel to different museums belonging to the Arqueoxarxa network until 2020.

The inauguration of the new exhibition took place on 5 October with an event presided by Mayor of Banyoles Miquel Noguer and Director of the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia Jusèp Boya, and included the participation of the Culture Councillor of Banyoles Jordi Bosch Batlle, the Director of the County Archaeological Museum of Banyoles Lluís Figueras, the UAB Vice Rector for Institutional Relations and Culture Carlos Sánchez and CSIC-IMF researcher Xavier Terradas.

The content of this exhibition aims to be educational and comic, as a language, is used in a highly innovative manner by the Gironian artist Quim Bou. His story connects the past with the present through Joana, an archaeology student at the UAB who decides to go dig at La Draga. She will discover the life of these first farmers and herders in a way that is familiar and entertaining for visitors.

The exhibition displays the results of over 30 years of extensive archaeological digs conducted at the Neolithic hamlet of La Draga and coordinated by the County Archaeological Museum of Banyoles, with a multidisciplinary team of scientists from the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-IMF).

“La revolució neolítica. La Draga, el poblat dels prodigis” is structured into sections corresponding to the four basic concept experienced by the main character: emotions, analysis, interpretation and imagination.

The exhibition focuses on several museographic resources:

Preserved Archaeological Heritage: The exhibition has put together over 150 archaeological objects and replicas from the County Archaeological Museum of Banyoles. Included are a collection of structural elements used to build the cabins, necklaces, food remains and ceramic cookware and stone tools,as well as replicas of wooden tools such as yew-tree bow and animal trophy skulls.

Comic strip: Through his drawings, artist Quim Bou helps visitors understand the scientific contents of such high quality research thanks to his impressive ability to synthesise. Constructive, technological, economic, social and cultural concepts are presented through the learning process Joana undergoes and the windows to the past which foster her curiosity.

Audiovisual material: The six videos presented help visitors connect first-hand with the main characters discovering some of the most outstanding digs and shows the elaboration process once needed to create these items.

Virtual reality: Visitors can enter the La Draga hamlet and travel to the Neolithic thanks to a virtual reality tour which recreates the site and its surroundings. The exhibition has been produced by the UAB Department of Prehistory and the CSIC Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and forms part of the Recercaixa Programme, funded by the Obra Social La Caixa.

The Museums of Banyoles have organised a series of activities which are complementary to the exhibition and are open to the public in general.