The Museum of Lies: The layered lives of objects out of context?

The Museum of Lies as subproject to the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum Project (shared between the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil) collects fictional stories inspired by Egyptological artefacts. It aims to appraise unprovenanced objects by using alternative, creative, and artistic narratives (word, image, art, dance) in addition to and beyond scholarly description, allowing the literal and cultural (re-)discovery of artifacts completely devoid of their archaeological provenance. In connecting the objects with (new) contexts, they are brought back to life and out of the storerooms by being connected with audiences at the intersection of tangible and intangible heritage.

Artists, poets, craftsmen, dancers, and pupils are creating said narratives which are revealed together with the objects and their academic descriptions in annual pop-up exhibitions. Fitting with the cyclical (re-)use of objects in ancient Egypt, this traces their trail through time and space from the moment of first production and consequent usage in Egypt over being picked up by travellers, being misplaced and rediscovered in Wales. At every stage a layer of new context and interpretation was added, revealing their identity giving multidimensionality.