The History Beyond the Mith - Titanic The Exhibition gives New York a unique, fascinating immersive experience
Few steps away from Union Square, an emotional and thrilling journey awaits through history, memories, and timeless truths. A must-see.
The Titanic. A name so mighty and monumental that is immediately reminiscent of the size of both the ambition and the disaster associated with it.
If Fate were a dramaturgist and History a director, there wouldn’t be a more compelling and telling story of human sentiments and the harshness of reality. A better script couldn’t have been conceived to represent a real-life allegory of the myth of Icarus. What would happen to a society inebriated by wealth, comfort, and blind trust in technology, overconfident in its materialism to the point of believing to have the power to bend the forces of Nature?
Precisely like Icarus, who tragically had to get too close to the fire of the sun to see revealed the fallacy of his ambitions and beliefs, Western society had to get too close to the freezing waters of the Northern sea to see their flawed dreams shattered. A prophetic warning of the incumbent horrors of World War I and the Great Depression.
What sunk that moonless night of April 15, 1912, wasn’t just the ‘millionaires’ special,’ the ‘wonder ship,’ or the ‘unsinkable ship’ - as the owners of the vessel and the media of the time tragicomically nicknamed the latter - but above all the pretentious naivete of a reckless opulent generation across the two shores of the Atlantic. The Gilded Era in America and the Victorian Age in Europe, which saw the Wright brothers’ first flight and the World’s Fair of Paris respectively as the springboard of an unshakable bright future, were believed by their contemporaries to be aimed only forward and upwards thanks to an infallible human intellect.
With hindsight, we know how fragile and shortsighted those convictions were. And the failure of the Titanic stands there as a perennial reprimand and a screaming warning that the worst threats are the ones we willingly refuse to see coming.
But all that is the history and the myth. The greatest achievement the amazing show ‘Titanic The Exhibition’ accomplishes is to give the public something more: an intimate, emotional, intense look at some of the 2,200 lives present on that ship among passengers and crew of the Royal Mail Ship liner, most of whom didn’t see the light of that faithful day.
Organized by Spanish company Musealia, and presented by Fever and Exhibition Hub, the show is a remarkable display of images, objects, and recreations, most of which are first seen by the American public, and is enriched by the wonderful narration by the free audio guide.
Virtually everyone knows the love story of the fictional romance between Jack and Rose, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the global phenomenon James Cameron’s movie was, and which this year celebrates the 25th anniversary of its release. Fewer people know the stories, the dreams, and the lives of the diverse humanity spread across the three classes of passengers on the ship, and that is where this exhibition reveals its true value.
In a space that makes you feel like you are walking through the corridors and halls of the majestic vessel (sometimes quite literally, thanks to the installations presented), you get to see original photos, posters, and documents, along with objects retrieved from the Titanic or belonging to the latter’s sister ship Olympia, and personal belongings of the passengers.
The show gracefully and respectfully narrates the stories of some of the ‘celebrities’ and the ordinary people involved in the tragedy and does that in a powerful and teaching way.
On that matter, I had the pleasure of speaking with the prestigious Swedish historian Claes-Göran Wetterholm, one of the world's foremost experts on the Titanic, to whom I asked why the story of the Titanic is still relevant today and why it is important that it's kept being told to old and new generations.
He rightfully highlighted that the Titanic’s is one that resonates with anyone and everybody because, up to these days, we can still identify with those people, share their hopes, and sympathize with the misfortune of a tragic destiny.
Looking at the artifacts of this exhibition, you can clearly see that that ship was the crossroad of hundreds of lives, many ordinary and some extraordinary, all bonded by one dramatic, god-like strike by mother nature.
But the story is also a real-life cautionary tale of the dangers of human excesses and of blind trust in sole technology and human abilities.
The sinking of the "unsinkable ship" has left posterity the lesson that when we think that something "can't happen," we can always remind ourselves of the tragedy of the Titanic, and that knowledge and science are a hurdle race against forces more uncontrollable than we illude ourselves they are.
I couldn’t agree more.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Luis Ferreiro, Director and CEO of Musealia. Impressed by the size and quality of the exhibition, my first obvious question was about how long it took to put the show together.
The answer was even more impressive since I learned that the exhibition is the result of a 22-year endeavor that started very small and humble, with photos only, and then - over the years - by meticulous research and incessant work to find documents and artifacts, and contacting the authorities and families of the survivors, Musealia was able to proudly present the current display.
Mr. Ferreiro confirmed that many of the artifacts displayed in this show are absolute first seen in the U.S., and it is an honor and privilege to present them to the public of New York, the city where the famous transatlantic was meant to complete its maid voyage.
He underlined that each image and object of the exhibition tells the story of the person portrayed or its owner, with the weight and the significance of carrying on the memory and the legacy of both survivors and victims.
He also reminded that the passengers of the Titanic, the real people whose faith was struck by tragedy that fateful night of April 14, are the real and ultimate protagonists of this exhibition, meant to be, first and foremost, an adequate and hear-felt tribute to them.
Musealia it's thrilled by the success of this New York installment, told me Mr. Ferreiro, which doubled the great response the show already received in London, where it was first displayed. The company will continue expanding on this endeavor, and it's already working on further enhancing the experience by adding a new section in the future that will focus on the stories of the immigrants that were leaving Europe seeking fortune in the New World.
Currently, Musealia is also working with the United Nations on a project related to awareness about the holocaust and the horrors of the Auswich camp.
Mr. Ferreiro also made a brief mention of an upcoming project about which he couldn't disclose any details but about which he is very excited, and invites everybody to keep an eye on Musealia's initiatives through their website.
It was a great conversation, and I had a wonderful time exploring the exhibition, especially the very last room. So emotional and intense. I won’t spoil it because I want you to see it for yourself.
Hurry up and go grab your tickets, the exhibition will be up only until December. Click here for info & tickets.
Article and photos by Joseph Ralph Fraia
@jrfstudio - jrfstudio.com
@livein_magazine - livein-magazine.com
