It has been 107 years since the Titanic became almost a legend, its sinking costing more than 1500 lives, and now, over a century later, the loss of this British transatlantic vessel will be remembered in ‘Titanic The Exhibition’ which will open at La Lonja Exhibition Centre in Alicante on Tuesday 21 May where it will remain for very nearly 6 months.
The event, which is currently being assembled, was attended last week by Alicante’s Councillor of Culture, Maria Dolores Padilla, who said that the council is delighted to bring this exhibition to the city.
She said that in 2016 La Lonja hosted 12 exhibitions with 37,000 visitors; in 2017, 15 events with 45,600 visits and last year, there were 11 exhibitions, including the Van Gogh multimedia, with 91,691 visits.
The Titanic exhibition will feature a model of the ship – the largest in the world – 12 metres in length, 4.5 in width and 3.9 in depth, which shows all the details of the interior of the boat, adorned with over 3,000 points of light. Also the Titanic car, a runabout from 1909 that was scheduled to, but never arrived to embark, and whose owner gave it to the Titanic Foundation; and the original painting ‘The Dream of the Titanic,’ by the Santander-born painter Enrique Gran.
But essentially an interactive exhibition it showcases over 300 artifacts from Titanic and her sister ships and from famous films to tell the chronological, dramatic tale of the design, creation, launch, maiden voyage and tragedy of the largest and most luxurious ship in the world at the time.
The artifacts are set inside beautiful fully immersive recreations of the ships interior and tell the latest details of her sinking and discovery. The artifacts are a combination of those that survived the sinking of the Titanic, her sister ships as well as items from the James Cameron blockbuster film Titanic.
Titanic The Exhibition is an interactive experience, where visitors receive a boarding pass corresponding with a passenger on the ship. This allows the visitors to relate to the individual story of their passenger as they explore the first, second and third class galleries and the artifacts from each. They will hear the music of the era as they examine exact recreations of the ship’s interiors, stroll the promenade deck, and marvel at the famous Grand Staircase, the social gathering place of the ship.
The stories of love and loss culminate in the final galleries showcasing personal effects and the individual anecdotes surrounding a tribute wall where each passenger’s fate is revealed. The Discovery Gallery, dedicated to the discovery and research of Titanic’s wreck site, features a raised glass floor; giving an impression of walking along the bottom of the ocean. Broken china and artifacts in the sand below allow visitors to experience what discovery teams saw during dives to Titanic’s wreck site.
A striking and informative film, narrated by James Cameron, provides an in-depth look at the most recent forensic research related to the collision, breakup, and sinking of the Titanic.
Also featured, National Geographic’s Emory Kristof’s award winning underwater photography of the Titanic lines the walls in a stunning display of the ship’s current state on the sea floor.
On closing in November the exhibition will continue through Italy, France and the United Kingdom, and from there it will then move on to New York.
