A shrewd and educated queen, Cleopatra was nonetheless long reduced to the role of a seductress by her Roman adversaries. Her elusive and constantly evolving image has inspired art, literature, and popular culture for more than two millennia. Through an interactive, multisensory journey and more than 120 objects on display, the exhibition Cleopatra Superstar explores the many facets of this fascinating queen.

The exhibition places the queen back in her historical context: Ptolemaic Egypt, a kingdom at the crossroads of the Greek and Egyptian worlds, with Alexandria as its vibrant, cosmopolitan heart. Balancing pharaonic heritage and geopolitical ambition, Cleopatra emerges not only as a powerful woman with an extraordinary destiny, but also as the embodiment of an Egypt in transition, on the eve of its absorption into the Roman Empire.

The second part of the exhibition, deliberately pop in tone, presents the many faces of Cleopatra across the world and throughout the media. Around the globe, Cleopatra’s image has been reinterpreted in numerous ways, emphasizing distinct dominant traits: the femme fatale, the strong woman, and the playful woman. The visual codes associated with each aspect are presented and explained.

For this unique exhibition, the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art is lending 14 notable archaeological objects, including an equestrian statue of Alexander the Great and a shell-shaped cup, both dating from the 2nd–1st century BCE.