The Trieste of Magris
09 Mar - 17 Jul 2011
THE TRIESTE OF MAGRIS
9 March - 17 July 2011
The exhibition sets out to talk about Trieste’s great writer, Claudio Magris, his predecessors and his relationship with Trieste, a singular city that represents a frontier of various cultures that have come together there in recent centuries. To the rear of Trieste is the Karst Plateau and before it lies the Adriatic Sea, which has played a prominent role in the history of Europe. Thanks to its multilingualism and the presence of various ethnic groups in its territory, the city has made major contributions to Italian culture, including Magris himself.
The history of Trieste, the cultural destiny of the city, the role of nature in this destiny and other major themes go to make up this exhibition.
In this project, not only will visitors find themselves carried away by the things they see, all five senses are involved. On the way, they’ll come across the city’s famous wind, the Bora, the stones from the Karst Plateau, the water of the sea and the Danube, hear the deafening roar of war, learn Triestine songs and find objects from the place that is so hard to define that someone even called it no-place, or “nowhere”.
The well-known Caffè San Marco will be partially reproduced, along with the equally famous Antiquaria bookshop, originally owned by one of the greatest Italian poets of the nineteen hundreds, Umberto Saba. There will be a section given over to Italo Svevo, the great novelist and friend of James Joyce.
Audiovisual media will play an important role alongside installations, a collection of objects and paintings on loan from various museums (paintings, model ships, objects, books).
There will be sound recordings, including interviews and readings of literary passages. There will also be a specially-made film based on a well-known drama by Magris. We’ll be talking about Trieste mental asylum, the first open institute for mental illness that served as a model for others around the world, and about the Slovenian, Jewish, Armenian and Greek minorities.
Visitors should leave the exhibition feeling like they have visited the city, encountering its history, culture and uses, and its great body of literature. No other city in Italy has spawned as many literary figures. The idea is to offer an existential adventure that takes root in visitors’ hearts and imaginations.
The whole layout will be accompanied by photographic documents about Magris, objects from his everyday life, his numerous articles in the Corriere della Sera, a representation of the course of the Danube—a tribute to his famous book—and readings of extracts from his books, translated into Catalan.
9 March - 17 July 2011
The exhibition sets out to talk about Trieste’s great writer, Claudio Magris, his predecessors and his relationship with Trieste, a singular city that represents a frontier of various cultures that have come together there in recent centuries. To the rear of Trieste is the Karst Plateau and before it lies the Adriatic Sea, which has played a prominent role in the history of Europe. Thanks to its multilingualism and the presence of various ethnic groups in its territory, the city has made major contributions to Italian culture, including Magris himself.
The history of Trieste, the cultural destiny of the city, the role of nature in this destiny and other major themes go to make up this exhibition.
In this project, not only will visitors find themselves carried away by the things they see, all five senses are involved. On the way, they’ll come across the city’s famous wind, the Bora, the stones from the Karst Plateau, the water of the sea and the Danube, hear the deafening roar of war, learn Triestine songs and find objects from the place that is so hard to define that someone even called it no-place, or “nowhere”.
The well-known Caffè San Marco will be partially reproduced, along with the equally famous Antiquaria bookshop, originally owned by one of the greatest Italian poets of the nineteen hundreds, Umberto Saba. There will be a section given over to Italo Svevo, the great novelist and friend of James Joyce.
Audiovisual media will play an important role alongside installations, a collection of objects and paintings on loan from various museums (paintings, model ships, objects, books).
There will be sound recordings, including interviews and readings of literary passages. There will also be a specially-made film based on a well-known drama by Magris. We’ll be talking about Trieste mental asylum, the first open institute for mental illness that served as a model for others around the world, and about the Slovenian, Jewish, Armenian and Greek minorities.
Visitors should leave the exhibition feeling like they have visited the city, encountering its history, culture and uses, and its great body of literature. No other city in Italy has spawned as many literary figures. The idea is to offer an existential adventure that takes root in visitors’ hearts and imaginations.
The whole layout will be accompanied by photographic documents about Magris, objects from his everyday life, his numerous articles in the Corriere della Sera, a representation of the course of the Danube—a tribute to his famous book—and readings of extracts from his books, translated into Catalan.