The Installation ‘In the Garden of the (in)visible’ (curated by Roberta Altin and Giuseppe Grimaldi) collects everyday objects left by migrants at the borders during the journey of the ‘Balkan route’ and will be visible from 27 May to 7 June on the Ground Floor of the Central Building in Piazzale Europa, Right Wing. The exhibited materials were collected by the students of the DISU Department and the University of Primorska, Koper.

The students walked the borders between Croatia, Slovenia and Italy where they found and collected abandoned objects in the woods or on the edge of towns. These objects are left in border areas after a long and difficult journey on foot by people from various places in Asia and Africa. There are everyday objects for eating, sleeping, wrapping up warm and personal care, but also objects that portray the intimate and spiritual realm. 

These objects, which we ignore or treat as rubbish, project us into a fundamental political and moral issue of our times. 

The students have selected a small part of them to set up the exhibition, which aims to stimulate an encounter between those who cross borders and those who live there. And which poses a fundamental question: what (don't) we want to see?

The exhibition is supplemented by two events which provide more insight:

27/05/2024

Opening of ‘the Garden of the (In)visible’

Piazzale Europa 1.  - GROUND FLOOR of BUILDING. A - RIGHT WING external colonnade

(in case of bad weather Room ‘0’ Ambrosino, ground floor Right wing)

Followed by the seminar: Frontiers of Research and Research at the Frontier

17:00 – 18:30

The opening of the installation becomes an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of borders and their multiple configurations. In a cross-border collaboration with the University of Ljubljana, we will dialogue with a group of anthropology students and professors from various contexts of the African and South American continents to reason about the impact of contemporary borders in the possibility of doing research.

Programme

• 17:00 Institutional greetings:

prof. Ilaria Micheli, UniTS deputy Rector for international cooperation

prof. Roberta Altin, anthropologist, University of Trieste

• 17:15 Presentation of the installation ‘The Garden of the (In)visible’ by the students of the Archive of the Borderland
• 17:30 Seminar ‘Frontiers of Research and Research at the Frontier. Between Europe and Africa’

Prof. Uršula Lipovec Čebron, anthropologist, University of Ljubljana with visiting foreign delegation

06/06/2024

Trieste, a Border City?

Perspectives on reception from the screening of the mini documentary ‘Umar’ by Francesco Cibati

 17:00 – 18:30 Building A, Room “M”, ground floor, right wing (screening)

Followed by a discussion at the external colonnade of Piazzale Europa 1 - GROUND FLOOR Building. A - Left wing under the external colonnade.

The narrative about Trieste as a border city has spanned the centuries. Today the city finds itself implicated in a broader migratory process - forced migration from the global South - as a crossroads. What response is it giving to the people arriving? How is the city's population reacting?

17:00 presentation meeting with Student Council representatives, Prof. Roberta Altin and Giuseppe Grimaldi, organising committee

17:15 Umar screening with Francesco Cibati, director and volunteer of the Linea d'Ombra association.

17:30 “Trieste, a Border City? Perspectives on immigration”

with Lucio Prodam, Honorary Judge of the Juvenile Court of Trieste, Valentina Masotto, UNICEF and Tiziana Bongiorno, Vice President of the FVG Voluntary Guardianship Association

 The exhibition-installation is part of the cultural events of the T4EU (Transform for Europe) alliance for UniTS, funded by DiSU (Department of Humanities), in cooperation with University of Primorska, Koper and the Graduate institute for International and Development Studies.