The University of Trieste and the Municipality of Trieste are inaugurating a multi-documental exhibition today at the Bastione Fiorito of the San Giusto Castle, recalling the salient moments and personalities of Trieste’s university century. The exhibition will be open to the public from 15th March to 1st September 2024.

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE 

To mark the University's Centenary celebrations, the University of Trieste and the Municipality of Trieste are to open the exhibition entitled ‘1924 - 2024. A century of history of the University of Trieste. Images and documents’. Proposed and coordinated by the University museum services (SMATS), the exhibition is brought into being with the contribution of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region of. 

‘With this exhibition,’ says municipal councillor Giorgio Rossi, ‘the new exhibition season at the Pomis Bastion continues, put together by the curator of the San Giusto Castle. An exhibition season that began last September and is aimed at exploring the history and excellence of Trieste in various ways. The exhibition that opens today, celebrating the Centenary of the University of Trieste, seals the fruitful collaboration between the University of Trieste and the Municipality of Trieste on the San Giusto hill.’

‘Visitors to the exhibition will have a clear perception of the historical, architectural and cultural heritage of which we are proud custodians,’ says Rector Roberto Di Lenarda. ‘Many will have the opportunity to recognise themselves and travel through glimpses of the past and discover anecdotes and aspects of our university that are perhaps still little known.’

‘With the exhibition, the University intends to place itself at the heart of the cultural and economic history of the city, to strengthen its ties to Trieste as a university city, thus opening up to the swirling change in communication, research, and the interconnections between education and the world of work in which we are all protagonists and participants’ - explains Tullia Catalan, curator of the exhibition and associate professor of contemporary history at the Department of Humanities at the University of Trieste.

The general coordination of the exhibition was supervised by Anna Krekic, the curator of San Giusto Castle, and Laura Sartori, the Centenary activities coordinator.

In a narrative between history, architecture and art, the exhibition itinerary - set up by Lorenzo Michelli – is made up of four distinct sections, balancing historical sources and aesthetic references.

The first historical section, curated by Tullia Catalan and Lorenzo Ielen, retraces the history of the 100th anniversary of the University of Trieste through a selection of images, documents and videos taken from the University's Historical Archive and from numerous public and private, local and regional archives.

Involved in an initial phase in the delicate vicissitudes arising from the conflicts over a disputed border and then affected by the cultural and sociological transformations of the 1960s and 1970s, the university has found its place in international openness, especially in the field of research and technical-scientific disciplines, which are amongst the most prized of the university’s current educational offerings.

The second architectural section, curated by Paolo Nicoloso and Marko Pogacnik, focuses on the 1938 designing of the university's central body, a building with marked symbolic overtones. Illustrated through the technical drawings of the time and some images, the section renders all the complexity and richness of the solutions devised by the designers. The initial iconographic programme, purged of references to the post-war fascist regime, now boasts the famous Minerva, which has become the university's most recognisable symbol over the years, built in 1956 by sculptor Marcello Mascherini, and two large reliefs on the façades of the left and right wings of the building.

The third section, curated by Massimiliano Spanu and Daniele Terzoli and dedicated to audiovisuals, further expands the contents through the screening of valuable documentaries and a film. Standing out for its importance and beauty is the film which has been unarchived - and thus restored to the history of Italian cinema - Pagine d'Università (University Pages), a 1956 Ferraniacolor (a colour film process developed in Italy by Ferrania.) It was made by Anna Gruber, an actress and director, screenwriter and writer from Trieste of international fame, commissioned by the University Film Centre. The film was found in the A. Hortis Civic Library’s Diplomatic Archive and Archival Funds.

The other films on show in the exhibition are taken from the Istituto Luce Historical Archive and from La Cineteca del Friuli - Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Archive. Archival research was carried out with the collaboration of the research centre La Cappella Underground.

The fourth and last section, curated by Massimo Degrassi and Lorenzo Michelli, is dedicated to art history and includes a selection of works - now preserved in the Rector's Gallery - presented in 1953 as part of the National Exhibition of Contemporary Italian Painting held at the University of Trieste. Finally, the final part of the exhibition offers a selection of the works donated to the University by thirty-five artists and collectors on this centenary, already partly illustrated in the event ‘A Trieste mi piaceva arrivare’ (I liked arriving in Trieste) on 20th December 2023.

The exhibition will be open to the public from 15th March to 1st September 2024. From the opening and until 31st March it will be open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 1st April to 1st September daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A visit to the exhibition is included in the entrance ticket to the San Giusto Castle (full price 6 euros; reduced price 4 euros).

Info: San Giusto Castle 

M2TEST, a spin-off of the University of Trieste, is once again present this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world's most important trade fair dedicated to electronics and technological innovation, currently taking place in Las Vegas (USA).

The CES, held every year in January, attracts the attention of thousands of journalists, analysts and industry experts, is attended by innovation companies and investors, and receives global media coverage. The show is considered the event from which the technology trends that will characterise the new year, from AI to health, from mobility to smart cities, emerge.

M2TEST, born from the research activity of Francesca Cosmi, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UniTS, and from the patents developed jointly with the Julian University, operates in the Digital Health sector with innovative tools for diagnosing the risk of fragility fractures, which afflict people with osteoporosis (particularly menopausal women), sportsmen and women due to stress or, for example, cancer patients, as a consequence of the therapies they undergo.

Over the past few years, the Trieste-based start-up has patented and initiated the use of the BES TEST (Bone Elastic Structure Test), an examination that is completely different from bone densitometry, which is based on the simulation of the application of forces on what can be considered a virtual biopsy of the patient's bone architecture, obtained from X-ray images.
At this edition of CES, M2TEST is presenting the OTTO (Optimal Test Technology for Osteoporosis) prototype, a new remotely controlled medical device for performing the BES TEST. OTTO, jointly patented in 2023 by the company and the University of Trieste, is being developed at the University of Trieste also thanks to a PhD scholarship co-funded by M2TEST.

It is, therefore, a frontier technology developed at UniTS, which has from the outset made itself available in its work to support business creation, refine the business model and promote start-ups in companies in the sector, and still continues to collaborate with a view to open innovation and technology transfer.

The Digital Health sector is booming, particularly in the US, and we are therefore experiencing great interest," explained Francesca Cosmi, who spoke on the 'Innovation Talk: Diversity and Inclusion' panel. "Our 'booth' is set up in the Italian pavilion, a very well organised and stimulating environment where we are together with the 49 other Italian start-ups and innovative companies selected to participate in the CES.

Visitors to M2TEST's booth also include the Consul General of Italy in Los Angeles, Raffaella Valentini.