The exhibition "Spotlight Heritage Timisoara - Parallel Lights", a digital incursion into the history and stories of the city on the Bega river 

Building bridges across the boundaries of time and bringing together the present and the past, the exhibition "Spotlight Heritage Timișoara - Parallel Worlds" opens in a digital key the doors to a world of the past, presented through mosaics of souls and human stories, collections of objects and digital installations. 

Dozens of heritage objects, archival images, fragments of memoirs, interviews, video, audio, augmented and virtual reality installations were presented on Friday, 12 May 2023, at the opening of the exhibition "Spotlight Heritage Timișoara - Parallel Lights"in the B2 attic of the Theresia Bastion.

The exhibition is the fifth in the series of exhibitions started in 2019, organized by the National Museum of Banat in partnership with Politehnica University Timișoara, through the ID/IFR and e-Learning Centre and the Multimedia Centre, in the digital culture project "Heritage under the spotlight/ Spotlight Heritage Timișoara", part of the national cultural programme "Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023".

"Heritage in the spotlight Timisoara - Parallel Lights" presents an incursion into the history of the city's neighbourhoods, bringing participants stories presented from a baroque perspective, that of the allegory of the senses, which illustrated the economic, social and cultural life of the 5 landmark neighbourhoods: Iosefin (2019), Elisabetin (2020), Fabric (2021), Cetate (2022) and Giroc (2023)a sleeping quarter.

Through various sources of memory, fragments of interviews and literary texts (novel, diary and memoirs) and with the help of the museum curators of the National Museum of Banat, an important collection of postcards, photographs, seals and art objects, as well as personal objects, has been completed, revealing important sequences in the history of the 5 districts of Timișoara and for the various cultural-linguistic communities that formed the city we know today.

"We have reached the year 2023, at the end of the journey of this beautiful project [...], a project that began in 2019, which has had the greatest impact of all the projects of the National Museum of Banat and a project of our soul, which makes us proud to be Timisoara.", Claudiu Ilaș, manager of the National Museum of Banat. 

Present at the event, the rector of Politehnica University of Timisoara, prof.univ.dr.eng. Florin Drăgan, said: "This project is an important and successful one for the city and for the university, a precursor of the UPT Creative Campus concept, which also comes to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the university's first building."

The exhibition was also praised by the officials present: Alin Nica, President of the Timis County Council, Ruben Lațcău, Deputy Mayor of Timisoara, prof.dr.eng. Radu Vasiu, President of the UPT Senate and Director of the Multimedia Centre.

Giroc district - a not very distant history of the city

Since 2019, with the first exhibition, a linear course of history has been followed, with 2023 bringing into the spotlight the story of the Giroc neighbourhood, represented and captured through the memoirs and writings Sorinei Jecza, by the presence of works made for his family by the prolific sculptor Peter Jecza.

Also, the photojournalist Constantin Duma played an important role in capturing the events that completed the dormitory district's vision of industrial development and the socialist period, but especially in immortalizing the memories of the 1989 Revolution.

"We make history, we are responsible for it and every day we fight with time and carry time forward", said Sorina Jecza, host of the 2023 exhibition.

An allegory of the senses stimulated by digital experiences

The exhibition takes the public on a sensory stimulating journey where they have the joy of exploring urban spaces and key points in the city's development through the lens of five personalities:

• The world of Valerie Pintea in Iosefin district, through Liana Maria Gomboșiu's novel, presented at the opening by her great-granddaughter Alexandra Nășcuțiu;
• Tactile and the hidden world in a trunk by Netti Diel in Elisabetin neighbourhood, through the family diary of Piei Brînzeu;
• Hearing and worlds in destinies in the Fabric neighbourhood, in the archive of the Oral History and Cultural Anthropology Group, founded and coordinated by Mrs. Smaranda Vultur;
• The olfactory and the world in the mirror Cetate neighbourhood, from the perspective of poems written by Robert Șerban and selected texts by Smaranda Vultur and Roxana Rogobete;
• Taste and parallel worlds in Giroc district, captured in Sorina Jecza's diary, and introspection on communist industrialization and the 1989 Revolution through selections provided by the 1989 Revolution Memorial, images by Constantin Duma.

"It's more than 10 years since the first idea, 5 years since the first public outing, with 5 neighborhoods and a city with stories and digital innovations every year. In each neighbourhood we had a host, mostly women, so that the story of the many in Timisoara would eventually encompass the story of the women of Timisoara.", said Dr. Diana Andone, Director ID/IFR and e-Learning Centre.

Visitors to the exhibition can enjoy unique digital experiences, through which they can discover the city's history and past through an allegory of the senses, such as:

• The allegory of the sense of sight is represented by the Spotlight Heritage Culture, through which the characters in the oil painting on canvas of Huniade Castle (1910) by the painter Stefan Jäger (1877 - 1962) come to life. Together with the Huniade Castle painting, for sense of sight you can also watch the video installation Heritage of the Cetate district, a multi-faceted interpretation for the mirror world of 2022, of the history of tangible heritage through museum objects, of the architecture of the neighbourhood and of the poetry of Robert Serban!
• The allegory of the senses of sight and hearing can be experienced through panoramic views, an immersive 360-degree experience along Bega Canal, which runs through the city, and the stimulus to the sense of hearing is an original composition by Dan Simion.
• The allegory of the sense of smell is brought to the public through chemical experiments, in partnership with the Faculty of Industrial Chemistry and Environmental Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Timișoara, where people can enjoy the smell of roses through the ambient aromas of essences and flowers on display.
• Video selections presents a retrospective of the 5 years that brought to the attention of the Timisoara public the story of the city and its personalities. The public can experience virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality applications that offer a unique perspective on heritage objects.

• Your Story - Community.. Every people story is a city story. A city is not just buildings and sights, facades and stained glass windows or a good place to take pictures. A city means the stories of each of us, it means childhoods, emotions, loves and bonds built into the bricks and pages of our lives. Some residents and students of UPT presented their own personal stories, comments, photos or videos that represent for them the city they fell in love with and that are included in the exhibition.
• Innovation is also present through the exhibition of the first NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) Spotlight Heritage - Timisoara2023 I, a premiere in the Romanian academic landscape, created by artist Marius Jurcă and developed by Politehnica University Timișoara, on February 17, 2023.

Through the organisation of free, recurrent and publicly announced guided tours, including in the official Timisoara2023 calendar, and through the accessibility offered during peak events such as the Night of Museums and the European Researchers' Night 2023, the exhibition was visited by over 2,500 participants on those days/nights.

Also, the possibility of attending and physically visiting the exhibition throughout its duration, the exhibition has gathered a number of over 4,800 direct participants from the general public in over 20 countries and over 10,000 indirect participants who had the opportunity to discover it online, as well as an impressive 110 volunteers eager to be part of the experience.

The exhibition was open to the public until 1 October 2023 and could be visited in the B2 attic of the Maria Theresia Bastion, The National Museum of Banat.

See here The opening of the exhibition "Heritage under the spotlight Timișoara - Parallel lights"

See here the exhibition "Heritage under the spotlight - Parallel Lights"