Hundreds of Timisoara residents and not only relived the atmosphere of the old Cetate district, in the Hybrid exhibition "Spotlight Heritage Timisoara "Cetate neighborhood - A world in the mirror"
The Spotlight Heritage Timișoara exhibitions, demonstrations and digital applications dedicated to the Cetate neighborhood were launched on Tuesday, July 5, during the Spotlight Heritage: Cetate Neighborhood – A world in the mirror Opening. The event took place in a hybrid format, both in the Attic of the Maria Theresia Bastion, and LIVE, on the Zoom, Facebook and YouTube platforms, with live interventions from emblematic points in the Cetate neighborhood.
The hosts of the event were Mr. Claudiu Ilaș - Director of the National Museum of Banat, dr. eng. Diana Andone – Director of the UPT e-Learning Centre and conf.dr.eng. Florin Drăgan - rector of the Politehnica University of Timișoara.
During the opening, the exhibition "Spotlight Heritage. Cetate neighborhood - A world in the mirror" was launched to the public. Opened at the Maria Theresia Bastion between July 5 and August 31, 2022, we also have the street exhibition with informative panels from the 18 emblematic locations of the Cetate neighborhood, but also online, mobile and augmented and virtual reality applications through where the public can find the old and new stories of Timișoara online and maybe even "travel" to the old Cetate neighborhood, with the help of virtual reality.
The Timisoara Project Centre was represented by Teodora Borghoff and Cosmina Goagea, members of the curatorial team.
Foray into the world of the old Cetate neighborhood
The participants were able to discover the exhibition at the Maria Theresia Bastion, physically and virtually, exploring the history and literature of the Cetate neighborhood, alongside the allegory of the olfactory sense, which capitalizes on the urban myth about Timișoara as the city of roses, created in the second half of the 19th century by the activity of the gardners dynasties. They were able to step into a modern transposition of Timişoara traditions, through the period images that reproduce the activity of the Mühle family, one sequence of the exhibition being dedicated to flowers and another to scientific experiments, correlated with the allegory of smell. Marius Cornea, museographer at the National Museum of Banat, presented the exhibition at the Maria Theresia Bastion to the participants, giving them details and historical stories about the Cetate neighborhood and the story about the rose perfume, which was followed by the experiment carried out by the Faculty of Industrial Chemistry and Environmental Engineering from UPT on Odor Analysis for Rose Petals.
Live interventions from the street exhibition
Prof. arch. dr. Ciprian Blidaru - dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Politehnica University of Timișoara and Ciprian Glăvan, museographer at the National Museum of Banat, welcomed the participants with a live intervention in front of the Romanian National Opera in Timișoara and the Rectorate of the Politehnica University of Timișoara, and Zoran Markov - The National Museum of Banat, together with Conf.arh.dr. Ciprian Blidaru, intervened live in front of the Serbian Orthodox Episcopate in Piața Unirii, Timișoara - they provided the participants details about the history and architecture of Timișoara buildings and monuments, right next to the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara information panels placed in the locations.
A world in a mirror
A special intervention during the event was given by Prof. Dr. Smaranda Vultur – coordinator of the Oral History and Cultural Anthropology Group, collaborator of this edition and the one who contributed to the creation of the memories of the oral history of Timișoara, through the stories of the past inhabitants of the Cetate district, selected from the interviews conducted by the Group she coordinated. She gave the participants details about the oral history and cultural anthropology group's archive, as well as about the interviews conducted since the 19th century, and about the significance of the exhibition's title – A world in the mirror.
The life of the Cetate neighborhood in Timișoara was illustrated through the selection of literary texts collected by assistant professor Roxana Rogobete, stories that share lesser-known details about buildings and monuments from Timisoara's heritage.
This year, we enjoyed the original poems under the auspices of Miss Timișoara, created for Spotlight Heritage Timișoara, by the well-known Timișoara poet Robert Șerban, who declared "I fell in love with Miss Timișoara at the age of 17, at first sight, when I came here for a literary camp, at the Green Forest. Three years later, I decided to come back and we stayed together. Ever since, both of us have changed, and my crush has turned into love. At times, love turns into poetry."
Web page featuring online stories from the past and the present
The online and mobile components are in continuous development, the web page spotlight-timisoara.eu/ – with the old and new stories dedicated to the Cetate neighborhood was discovered by the public on a state-of-the-art device - the interactive table exhibited at the Theresia Bastion, presented by Dr. eng. Silviu Vert.
Technology-enhanced experiences in the Cetate neighborhood
At the opening, the first stories contained in the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara mobile and augmented reality applications were launched, updated with the sections dedicated to the Cetate neighborhood this year - and having multiple functionalities that identify the 18 locations in the neighborhood, presented in several ways: text with information about the location and the memories of the former inhabitants - of various ethnicities and occupations - written in text form, an image gallery - both current and old, video clips and 360-degree images of each location, so that anyone can can create the feeling of being inside the building or in front of the building. In addition, once a user of Spotlight Heritage Timișoara mobile and augmented reality applications is near the Cetate neighborhood and in front of a building, the augmented reality (AR) function recognizes the building and provides information about it. By pointing the phone's camera at that building, anyone will be able to see the old facade of the building superimposed on the current one.
