The exhibition was inaugurated at the Piedicastello Galleries in Trento “LOOKS ON THE MOUNTAIN. Towards the 150th anniversary of the SAT (1872 – 2022)”thought of as introductory moment to the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the SAT (1872-2022) and which intends to tell how the mountain was perceived in Trentino from the second half of the 800th century to the present day.
The exhibition itinerary, set up by Historical Museum Foundation of Trentino in collaboration precisely with the SAT, places at the center of the narrative the plurality of "representations" regarding going, conquering and experiencing the mountains. There is no “only one mountain”, but “many mountains” depending on the perspective from which it is observed.
The initiative is aimed at a visitor audience as large as possible, with special attention to the world of school and citizenship education: alpine landscape understood as a living space in continuous transformation. In this sense, the initiative intends tell not only a story of the territory but promote a cultural vision that makes communities and individuals more aware and responsible, starting from the new generations that are forming.
Consistent with the typology of the exhibition space, the exhibition has immersive character and allows you to enhance the materials also from a scenographic point of view: period photographs, postcards, film materials, advertising posters and objects.
The exhibition is divided into 10 thematic stations which retrace, through a series of glances, some of the main ways in which the Alpine environment was perceived and experienced in the transition from modernity to the contemporary.
The first positions make extensive use of photographic materials, narrating the gazes of some great mountaineers, photographers and travellers, who were the first to look at the mountains of Trentino as a terrain to climb and photograph: John Ball, Francis Fox Tuckett, Douglas W. Freshfield, Paul Grohmann, Julius Payer, John Baptist Unterveger, Joseph Garbari, John Pedrotti e John Baptist Trener. In these locations emerge the adventure of the first Victorian mountaineers, the desire to conquer the summit, the birth of the SAT and its links with the photographers of Trentino, le irredentist tendencies and border issues, construction of the first shelters, the birth of tourism, the outbreak of war and the theme of reconstruction.
Other stations, starting from the work of Pedrotti brothers, instead use the audiovisual language to tell the post-war changes. The filmic materials were created by numerous interpreters, an expression of a chorus of points of view. Here the different perceptions of the mountain emerge: lo mountaineer's gaze, of the mountaineer and the tourist. In these sections, the themes of the great post-war mountaineering feats, the search for extreme difficulty in the mountains and other central issues for understanding the relationship between man and the alpine environment: mountain economies, the practices agro-forestry-pastoral, economic boom, the viability, the birth of hiking and mass tourism.
The tenth station is dedicated to choral activity, a deeply felt and particularly widespread tradition within the SAT, especially in the sections. Representing the satin and Trentino chorus at an international level is the Choir of the SAT, called to perform in all the most important theaters in the world. The choirs of the sections express with their song their feeling of belonging and the Choir of the SOSAT in this context it is the best known and oldest reality.
The exhibited materials come from the collections of the photographic and audiovisual archive of the SAT (Biblioteca della Montagna – Archivio storico SAT), from the photographic archive and film library of the Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino, from the photographic historical archive of the Autonomous Province of Trento (Superintendence for cultural heritage) and from other funds present in national and provincial institutions and museums (National Museum of the Mountains - Cai Turin, Touriseum - Provincial Museum of Tourism of Merano, Archivio Priuli & Verlucca of Turin and others).
The exhibition itinerary closes with the final station, to reflect on the meaning of the 150th anniversary of the SAT.
One hundred and fifty years of activity they deserve not only a reminder of the distant and near past, but also a moment of collective reflection on current events and a collection of ideas on the future. In this context, some activities will take place in 2022 such as conferences , debates, exhibition and editorial moments, through two main expressive formulas: the first disclosure, usable by a wide audience and another more deep and identity. The outcome of these and other initiatives will take on different forms, traditional but also innovative, exploiting new technologies and in any case an active and proactive involvement of the Trentino valleys will be attempted, with the SAT Sections which form the backbone of the association.
The exhibition is open Monday to Thursday 9-13 and 14.30-18, Friday 9-13, by reservation only. To book you can send an email to reservations@museostorico.it.
