Bergamo 900 is the new exhibition structure created and included in the Museum of Stories circuit.
In this “construction site” of testimonies, the last century is narrated to the visitor according to a perspective that moves from the particular to the general thanks to voices, objects and places of the territory.
The museum opened on Nov. 6, 2021, and is housed inside the Convent of San Francesco, Bergamo Alta, together with the Sestini Photographic Museum.
Four sections – the Facts, the Places, the Life and the Voices – serve as as many keys to show the 1900s through audiovisual, photographic, documentary, oral and material sources.
A structure worth visiting, to truly understand what the 20th century meant for Bergamo and province and what changes it enacted.
The section of the Facts leads to the discovery of the ways in which History has entered the lives of Bergamascans, showing the fallout of major events in the local sphere.
These events include Dalmine’s industrial takeoff, the trenches, Fascism and Antonio Locatelli, the postwar economic boom, and Filati Lastex.
I Places explore 87 geographical points that are now tangible signs of political, social, economic and cultural transformations.
These are areas related to agricultural and industrial production, but also to urban growth, culture and the legacies of war.
La Life offers instead a glimpse of demographic development and the modus vivendi of Bergamo during the 20th century, thanks to period photographs and the pages of the main local newspaper, L’Eco di Bergamo, whose issues over a hundred years can be browsed thanks to a multimedia station.
The Voices, the last section, narrates events and changes through 23 boxes of objects accompanied by oral testimonies, focusing on four key words: production (as synonymous with the avant-garde), labor (symbolized by its tools, from textiles to hospitals), creativity (with renowned artists for painting, sculpture, theater, architecture, animation and beyond) and everyday life (the objects used by people every day, from bicycles to Pigna notebooks).
Voice comments contextualize each box from local and international perspectives, often dwelling on biographies that can deepen understanding.