(ANS – Turin) – From October 24th to December 24, 2023, the Casa Don Bosco Museum in Valdocco, Turin will host the traveling exhibition entitled “Images of a vanished world. Fr. Alberto De Agostini. Man, nature, art, science”, curated by Prof. (Fr.) Francesco Motto, SDB, from the Salesian Historical Institute in Rome, and Prof. Nicola Bottiglieri, from the University of Cassino. The inaugural event of the exhibition will be held on October 24, 2023 at the Museum and will also involve the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime.

The event will include two stages: first the presentation of Don Alberto Maria De Agostini, l’ultimo esploratore della “fine del mondo”(Rome: LAS, 2023) by Francesco Motto; and then the actual opening of the temporary exhibition, with the cutting of the inaugural ribbon that will be made by the 10th Successor of Don Bosco, Cardinal Á.F. Artime

The program, coordinated by the promoter of the conference, Prof. Bottiglieri, will therefore begin at 3:30 pm with the presentation of the volume by Fr. Motto entitled Don Alberto Maria De Agostini, l’ultimo esploratore della “fine del mondo” (Rome, LAS, 2023). The introduction will be by Fr. Mike Pace, Coordinator of Visits at the Casa Don Bosco Museum, and after the greeting by the Mayor of Pollone (Biella), Prof. Silvano Oni, professor at the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS), Turin campus, will take the floor; Dr. Daniela Berta, Director of the National  “Duca degli Abruzzi” Mountain Museum of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) Turin; and Mr. Giuliano Maresi, mountaineer and instructor from “Ragni di Lecco” Climbing School. The conference and volume curator, Prof. (Fr) Francesco Motto, SDB, and Dr. Ana Martín García, General Coordinator of the Casa Don Bosco Museum, will also be present.

The exhibition about to be unveiled at the Casa Don Bosco Museum presents the figure of Fr. Alberto Maria De Agostini (Pollone November 2, 1883-Turin December 25, 1960) Salesian, priest, missionary, explorer, mountaineer, geographer, cartographer and photographer already at the center of an international study conference held at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome (from April 25 to 27, 2022) curated by the Salesian Historical Institute in collaboration with an international scientific committee.

The temporary exhibition housed within the Casa Don Bosco Museum will go on tour. The first official venue was at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome (April 25, 2022) as part of the international study conference dedicated to Fr de Agostini, and the tour began in Padua, where it was exhibited during the CUIA conference (from November 17 to 18, 2022) at the University of Padua. After the Museum, it will then be set up both at the headquarters of the Italian Geographical Society in Rome (January-February 2024) and in Lecco by the “Ragni di Lecco” (March-April 2024).

The timeframe of the exhibition, from October 24th to December 24, 2023, coincides with the anniversary of the first Salesian mission send-off, destined for Argentina and Patagonia (November 11, 1875); it is in harmony with the Salesian Mission Animation direction for 2023- 2024 (which begins on October 29, 2023); it opens the series of international initiatives in preparation for the 150th anniversary of the Salesian missions (2025); and it will close one day before the 63rd anniversary of Fr. De Agostini’s death.

As an activity linked to the exhibition there will be a screening of the film Terre Magellaniche (100’ – 1933) by Fr. Alberto Maria De Agostini. Admission will be free for the screening to take place on Saturday, October 28th at 5:00 pm in the Don Bosco room in Valdocco.