09.05.2024 – 15.01 – The archive images, the interviews, the reports of pioneering war journalism. Part of the professional experience of Almerigo Grilz from Trieste, the first Italian journalist to fall in a theater of war since the end of the Second World War, comes to life again in the exhibition “The eyes of war”, a multimedia project which opened its doors this morning in the atrium of the Camera di Commerce in Piazza della Borsa. The exhibition will be open to the public until Friday 17th, and can be visited during Chamber of Commerce office hours, in the morning from 9am to 12.30pm and on Mondays and Wednesdays also in the afternoon from 2pm to 5pm.
The exhibition, fueled by videos and texts written by Grilz himself, from Fausto Biloslavo And Gian Micalessinis also nourished by contributions extrapolated from “War reporting: eyes on the world in flames”, a sort of ideal sequel made up of testimonies linked to more recent events.
There is more. Among panels, photographs and memories, here are also some emblematic glimpses of the reportages chosen by the jury for the first edition of the “Almerigo Grilz” Award, the project dedicated to the recovery of canonical war journalism, the one played with field research, traces that do not answers that do not come from Facebook are often found on the internet.
What was supposed to represent a model of journalistic valorization for aspiring correspondents has turned in these days in Trieste into a revival of the ideological saga in vogue in the 70s and 80s.
On the one hand, a faction of the left short of arguments, grappling with the fury towards Grilz, recalled only for his militancy on the right, on the other, the organization of the journalism prize, committed rather to reiterating the technical values and ethical issues, of the initiative open to young people (under 40).
The paint of the exhibition re-proposed this structure. In Piazza della Borsa the “Democratic and anti-fascist Trieste” committee staged its dissent, colored by flags also from the CGIL and by an unfortunate singing comment on the (obvious) notes of “Bella Ciao”.
In the atrium of the Chamber of Commerce the paint of the exhibition was worn, in the presence of the organizers, the press, authorities of the city’s cultural scene, associations and political authorities of the Municipality and the FVG Region: “Our city has paid a severe toll of journalists fallen on the war front – recalled the mayor Roberto Dipiazza in his decisive speech – We all must stand at attention when faced with death and not make political distinctions, only remember the sacrifice. For this reason – added Dipiazza – I am ashamed to see the demonstration that contrasts the opening of the exhibition and the journalistic project dedicated to Grilz”
It must be said that there was no tension, there was no hint of conflict. There are those who call for dissent at all costs, those who prefer the other “nostalgia”, that of an assault journalism that tells, that shapes consciences by throwing the heart beyond the fateful obstacle. Even the ideological one.
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