Knowledge without frontiers Knowledge Without Frontiers | Page 8

• Highlighting one achievement that has
had a profound impact on our lives, or that
holds special validity within the history of
science and technology (preferably pre-
sented by an object).
• A curious or surprising fact that is less well
known to the public.
The exhibition opened on 2st March 2018.
It is the result of teamwork, with an interdis-
ciplinary approach and calling upon experts
from various fields and different institutions. It
is aimed at different target groups, with many
interactive elements, some especially orientat-
ed towards the younger generation. Through
public programmes (workshops, talks, guided
tours, round tables, quizzes) as well as out-
reach and learning activities, we will offer our
visitors the opportunity for social dialogue and
to express their own points of view.
We are aiming to achieve the following:
• To break down at least a few stereotypes
connected to migration.
• To help people understand that, in one
way or another, we are all migrants.
• To show the positive side of this fact
through the achievements in science and
innovation known throughout our com-
munities.
• To have constructive and meaningful de-
bates with different target groups.
• To bring together and connect various
stakeholders.
• To promote science and technology from a
different perspective.
IDENTITY AND HERITAGE
Can we talk about a connection between na-
tional identity and technical/scientific heritage?
We believe the answer is yes. Our project
was built around this fact.
Now, probably this is not unique to us Slo-
venes, but we are very proud of “our” scientists
when they succeed abroad and yet, on the oth-
er hand, we are more restrained when “foreign-
ers” are successful in our country. We are trying
to make people understand how misleading
and narrow-minded this assumption can be,
and this was one of the reasons for using the
life stories of 14 individuals, who not only made
a difference with their achievements, but did
so as a consequence of migration.
Two examples that illustrate the chal-
lenge: the record-holding astronaut, Sunita
Williams was born in the USA to an ethnic
Indian father and a mother descended from
Slovenian immigrants. However to Slovenes
she is considered a “true” Slovene and is of-
ten featured in the national media and it
seems like we are all very proud of her. She
won over even the most sceptical by taking a
traditional Slovene sausage up to the Inter-
national Space Station! However, at the oth-
er extreme there is Fritz Pregl, who provokes
mixed emotions in Slovenia. He was born in
Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) to a Slove-
nian father and a German mother. However
he studied and worked in the Austro-Hungar-
ian Empire and in later years in Austria (due to
collapse of the empire), his working language
was German and people considered him “not
Slovene” enough. For decades he was left out
of our science history records and books - al-
though he is the only Nobel prize winner with
Slovene ethnicity to date.
We would like our visitors to question
themselves about the relevance of dividing
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