by InTrieste
A new photography exhibition opening this week at the Magazzino delle Idee in Trieste invites visitors to look beyond borders—literally and figuratively. Le Affinità di Confine: Architetture tra Friuli Venezia Giulia e Slovenia (translated as Border Affinities: Architecture between Friuli Venezia Giulia and Slovenia) presents a century of cross-border architectural dialogue through a series of striking visual diptychs by Italian photographer Roberto Conte and Slovenian photographer Miran Kambič.
Curated by architectural historians Luka Skansi and Paolo Nicoloso, the exhibition is part of the “GO! 2025 & Friends” program—a regional initiative connected to GO! 2025 Nova Gorica–Gorizia European Capital of Culture. Through an evocative pairing of images, the show offers a visual and critical exploration of shared heritage, evolving identities, and the layered political and cultural histories of this northeastern Italian region and its Slovenian neighbor.
Rather than providing a comprehensive survey of architecture on both sides of the border, the curators aim to spark reflection on how historical shifts and cultural intersections have shaped the built environment. The juxtaposed images highlight both resonances and divergences—revealing surprising affinities between structures that emerged under different regimes and influences.
Spanning styles from early 20th-century modernism to postwar reconstruction and contemporary design, the exhibition encourages a broader conversation about memory, transformation, and the role of architecture in narrating a region’s identity across time and territory.
Le Affinità di Confine will run at the Magazzino delle Idee in Trieste through the summer as part of the cultural calendar leading up to GO! 2025, a year-long celebration positioning the twin towns of Gorizia and Nova Gorica as a united European Capital of Culture.
