Agora - Science and mathematics from the ancient Mediterranean

An interdisciplinary exhibition with a strong visual impact, which makes the visitor travel in space and time to discover the origins of Western scientific culture and learn about the greatest scientists of ancient times.

In ancient Greece the Agora was the main square of the city where the assembly of citizens gathered to discuss the problems of the community. It was also the marketplace and the economic and political centre with public buildings, offices, and theatres. In the Agora the great philosophers of the past used to discuss their ideas, laying the foundations of Western philosophical and scientific thought. Starting from this assumption, the exhibition retraces some pages of the history of science in an ideal journey through Greece, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Italy, touching ports and cities of the Mediterranean, cradle of Western thought and of our scientific culture. Each stage shows a small or big conquest of human thought, or a brilliant solution, conceived by some eminent thinker of the past to solve a practical problem of the time.

20 interactive installations show experiments on theories and principles of mathematics, studies of astronomy, theorems of geometry, inventions of civil and military engineering and introduce some of the most important figures in the history of Western science and philosophy. The first area of ​​the exhibition is dedicated to 'Archimedes: the genius of Magna Graecia', one of the most important mathematicians of ancient times, seen as the example of the scientist-inventor par excellence. The second area 'The Mediterranean beyond Archimedes' is dedicated to interactive exhibits linked to the discoveries of other outstanding figures such as Pythagoras, Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Eratosthenes and Apollonius, Heron and Hypatia.

Editions

  • 16 March - 16 April 2019: Padua as part of the 'Sperimentando' event at the 'ex Macello' Cathedral
  • 8-11 November 2018: Naples, City of Science, as part of the XXXII edition of Futuro Remoto
  • 9 February - 15 May 2015: Bari, Mediterranean Citadel of Science
  • 23 October - 3 November 2013: Genoa, Foyer of Carlo Felice Theatre as part of the Science Festival
  • 9 December 2011 - 29 May 2012: Brescia, AmbienteParco
  • June - September 2011: tour in the following locations: Shanghai - Jing' An District, Taicang, Jiangsu - Hangzhou, Zhejiang - Jiaxing, Zhejiang - Shanghai, Hong Kou district - Shanghai, Min Hang district
  • May 13-22, 2011: Shanghai, Shanghai Pudong Centre, as part of the Shanghai Science Festival - International Science & Art Exhibition. The exhibition was awarded the 'Science & Art Education Excellence Award' by the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology

Last update: 15/07/2022