"Chiara cannot be comprehended without placing her in the context where she lived", said Jesus Moran, co-president of the Focolare movement, at the end of the opening ceremony of the exhibition on Chiara Lubich at Palazzo Scopoli, Tonadico di Primiero, the day after the opening in Trento. “During the war Chiara spent herself for her city, Trento; but it was in Primiero, in 1949, that God gave her the comprehension key for what she was called to accomplish. Here, among the mountains, Chiara found the light; but we have to go to Trento and to any other city to understand the consequences of ther charism". Here lies the deep connection among these two exhibitions: the one in Tonadico is not an appendix of the one in Trento, but the narration of a decade of light.
The gratitude of the Primiero valley was expressed in different ways by the Councillor for Culture, Francesca Franceschi (“Primiero represents the origin, the retreat where Chiara found answers to her questions"), the deputy mayor Paolo Secco (“Our task is not just keeping memory alive, but being a community that answers to the ideal aspirations that moved Chiara"), the president of the Primiero Community, Roberto Pradel (“Chiara devoted herself to building relationships among people: may the seed she sew bear fruit").
Giuseppe Ferrandi, director of the Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino, explained the deep significance of teh two exhibitions: "For the first time, our Foundation has organised an exhibition on a single person: we did so because Chiara is a figure Trentino, and not only Trentino, has to deal with. Trentino, which can claim her birth, needs to re-discover the dimension of a strong attachment to traditions alive in Chiara, the fruit of reletions; but without stopping here and opening up to the world, so that it is not sterile. Who but Chiara Lubich can better guarantee this relationship skills the world needs today?".
Alba Sgariglia, co-manager of the Centro Chiara Lubich, expressed the gratitute of the whole Movement to the Foundation: "We worked together for this historic milestone. From here, from these mountains, Chiara reached out to the whole mankind: this is the mission she comprehended here".
Annamaria Rossi and Giuliano Ruzzier, the curators of the exhibition together with Maurizio Gentilini, outlined its features: large pictures, quotes and short captions are arranged in a flow beside Palazzo Scopoli, right opposite the cottage where Chiara and some of her first companions went to take some rest in summer 1949. On the ground floor of the Palace, which holds some detachments of the frescoes of the San Vittore Chapel, are shown a number of writings and essential memories of that summer and videos of the first Mariapolis - the summer vacations which, until 1959, grew richer and richer every year with people of different vocations, cultures and origins.