Between Christian and Orthodox Easter, a particularly important and evocative time of the year in the Holy Land, the “Machines for Peace” exhibition was inaugurated in Bethlehem.

The contemporary visual art installation was set up in the rooms of the Bethlehem Peace Center thanks to the Network of Italian Large Shoulder Machines with the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, together with the Italian National Commission for UNESCO, the Consulate of Italy in Jerusalem and the Commune of Bethlehem.

Unesco intangible heritage, the Network of Large Italian Shoulder Machines represents four religious festivals whose traditional processions involve imposing structures to be carried on the shoulder, namely the Transport of the Machine of Santa Rosa of Viterbo, the Faradda dei Candelieri of Sassari, the Gigli of Nola and the Varia di Palmi.

The millenary history is reproposed in the images and music of "Our infinite and suspended time", an unpublished film by Francesco De Melis produced by the Network and by ICPI. A visual and sound work in the form of a tripartite digital fresco, like a polyphonic polyptych that fills the immersive room created by Open Lab Company at the Bethlehem Peace Center with content and that dialogues with the materiality of parties through the splendid costumes of the communities – an integral part of the visual architecture – and one of the sculptural heads of the Simulacrum project by Giuseppe Fata, a contemporary artist who has created the Announcement of Peace for this exhibition. An Italian project of great emotional and communicative impact that in every element contrasts the "peace machines" of the holidays with the "war machines".

The inauguration ceremony took place in the halls of the Bethlehem Peace Center , where the Italian delegation led by Patrizia Nardi (head of the UNESCO project of the Network) was welcomed by the mayor of Bethlehem Hanna Hanania, in the presence of the Consul General of Italy in Jerusalem Giuseppe Fedele and local UNESCO representatives. During the inaugural ceremony, the authorities involved discussed the value of cultural heritage as a tool for dialogue between territories, nations and individuals and the need for a decisive, circular and constant commitment to build bridges of relationships between communities, institutional subjects and decision-makers politicians, with the aim of creating ever wider areas of intervention that can help trace new paths aimed at awareness of the value of heritage, sustainable development of territories and peaceful coexistence among peoples.