The exhibition in Ljubljana (10 – 24 April 2008) announced the start of a two year project Hallerstein (from March 2008 to December 2009), which has been planned for the Culture Programme (2007-2013) of the European Community, Cultural Cooperation with and in third countries. The project combines cultural heritage, performing arts and new media technologies. Events will take place in Maribor, Ljubljana, Vienna, Lisbon, Braga, Prague, Shanghaj, Nantong and Beijing. In the frame of the project, researches, symposiums, workshops and intermedia performances will be performed. At the end of a project a book and dvd Hallerstein will be released.

The exhibition’s central figure was the renowned astronomer Ferdinand von Hallerstein – Liu Songling (1703 – 1774), a Jesuit missionary, scientist, inventor, mathematician, cartographer and diplomat, who was born in Ljubljana but lived for 35 years in China. He went to Beijing in 1739, where he worked for 32 years at the Emperor’s astronomical observatory (as its head for 28 years) and was awarded the title of Mandarin of the third grade. In addition to observing the stars and creating the calendar, he was in charge of the creation of an astronomic instrument or “sphere displaying the starry sky” and of the “great armillary sphere” that was completed in 1754, and was the largest such instrument at the old Beijing astronomical observatory. He also discovered a new comet in 1748.