An installation dedicated to the Austrian writer and poet Ingeborg Bachmann has been put up in Nova Gorica to serve as a place for reflection and various events as part of the first cross-border European Capital of Culture until the end of autumn.

A temporary gift of the Carinthian Cultural Foundation, the Ingeborg Bachmann Dome is seen as a symbolic and physical link between the Austrian province of Carinthia and Nova Gorica and its Italian neighbour Gorizia. It is located in the renovated area of the Nova Gorica train station right on the border.

The installation will be inaugurated by Deputy Prime Minister Matej Arčon and Carinthia Governor Peter Kaiser on 25 April at an event featuring the resident ensemble of the Carinthian Summer Festival, led by conductor Johannes Hiemetsberger.

Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, is twinned with Nova Gorica and Gorizia, which have come together for the European Capital of Culture this year. The organizers expect a political, business and cultural delegation from the Austrian city at the inauguration event.

They note the many ties linking Carinthia with Slovenia and Nova Gorica, including a new daily train service running between Villach and Nova Gorica via the spectacular Soča Valley. More cross-border cooperation projects in the Alps-Adriatic region can be expected this year in particular.

The dome was designed and built by Armin Guerino, while the soundtrack inside was created by Gerhard Fresacher and Anna Ennemoser. It is meant as a mobile venue for major cultural festivals in the Alps-Adriatic region and beyond.

Visitors will be able to walk inside the installation, which provides a space for reflection with a soundscape and changes by touch. The dome also serves as a meeting point for various art forms, with special events developed specifically for the installation and in relation to its content.

The first major event will be a dance and literary event on 6 May that draws inspiration from Ängste (Fears), one of the few unpublished poems by Ingeborg Bachmann, written in 1945.

Held as part of the March for Europe festival, the event will feature Maja Haderlap, a bilingual poet and writer who is a member of the Slovenian ethnic minority in Carinthia, and Leonie Humitsch, a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher.