Italy lived economically and creatively intriguing years whenever there was a genuine collaboration between creative minds and industries. Think for example about interior designer Gaetano Pesce and Cassina & Busnelli or companies like Gufram that manufactured some of the most original pieces by Italian radical designers.
These collaborations represented indeed the possibility of developing a new product with an original design created using innovative materials. The results of such collaborative Made in Italy projects were often presented during national and international events like the Fiera di Milano (Milan Fair).
Sadly, as many factories closed down or the production was moved abroad in search of cheaper workforce, these collaborations slowed down or stopped. An exhibition launching next week at Milan's La Triennale, "Prospettiva. Viaggio negli archivi di Fondazione Fiera Milano" (Perspective. Journey Through the Archives of the Milan Fair Foundation) curated by OMA / Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, will explore the excitement of going to the Fiera di Milano during the "boom" years in Italy and discovering new products, companies and designers.
Between the end of the '50s and the early '60s, Italy went through a profound transformation on a financial, industrial and social level. The demand for new products, from typing machines, television sets and fridges to cars and scooters, ensured the country quickly forgot about its agricultural past and embraced its industrial future. The economic boom radically and dramatically changed many cities: Milan quickly expanded and its fairs and exhibitions started shaping the culture of the country.
Through black and white and colour photographs, the exhibition tells a story of optimism, innovation and, at times unexpected surprises, with the people portrayed often intent in discovering the innovative products on display.
One photograph included in the event shows a father with his young son intently looking at pipes made with Moplen, the polypropylene-based material developed by Giulio Natta in 1954 and manufactured by Montecatini from 1957 on, that was employed for many commodity plastic products (it is impossible not to look at the father and son's curiosity and then think about the harmful consequences that certain materials discovered in those years have had on our bodies and on our planet...). In another image a man admires a sharp diamond cutting wheel by Stand Winter Ernst & Sohn, while a giant coffee machine advertising the latest Bialetti products salutes visitors in a picture uncannily calling to mind Pop Art installations mocking consumerism or the sets in Elio Petri's The Tenth Victim.
Visitors going to the event shouldn't underestimate the power of fashion in these pictures: the photographs mainly show men going to the fair and they could be used as a way to rediscover menswear fashion form the '50s and the '60s in Italy (check out the image showing a traffic warden in his impeccable uniform matched with white gloves and domed hat giving directions to a man in green checkered pants...).
"Prospettiva" (from 23rd November 2018 to 20th January 2019) is the first chapter of a wider Triennale-based visual project revolving around the photographic archives of the Fondazione Fiera Milano in collaboration with AFIP International (Associazione Fotografi Italiani Professionisti - Italian Professional Photographers Association), so there will be more rarely seen images coming up in future events. Hopefully the next events will be accompanied also by a parallel film programme featuring movies, adverts and archival footage from those years.
"Prospettiva" is dedicated not just to nostalgic people who grew up in the post-boom years, but also to younger generations keen on discovering more about the '50s and the '60s and the optimism behind designing and experimenting.
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