“Italia Geniale – Design enables”, curated by Francesco Zurlo and Carlo Martino, is an exhibition that celebrates Italy’s heritage of brands and patents, tracing the history and culture of materials and techniques while interweaving with the story of design.
Promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the exhibition was organised by the Embassy of Italy in Ireland, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Dublin, ITA – Italian Trade Agency London, and the Ireland Italy Chamber of Commerce. The exhibition was curated by the ADI Design Museum (Association for Industrial Design), which hosts the entire collection of the Compasso d’Oro Award, established in 1954 by Gio Ponti to honour excellence in Italian design.
The opening took place on 11 March 2025 in Dublin, at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) Saint Mary’s Church of Ireland, and was attended by over 120 representatives from the Irish business, academic and artistic communities.
The exhibition featured over 60 brands, showcasing timeless pieces from Ferrari, Poltrona Frau, Flos, Artemide and Olivetti, alongside cutting-edge innovations from companies such as Arduino and Mogu.
Originally presented at Expo Dubai 2020, the exhibition was redesigned to travel internationally in a new format. “Italia Geniale – Design enables” highlighted Italian creativity and craftsmanship through five central themes: mobility, health and well-being, imagination, relationships, and work.
The exhibition was organised into five thematic areas:
- Imagin-able: imagining, creating worlds, inventing stories and making them part of our identity;
- Work-able: objects, products, services and systems that are both functional and beautiful, facilitating work;
- Relation-able: artefacts that support or activate relationships between people;
- Live-able: objects connected to physical and mental well-being, focusing on self-care and care for others;
- Move-able: objects that promote the freedom to move, doing so sustainably and with respect for oneself, others, and the environment.
