The exhibition on the industrialist Adriano Olivetti entitled “Universo Olivetti. Community as a concrete utopia” is coming to Portugal, to Matosinhos, in the north of the country. It will be displayed at the “Casa do Design” from 26 November to 23 January 2022. The exhibition, organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Lisbon, under the aegis of the Italian Embassy and in collaboration with ESAD (Escola Superior de Artes e Design), continues its world tour after stopping off in Ekaterinburg, Berlin, and Madrid.
The cultural event aims to deepen the knowledge of the prestigious Italian entrepreneur, one of the most multifaceted and extraordinary figures in the history of Italian and world industry in the 20th century. An industrialist, publisher, intellectual and politician, social innovator, and precursor of urban planning. Olivetti was able to combine the production process, social responsibility, and attention to the urban territory, creating, between 1930 and 1960, a unique, innovative, and avant-garde business model. Such a model revolutionised the entrepreneurial culture of the twentieth century and is still recognised today as one of the most current and advanced examples of sustainability.
Adriano Olivetti aimed to create a new cultural and social model: the factory not only as a place of work but also as a place of culture in which technological research, design, architecture, and sustainability could be integrated into an innovative model between business and society, still considered exemplary today.
Adriano Olivetti used to say, “There is nothing but the future in me”. This quotation transformed him into a futuristic entrepreneur, a visionary like few others, a symbol of Made in Italy, capable of seeing beyond, of believing in technological innovation and a creative approach, of always putting people and their needs, social equity and the dignity of men and women workers at the centre.
The opening of the exhibition, scheduled for Friday 26 November (5 pm), will be followed by a conversation between its curators, Pippo Ciorra and Francesca Limana, and Maria Milano, Director of the Department of Interior Design at ESAD.
The exhibition platform, characterised by a graphically accurate layout of significant communicative impact, provides access to the major themes revolving around Olivetti’s enterprise and its culture: industrial design, Olivetti style codes, cultural services, welfare, urban planning and finally, the Community project. These are told through the four major thematic sections Factory, Culture and Image, City and Politics, Society. Each theme is illustrated with a great variety of graphics, archival documents, reproductions, and photographic reinterpretations and developed in an interdisciplinary way, bringing together architecture, design, photography, and publishing.
The exhibition is promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and is organised by MAXXI-Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo and the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti.
