(Finance) – Debuts at MAXXI a very special exhibition that tells the story of the birth and development of one of the main Italian infrastructures. The exhibition “Italy on the move. Highways and the future”, set up with the collaboration of Motorways for Italytells a century of history and travel on Italian motorways. In fact, one hundred years have passed since the construction of the first motorway in Italy.
The exhibition, which opens to the public on 6 December 2024, curated by Pippo Ciorra with Angela Parentein collaboration with Autostrade per l’Italia, reveals how motorways have shaped the landscape, society and imagination of an entire country.
The highway Italian is conceived not only as an infrastructure, but also as bridge between modernity and memory and tool connection between places, people and stories. With the heroic outbursts of the twentieth century, the post-war production acceleration, the eco-sustainable scenarios of the future: the exhibition is a invitation to rediscover Italy as millions of travelers have experienced it in various eras, a dreamed destination and also made possible thanks to highways.
Between archive projects, author photographs, evolving maps and iconic images, the show accompanies the visitor along a spectacular ispace-time itinerarymade up of the history of motorways but also of its places and recurring themes. The exhibition is divided into four sections.
The network it is the heart of the centuries-old motorway project, which has as its main objective that of bringing people and stories closer together, and which develops among documents, photographic and moving images, maps, tourist maps, projects and drawings found in the rich archives of the Society Highways.
The journey it’s a reflection on that which is offered to the gaze of the traveler – a kind of aesthetic comfort – within the route and motorway services (cellars, bridges and railway stations, company headquarters, production campuses designed and built by great architectural names). From Giovanni Michelucci to Jean Nouvel: author’s architecture is the protagonist of a section of the exhibition. The photographic visions of Iwan Baan they capture the essence of the motorway landscape from above, thanks to a series of helicopter reconnaissance flights. Technology and environmental awareness will be the main characteristics of tomorrow’s highways, described here by the concrete ones green proposals signed by Renzo Piano’s studio (RPBW) and the dreamlike visions of Emiliano Ponzi.
“With this exhibition, created in collaboration with Autostrade per l’Italia, MAXXI celebrates a century of stories and connections: motorways are not just infrastructures, but bridges between cities, cultures and people”, he states Emanuela BruniRegent Councilor of the MAXXI Foundation, adding “for us, it is an extraordinary opportunity to intertwine the story of the past with our mission to explore the contemporary and trace new paths towards the future”.
Elisabetta OliveriPresident of Autostrade per l’Italia, underlines that “the exhibition dedicated to the history of the Italian motorway network highlights how it is not only a complex infrastructure, but also a work that has contributed significantly to the growth of our country. Italian motorways, whose significant role for Italian society has also been underlined by famous films, represent a common thread through which Italy’s economic development and social changes can be narrated. As essential yesterday as today, motorways will continue to be indispensable also in the future, with a necessary evolution from a sustainability perspective. Telling the past of Italian motorways also means reflecting on the future, recognizing their crucial role in the country’s continuous growth path”.
“Where there is a motorway, there is the life and work of people. The idea for this exhibition was born with the intention of remembering how precious infrastructures are for our country. Motorways have favored development economic development of the territories, accompanying social growth and giving freedom of movement to goods and citizens”, he comments Roberto TomasiCEO of Autostrade per l’Italia, adding “the path designed by this exhibition speaks to us of the grandeur of the Italian genius in designing and building great works, very high bridges and long tunnels to connect an orographically complex and perhaps unique territory. Finally, from This journey through the history of infrastructures reveals a glimpse of an increasingly digital and sustainable future for mobility, a future that, as the Autostrade per l’Italia Group, we are committed to building every day, designing and implementing interventions for an ever-increasing network. more efficient, modern and interconnected”.
Lorenza BaroncelliDirector of MAXXI Contemporary Architecture and Design, recalls that “infrastructures are the object of collective mobilization, of an unparalleled effort of ingenuity aimed at conceiving and creating goods and systems that raise the quality of life of an entire society. Just think of the role who carried out the construction of the A1 in the relaunch of post-war Italy or imagine the development potential of the network made possible by the technological advances we are witnessing today. Major works have been and will be the most high level of democratization of peoples”.
“For long distance drivers – he states Pippo CiorraSenior Curator MAXXI Architecture – the motorway represents a network that grows in size the better: it reaches more destinations, increases their range of action, shortens times. For those who use it for shorter, daily trips, it must above all improve, be safer, more connected, offer new possibilities, fit well into cities and landscapes, guarantee efficient services. The exhibition tells precisely this evolution from an infrastructure in constant anxiety about growth to an organism that requires maintenance, improvements, advanced services, energy and environmental awareness, ‘intermodality’ with other means of transport”.