‘Scooter Italia 1945-1970’, Villa Manin celebrates icon design

Through an accurate selection of about 50 models from private collectors of the regional territory, ‘Scooter Italia 1945-1970’ is an opportunity to discover a world icon, highlighting how these vehicles have accompanied the country’s social and economic change . The retrospective traces 25 years of motor innovation, focusing on the central role of Italian companies – from the most famous such as Piaggio and innocent, to the less famous ones such as Rumi and Gianca – who have been able to transform a means of popular transport into a symbol of modernity, culture and creativity.

The exhibition will develop in two temporal phases that will retrace the transformation of the role of the scooter. From the post -war period to the early sixties, when the vehicle represented the main tool of transport for work and for the rapid passage of Italy from an urban rural society, and from the early sixties to its end, when the moped He became the protagonist of youth mobility, thanks to the association with the subcultures, accompanying moments of leisure, travel and new forms of sociality. The curator of the exhibition, Paolo Capuzzo, told the exhibition: “In post -war Italy, the scooters represented a precious response to the growing need for mobility of a rapidly transformation country. Their diffusion left a deep imprint in the collective imagination: cinema, literature and music celebrated them as emblems of freedom and modernity “.

The path of the exhibition will intertwine different narrative dimensions: from production and design made in Italy, with attention to international success and company strategies, to the commercial promotion of the scooter. The evolution of the social use of the medium that revolutionized the daily life and mobility of Italians, as well as the cultural image of the scooter, immortalized in rotocalchi, cinema and songs, will be deepened. On display there will be photographs of the Alinari Archive and the Fiera Milano Archive, as well as vintage movies from the National Archive Light and the National Cinema Impresa Archive of Ivrea, as well as original posters of the Salce collection together with foundation reproductions Piaggio.

The vice -president and councilor for culture and sport of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Mario OveL, underlined the importance of the exhibition: “The ease and speed in doing something do not give work lasting or the precision of beauty, supported Plutarch . And, in fact, in the evident beauty that transpires in every single piece exposed in this exhibition there is also the complexity and effort of the restoration work done by the owners, all of our region, who, with painstaking passion and love, have dedicated Their time to the search and assembly of the adequate pieces to bring each of these scooters back to the original uniqueness “.

An exhibition, he remembers, “beautiful to see, therefore, but also beautiful to listen to for the story – all Italian – who will be able to tell his visitors, a story that concerns all of us, our parents, our grandparents, but also ours Children and grandchildren who in that story will be able to find a part of their roots. We jump metaphorically riding each of these scooters and start together towards the cultural Renaissance of our territory “.