To mark the 90th anniversary of the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile di Torino, the exhibition “A history of the future. 90 years of the National Automobile Museum” (curated by Davide Lorenzone and Ilaria Pani), proposes an itinerary from the founding of MAUTO to the present day, displaying the founders' cars, accompanied by documents, photographs and original drawings preserved in the Museum's Documentation Centre, in a journey through the transformations of Italian society.
Intesa Sanpaolo is collaborating with the exhibition by providing 43 photographs from the Publifoto Archive, from a selection of colour slides produced by the Publifoto Agency founded by Vincenzo Carrese: the collection of seven million photographs stored in the archive would simply not be complete without a trace of historic motoring and the events, both national and international, that have brought the general public closer to vintage cars. The images in the exhibition have been taken from an envelope with the title “Antique Cars” written on it, and represent a sample of arrivals, departures and journeys in Italy and abroad of classic car enthusiasts between the late 1950s and the early 1970s.
Under the attentive gaze of Publifoto's photographers, cars speed past or “pose”, showing off their beautiful bodywork. However, the cars are not the only protagonists: historic motoring, which gradually developed between the 1960s and 1980s, is represented through the enthusiasts themselves, sometimes pictured in clothes reminiscent of the golden years of the cars they drive, and by passers-by who are always happy to be photographed themselves or have their children photographed, standing next to or sitting in the car on display.
The Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archives have carried out a conservation operation for the exhibition, by cleaning and digitising the media; the images will also be catalogued and made available online at asisp.intesasanpaolo.com/publifoto
MAUTO intends to celebrate its 90th anniversary on 19 July with an extraordinary public launch day at the weekend, with guided tours of the permanent collection and the exhibitions, and with a series of activities throughout the city in collaboration with numerous local institutions and cultural organisations invited to take part in a widespread exhibition.
From 19 to 23 July, Turin's Gallerie d'Italia will be taking part in the celebrations for the anniversary of the Museo dell'Auto, offering a free use of the indoor spaces of the Arena and in the Accumulatore, where visitors will be able to admire a video screening created specifically for the occasion and including photographs dedicated to the theme of the automobile, all digitised by the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archives.