Unicità d'Italia. Made in Italy and National Identity

1961/2011, fifty years of Italian know how
shown through the ADI Compasso d'Oro Award

Organised by the Valore Italia Foundation

This exhibition, under the high patronage of the President of the Republic, has been organised by the Valore Italia Foundation in collaboration with ADI - Association for Industrial Design and the ADI Foundation. It is backed by the Ministry of Economic Development.
The exhibition is staged from an unusual and original perspective, identifying Made in Italy as one of the most dominant and significant factors that has, since 1961, helped  to build the national identity. The route through this display of items from the Compasso d'Oro historical collection and the products selected for the XXII award is complemented by video clips and other items that provide historical context for key moments, allowing the exhibition to tell the story of Italian know how over the last half century.

The exhibition entitled "Unicità d'Italia" - the uniqueness of Italy - will open on 30 May in Rome. The focus will be on Italian manufacturing excellence over the last 50 years and the exhibition forms part of the Presidency of the Council of Minister's official programme to celebrate 150 years since the Unification of Italy.
The event, backed by the Ministry for Economic Development and organised by the Valore Italia Foundation in collaboration with ADI and the ADI Foundation, will look at the Made in Italy phenomenon through the context of social cohesion as an element in creating the national identity.
This initiative will take the form of two independent but complementary exhibitions to be held in two prestigious venues in the capital. At Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the Compasso d'Oro Award historical collection will accompany visitors through a complex array of images, memories, experimentation and innovative manufacturing, telling the story of Italy and its manufacturing capacity from 1961 to today.
At Macro Testaccio, the focus will be on the future. Hundreds of products selected over the last three years by the Permanent Design Observatory to compete for the ADI Compasso d'Oro Award will be on display, complemented by a series of events designed to identify future scenarios and the actions needed to ensure Italian manufacturing, that is, Made in Italy, can maintain, renew and capture the world with its uniqueness.   "Unicità d'Italia" will also encompass the final stages of selecting the winners of the award and, for the first time in Rome, the awards ceremony for the XXII Compasso d'Oro Award, organised by ADI. Since 1954, this prize has been the most important international design award recognising products, merit and research.

"Our uniqueness is the key factor of unity," said the Massimo Arlechino, Chairman of the Valore Italia Foundation, "and this is the aspect the exhibition plans to highlight. The uniqueness of our manufacturing excellence - the Made in Italy - has helped to strengthen our sense of national identity".

"It is significant that it is design, through the products awarded the Compasso d'Oro, that is at the fulcrum of the history of the last fifty years," confirmed Luisa Bocchietto, President of ADI. "Design provides evidence of our way of planning, producing and communicating. It is part of our national identity".