31 May saw the end of an activity involving the Pirelli Foundation and the Giovanni Battista Pirelli school, which had the objective of telling children about the history and transformation of the Bicocca area in Milan from one of Italy’s most industrialised districts into a new residential neighbourhood.

These are some of the numbers for this compelling, challenging experience:

– 12 classes involved, ranging from first to fifth grade;
– A total of 283 children;
– 7 days of activities;
– 4 different types of workshops and creative activities carried out;
– 110 tyres made of salt dough;
– 30 advertising sketches;
– 10 maps drawn of the Bicocca area

The joy and enthusiasm that the children expressed as they participated in the various activities served as proof of the validity and success of the project, and the Pirelli Foundation is keenly committed to continuing with other initiatives in this same vein.

For more information about this initiative, feel free to contact us via e-mail at info@fondazionepirelli.org or by phone on +39-02-64423971.

On Thursday 10 May, at the Pirelli Foundation, Marco Tronchetti Provera presented the 2011 Annual Report to the press.

Not the classic financial statement with charts, graphs and numbers, but an authentic book illustrated with drawings by the young Dutch graphic artist Stefan Glerum, who gave visual form to Pirelli’s values by reinterpreting the myths of speed, technology, respect, evolution, and the ability to look to the future.  Values also underscored by four great international writers, whose literary contributions further enhance the 2011 Annual Report: Hans Magnus Enzensberger, William Least Heat-Moon, Javier Cercas, and Guillermo Martínez.

In this context, the numbers and the data of the financial statements become part of a broader narrative that reaches to the heart of Pirelli’s culture and its values, accompanying the typical economic and financial content with the illustrations and the words of authors specially created to illustrate the most intangible aspects of the company.

The details of the publishing project were curated by the designer Francesco Valtolina, who has been the art director of Mousse magazine since 2007.

“By developing its culture, a company can look to the future with optimism” said the chairman, Marco Tronchetti Provera, during the press conference.

On 13 April 2012 the 5th edition of the Triennale Design Museum opens in Milan, under the title “Italy: The Graphic Landscape”.

This edition, which is devoted to the history of Italian graphics and visual communication, provides an opportunity to reflect on the old and new instruments of visual culture that have become part of our everyday lives.

The display includes Pirelli advertisements, pictures, photographs, catalogues, and brochures, created by leading graphic artists and designers from Manzi to Noorda, to Testa and Fletcher, Tovaglia and Scopinich.

Items from the history of Pirelli communication that the Foundation has lent to the Triennale Design Museum for the occasion.

A number of advertising sketches signed by leading names in the world of graphics, with whom Pirelli has worked during the course of its history, are back at the Pirelli Foundation after painstaking restoration that has taken several weeks. Bob Noorda’s “Pirelli Rolle” (1957), and the lion that “Claws the Asphalt” (1955) and “Atlante, the giant that will go a long way” (1955) both by Armando Testa, and “Pirelli – With Eyes Closed” (1961) by Riccardo Manzi were entrusted to the restorer Lucia Tarantola, who has cleaned the images and stopped potential decay of the materials and loss of colour. Highly complex and delicate operations involving much of the heritage of images in the Archive.

The aim of the programme is to promote cultural exchanges between Italy and the other 15 countries taking part in Expo 2015 in Milan under the title “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”.

How? Through artists – 15 from Italy and 15 from abroad – in a residency exchange programme. Each artist is hosted by a local institutional partner, which assists him or her in creating a work on the themes of health, nutrition, environment, clean energy and geo-architecture.

These institutional partners include the Pirelli Foundation, which hosted Richard Cramp, a young English artist, from 5 to 9 March. His artistic research focuses on the role that Pirelli has played in the transformation and in the economic and cultural development of Milan. On his blog, Richard Cramp has published some stunning photos taken during his stay at the Foundation.