“La Pubblicità con la P maiuscola” (Pirelli Advertising with a Capital P), the new book curated by the Pirelli Foundation and edited by Corraini Edizioni was presented at the Franco Parenti Theatre in Milan. The book covers thirty years of Pirelli advertising, from the 1960s until the early 20th Century, by way of materials originating from the company Historic Archive, which is kept at the Pirelli Foundation

During the event, contributions were made by Marco Tronchetti Provera, Executive Deputy Chairman and CEO of Pirelli and Chairman of the Pirelli Foundation, Carlo Bonomi, Chairman of Assolombarda, Paola Dubini, Lecturer at Bocconi University in Milan, Vicky Gitto, Chief Creative Officer of Young & Rubicam, Aldo Grasso, Lecturer at Cattolica University in Milan and TV critic, and Antonio Calabrò, Managing Director and Director of the Pirelli Foundation.

A selection of pictures published in the volume will remain on display for a few days in the foyer of the Franco Parenti Theatre in Milan, starting on 7th July, with the following opening hours: from Monday to Saturday between 10 am and 2 pm and between 4 pm and 8 pm.

The book tells the story of Pirelli advertising from the seventies through to the present day, drawing on the Group’s Historical Archive, which contains thousands of advertising prints and dozens of television commercials. In the seventies and eighties, the advertisements were made by Pirelli’s Centro, with such great names as Pino Tovaglia, Salvatore Gregorietti, and François Robert. It was Centro, an interesting example of an Italian in-house agency, that took Pirelli communication from a world of tradition into one of marketing-oriented strategies. The nineties saw the arrival of international agencies (Young & Rubicam and Armando Testa) with global campaigns that used endorsers from the world of cinema and sport (Sharon Stone, Carl Lewis, Ronaldo). The picture by Annie Leibovitz of Lewis wearing high-heeled shoes, and the slogan “Power is Nothing without Control” in 1994 became landmarks in the history of advertising.

The book, which follows on from A Muse in the Wheels. Pirelli: A Century of Art at the Service of its Products, examines the evolution of advertising strategies, techniques and languages in the shift from analog to digital technologies. Pirelli was at the forefront, as we can see in the creation of a Long P consisting of 140 cars seen at a height of 85 metres – an amazing feat in a pre-digital era – and in one of the first entirely digital experiments in advertising with the “Pirellibility” spot (1981).

After the introductory essays by Antonio Calabrò, Paola Dubini, Carlo Vinti, Michele Galluzzo and Giancarlo Rocco di Torrepadula, the advertising campaigns are presented with 800 illustrations (camera-ready artwork, prints, photographs, video stills), divided into sections: Pirelli Group corporate communication, communication “of public interest” and actual product advertisements.

The book has its own website at advbook.fondazionepirelli.org and a web app, accessible via QR code, for viewing the many audio-visual advertisements (from the Carosello programme in the early seventies to the special effects used in the commercials with Carl Lewis and Ronaldo in the nineties, through to the “Wild” spot, with top Hollywood names). It also includes additional advertising materials (camera-ready copies and prints), descriptions of the restoration operations and much more special content.

Pirelli Advertising with a Capital P is also available as an e-book. An e-book version has also been made of A Muse in the Wheels.

Pirelli Advertising with a capital P

The Education programme for the 2016-17 school year was packed with new features and was greeted enthusiastically by lots of children and young people. From September to June, over 3000 students in 120 classes from Lombardy and other regions of Italy visited the Pirelli Historical Archive and took part in creative and educational workshops.

Of the almost 40 courses offered, the most popular were those devoted to the theme of sustainability – which included a visit to Pirelli: Sustainable Culture, the exhibition on display at the Foundation – and those of advertising graphics and road safety. Children and young people brought to bear all their creativity and conceptual powers to make models of the production plants of tomorrow, and to create advertising sketches and brief films in stop motion, as well as comics and designs for new tyre treads, thus putting into practice what they had learnt during the theoretical part of the courses.

A number of classes from lower- and upper-secondary schools were given an opportunity to visit the Pirelli chemical laboratories and the Research and Development Department. Here the kids were able to see the organisation of a modern scientific laboratory and each step on the way to creating prototypes for new tyres, with all the various tests these items are subjected to before being put into mass production. The kids were fascinated to see that a tyre is not just round and black, but that its components are mixed together in predictive ways, with great skill, to create products with different characteristics and levels of performance. The Pirelli Foundation also took older students into areas normally out of bounds to the public: the Industrial Centre in ​​Settimo Torinese, the most technologically advanced Pirelli plant with the central “Spina” area for research and services designed by the architect Renzo Piano, and the Next MIRS robotised production plant in Milano Bicocca. A unique, practical way of introducing young people to the world of factories and work.

It is also worth mentioning the success of the training and refresher course for teachers on Cinema & History organised together with the Fondazione ISEC and the Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, which this year examined the theme “World History: Beyond Eurocentrism”. The course, which is recognised by the Ministry of Education, University and Research, saw the participation of 120 primary and secondary-school teachers and about 180 young people who watched the two screenings for students.

The summer is almost upon us, but our plans don’t stop here!

We look forward to seeing you in September and showing you the new programmes for the 2017-18 school year.

It all began on January 31, 1907 with an announcement in the French newspaper “Le Matin”:

«What we have to demonstrate today is that now that man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Does anybody accept the challenge of going from Peking to Paris by car next summer?». Someone evidently accepted the challenge, because the most prestigious race of the era started off at 8 am on 10 June 1907; the Peking-Paris motor race covering seventeen thousand kilometres on tough, rough and often uneven roads. The Italian team was headed up by Prince Scipione Borghese, who immediately requested Pirelli tyres for his powerful Itala. He got what he wanted. Alongside him were the Corriere della Sera journalist Luigi Barzini and the mechanic Ettore Guizzardi. Their victory two months later with their arrival in Paris has become legend. And so have Pirelli tyres, which contributed to the success of the undertaking and immediately became world famous.

In his travel log “Half the world seen from a car from Peking to Paris in 60 days”, Luigi Barzini recalls that first thrilling day of the race as follows:

«…The time has come. The drivers and mechanics reach their vehicles. The engines roar, and thick clouds of smoke are released from the exhaust pipes. The crowd’s voice rises. Many officials who came on horseback climb on. One hundred cameras waver above our heads in search of their target. We Italians rush to climb back into the Itala that awaits, quivering and trembling as though impatient to set off […]. The cars are stationary, awaiting the signal […] An elegant lady, Mme Boissonnas, the wife of the first secretary of the French Legation, gracefully takes on the task of starter.

She raises the flag. A moment of silence falls upon the crowd, during which only the rumbling engines can be heard. The smoke surrounds us and isolates us in part. The flag is lowered.

Fireworks and firecrackers burst all around. We move through this clamour of battle. Off we go. We’re on our way. […] And on the road, kept clear by Chinese soldiers, between two wings of silent people, the only things left are five cars, chasing each other through the Capital of the Celestial Empire at unprecedented speed, and one that will probably never be witnessed again either.»

After taking part in Museocity in March, Fondazione Pirelli will also be involved in the first ever edition of Milan PhotoWeek, an initiative promoted and organised by the City Council of Milan to bring the general public closer to the world of photography: one week – from 5 to 11 June – of exhibitions, encounters, guided tours, workshops, publishing projects, art show openings and closings and urban projections, all dedicated to photography.

As part of the event the Fondazione Pirelli is offering guided tours and workshops for children.

To celebrate 110 years of Pirelli racing, on 8 June at 6pm there will be a special visit called “It’s clearly a charm“, featuring an in-depth look at photography in relation to the history of racing: from “Beijing-Paris”, the first international race in 1907, to the F1 Grand Prix. Thousands of photographs including negatives on plates and on film, prints and slides conserved in the company’s Historical Archive bear witness to more than a century of victories from the most prestigious Italian and international car manufacturers and some of the greatest drivers in the world who have written the story of motor racing, such as Nino Farina, Antonio and Albero Ascari, Tazio Nuvolari and Juan Manuel Fangio.The visit will last around one hour with drinks to follow.

There are also events especially for children: on Saturday 10 June there will be two creative workshops starting at 10am and 11.30 am: the first is Ready, steady… print!: a workshop for children aged 6-9. The children will have the chance to discover thousands of photographs kept in the Fondazione Pirelli and learn about the history of the tyres which have helped bring victories for cars of various different eras: from the tyres used in the first international car race, “Peking-Paris” in 1907, to the tyres of the F1 Grand Prix.Starting from a gelatin slide, the children will be invited to make creative prints to tell the story of the most entertaining motor races featuring Pirelli tyres.The second workshop is An incredible journey from Beijing to Paris!, designed for children aged 8-11: thanks to the photographs conserved at the Fondazione Pirelli, together we can relive the incredible journey taken in 1907 by the Itala car, fitted with Pirelli tyres. 17,000 kilometres of road, passing through a vast range of different scenery and cultures. The children, using their courage and imagination, will have to pretend they are taking the road today which goes from Beijing to Paris and then create their own travel diary.

All the events must be booked in advance and are subject to availability.

Call 0264423971 or sign up via visite@fondazionepirelli.org for the 8 June visit and write to scuole@fondazionepirelli.org to sign up for the 10 June workshop (specifying the name of the workshop)

To find out more about the full program of all the events during PhotoWeek visit the website www.photoweekmilano.it

Anniversaries and commemorations are useful. To keep alive the memory of occurrences and their actors. To try, with intellectual honesty, to make the strength of a myth topical. To remember history, avoiding a misrepresentation of its spirit with the precarious controversies of current affairs. Twenty-five years ago, on 23rd May and then on 17th July 1972, bombs led to the massacre of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and the men and women on their security detail. Now, a quarter of a century later, there are celebrations, ceremonies, debates, TV programmes. And books.

Opportune and appropriate books, such as the one by Piero Grasso, today the president of the Senate, for many years a magistrate involved in the fight against the Mafia, in Palermo and in Rome (“Storia di sangue, amici e fantasmi” (Story of blood, friends and ghosts), edited by Feltrinelli, with a lucid foreword by Sergio Mattarella, president of the Republic, from Palermo, a lawyer and politician of great standing, the brother of a serious gentleman politician, Piersanti, who was murdered by the Mafia in 1980 because he demanded the Sicilian Region implemented the culture and the rules of “good government”).

What and how to write, in memory of Falcone and Borsellino?Remembering the maxi trial, first of all. Having begun on 10th February 1986, and ending with the verdict in the first instance in the autumn of 1987 (so, quickly and promptly) with just, strict, exemplary sentences (17 life-sentences for bosses and killers responsible for thousands of murders and 2665 years’ imprisonment for the other defendants) and confirmed by the Supreme Court in early 1992 (after an attempt, rendered legally futile, to resize the sentences before the Court of Appeal).

It was a significant trial. Because it had been built exceptionally by the precise investigations of an anti-Mafia pool wanted by Rocco Chinnici (who was in fact murdered for this very reason in 1983), led by Antonino Caponnetto and consisting of Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino, Giuseppe Di Lello and Leonardo Guarnotta, with the support, for the Public Prosecuter’s Office, of Giuseppe Ayala. Based on properly conducted investigations by the police, the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza finance police, who fully cooperated without any conflict between the various police forces. With the case wisely and scrupulously prepared, searching for proof in data, facts, documents and backed always by the revelations of the “pentititi” repentants (Tommaso Buscetta and Totuccio Contorno, first and foremost). Addressed, during both the investigations and the hearing, without any leaks of information, spotlights, media tricks (the same cannot unfortunately be said of many other subsequent trials). And then handled in court with extraordinary skill by Chief Justice Alfonso Giordano and Associate Judge Piero Grasso (all names which must be remembered as excellent servers of the State, men of law and justice): observing the rules, the code of criminal procedure, the rights of the defendants and the relatives of the victims.This left no room for delaying tactics, pretexts, pandering tricks on the part of the defence.Nevertheless listening to the requests of the defence lawyers: a well-built, rule-abiding defence is also part of good justice. The defence was made “during” the trial. And not “from” the trial, pursuing the convenient yet indecent loophole of becoming statute-barred.

That maxi-trial was a legal monument. Where the State won, doing its job as State well, in other words applying the law. And the Mafia lost.

So remembering that maxi-trial, studying it, taking it as an example of legal civility and procedural technique (even now that the Code of Criminal Procedure has changed) is a good way to pay homage to Falcone, to Borsellino and to all those other men and women of the State whom the Mafia slaughtered. Good people. Not heroes. But custodians of law and civility, against Mafia violence and silences, omertà conspiracy of silence and corruption in the many accomplices of Mafia bosses.

Their teaching still applies today. While the Mafia continues to be active and present (not just in Palermo and Trapani, but also in Milan) and a rhetorical and wordy ”anti-Mafia” spreads, small talk and rumours are built up, special interests are strengthening, in the shadow of the declarations and not of the facts, on stages where the anti-Mafia is more an “act” than an action. All the opposite to the lesson taught by Falcone, Borsellino, and also by many other victims, Costa, Chinnici, Russo, Terranova, Montana, Cassarà and so on and so forth.

There is a second lesson that Falcone taught us we should remember: the battle for legality is one of the fundamental elements of the sense of State. The application of the rules of the Constitution. The everyday routine of a “civil servant” i.e. a magistrate. Without delusions of grandeur. With a strong sense of the institutions.

We live in complicated times. Times when, on many occasions, the instruments of justice are used with a shortage of respect for procedures (indeed the form of the law, as Kelsen taught us, is a guarantee of justice) and with the most attention given to media clamour. The media trial is in fact the exact opposite to a just trial.

It is true that essential reforms are late. Attitudes of political partisanship still prevail, even in environments which should be inspired by the culture of law. And badly made laws offload onto the judicial authorities burdens and responsibilities which should instead lie with the government or legislators. Yet even from this perspective, Falcone and Borsellino’s lesson (and that of other magistrates who have made the history of the Republic) can provide useful instructions of the utmost topicality: the magistrate applies and interprets the law within the boundaries that are specified by the law itself and can also contribute, with indications and advice, to have the Parliament write better, more efficient laws. The work done by Falcone at the Ministry of Justice on the new anti-Mafia regulations is an example of this (not an improper bargaining with politics, which is what self-righteous pompous individuals had accused him of doing, but a serious institutional commitment).

There is still another indication to reflect on, “in memoriam” but also applicable to current affairs. The justice machine can operate better, despite the fact that it awaits reforms. The evidence from, just to mention one example, the judicial facilities in Milan can be used as a paradigm.

The 2016 financial statements of the Court of Appeal, of the Court and of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, presented in early May (and processed with the scientific support of SdaBocconi and the contribution of Assolombarda) document faster time frames to conclude civil suits, efficiency and efficacy of verdicts from the Court of companies (68% of cases decided within a year, only 20% of verdicts in the first instance are brought before the court of appeal and, during the appeal, the verdict in the first instance is confirmed in 70% and more of cases: an important indication of legal certainty), but also in shorter time frames for criminal proceedings: 52% fewer pending suits between 2011 and 2016.

The improvement of the quality of justice in Milan is significant. To tackle the extending presence of organised crime (recent, well conducted investigations have hit the interests of both the ‘ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra in certain key locations of the Lombardy economy). And to tell the economic world and the civil society that legality is a fundamental hinge pin in economic growth and competitiveness (this is why good companies are so interested in the values and practices of legality and efficient justice).

“The Mafia is in no way invincible” declared Falcone. And he added: “It is a human feat and like all human feats it has a beginning and it will also have an end”. Making justice work well and credibly will speed up that end.

For the second year in a row, the Pirelli Foundation is taking part in the Educational Robotics Festival, organised by the AmicoRobot network of schools for robotics and by the Amici della G.B. Pirelli association, with the collaboration of the Department of Human Sciences for Education at the University of Milano-Bicocca. The project illustrates the Pirelli Foundation’s constant commitment to training and education.

The event, which will be held on Thursday 18 (primary schools) and Friday 19 May (lower secondary schools) in the U26 building of the University of Milan, will provide an important opportunity to introduce young people to the young science of robotics and the use of digital technologies. In particular, during the festival the elementary school children will put on display the robots they have created in the classroom and make them interact with their surroundings, while the middle school children will compete with each other in an authentic coding competition.

On both days, there will also be two meetings entitled “Pirelli and the Digital Factory: People and Robots to Create Tyres”, in which Pirelli automation experts will talk to the children and young people about the use of robots in Pirelli factories for the production of tyres. These range from the Modular Integrated Robotized System (Next MIRS) for tyre production, to Automatic Visual Inspection (AVI), the modern automatic tyre inspection system that uses innovative artificial vision technologies.

The posters of the event created by the children and young people who won the Festival’s Graphic-pictorial competition will be on display in the gallery.

“In terms of design, I have always been interested in both motorbikes and in rubber as a material, so it was a real pleasure to work with Pirelli, which is famous for working alongside a lot of artists and designers.” The words of the noted designer Tom Dixon as he describes “Pirelli by Dixon”: a limited edition collection of three new tyre tread designs for scooter tyres which will be presented during the latest “Salone del Mobile” in Milan (4-9 April 2017) as part of the “MULTIPLEX, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” exhibition, held at the Manzoni Theatre.

The exhibition will feature a “Rubber Shop”, with new tyres on show alongside an installation created with materials provided by the Historical Archive of the Pirelli Foundation. One of the walls of the shop will feature a selection of technical designs of motorbike and car tyres produced by Pirelli from the 1950s to the 1980s for catalogues and product lists and also used by designers for company advertising. Like Ezio Bonini in 1953 for the “Motor Scooter” tyres , Bob Noorda in 1957 for “Rolle” tyres, or Riccardo Manzi in various editions of his famous “a occhi chiusi” campaign with little human figures, designed in the 1960s for the Pirelli Cinturato. These ironic characters borne of the imagination of Manzi inspired another installation in Dixon’s shop: three tyre stands, the shape of which apes the subject of a picture postcard designed by Manzi for Pirelli in 1957.

Another area of the Rubber Shop will be dedicated to a life-size copy of the cat Meo Romeo, a well known rubber toy created for Pirelli-Pigomma in 1949 by Bruno Munari, who described his creation in the pages of the Pirelli magazine: “What else could Meo Romeo need? He can’t talk, I know, but neither can the Mona Lisa. And the Mona Lisa isn’t soft to touch, she can’t move and you can’t make her jump. Meo Romeo is a new rubber cat for modern kids.”

After visiting the Pirelli Foundation last summer, Dixon picked out the materials to be used in creating his exhibition at the Manzoni Theatre. Now, just as it always has, the Pirelli style continues to fascinate and inspire the world of design.

The first of April will see the opening of the new edition of the Trienale Design Museum, which every year tells the story of Italian design through various themes and exhibits offering fresh perpectives and approaches. The tenth edition, “Giro Giro Tondo. Design for Children” (1 April 2017 – 18 February 2018), aims to present a new history of Italian design dedicated to the world of infants and young children, with different thematic sections focused on significant figures from the history of design.

The Pirelli Foundation also renews its participation in the exhibition –  following its involvement in the edition dedicated to graphic design (TDM5). This year the foundation will take part through a selection of original materials conserved in the company’s Historical Archive, including the cat Meo Romeo, the famous rubber toy made in 1949 by the well known designer Bruno Munari, who described its creation and characteristics in an edition of the Pirelli magazine in the same year , shop window designs such as the ones made to advertise “silent games” and the gplate game, created by noted designers and photographers such as Bob Noorda and Aldo Ballo. It will also feature sketches from the Swiss graphic artist Lora Lamm and Raymon Savignac, depicting hot water bottles being used as little characters by children. Savignac’s sketch would later be the inspiration for the video “Freddo Semifreddo Caldo” (Cold, Warm, Hot), an animated advert made for Pirelli by Pagot Film, a demonstration of how the world of children has influenced product communication in all its shapes and forms.

“The ages of the skyscraper“ is to become a permanent exhibition, supported by the Regional Council of Lombardy and the Milan Triennale with the cooperation of the Pirelli Foundation to celebrate 60 years since the first brick of the “Pirellone” tower was laid.

The exhibition, first opened on 25 May 2016 and part of the 26th World Expo, has been visited by more than 13,000 people: a sign of the affection held for this important symbol of the city of Milan, leading to the decision to give the exhibition a permanent home across several floors of the Pirelli skyscraper while maintaining the selection of the most important milestones in the life of the building: its construction, the accident with an aircraft in 2002 and its recent restoration.

The contribution of the Pirelli Foundation was vital for the preparation of the first part of the exhibition, which features the building’s construction and the period in which the skyscraper was the headquarters for the Central Management of Pirelli.This section is now installed in front of the hall dedicated to the architect and designer of the building, Gio Ponti. Among the documents selected by the Pirelli Historical Archive and reproduced in the exhibition are images taken from its rich bank of photographs to reconstruct the various stages of construction: from the plaster of the first foundations to its grand opening, and also including the documentation of the interiors and exteriors of the building which are now available in our online archive . You can also enjoy reproductions of selected covers from the “Pirelli” magazine (1955, 1958 and 1959) and the catalogue “La moda e il grattacielo” (Fashion and the skyscraper”), featuring the photography of Ugo Mulas and layout by Bob Noorda. Visitors are accompanied throughout the exhibition by quotes from an article by Dino Buzzati published in the “Pirelli” magazine in 1970, “Piccole storie del grattacielo” (Short skycraper stories).

Information on how to access the exhibition at the skyscraper will be available on the website of the Lombardy Region in the next few months.