Olivetti e la cultura nell'impresa responsabile

Abstract

"The exhibition is part of a long term programme of events that the Museo Civico della Città di Ivrea and the Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti will curate to make the works of art in the Collezione Olivetti accessible to the public, closely linked to the historical documentation that reconstructs the process of their acquisition. This is a cultural wealth of documents, films and photographs, which the Olivetti company commissioned and purchased over the years and which recognises the value of culture as a growth factor in society, from factory to region. The project comes within the agreement signed last February by the Comune di Ivrea, the Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti, Tim and Olivetti and is intended to highlight the Ivrea company's works of art and make them accessible. The exhibition contains a selection of more than one hundred works of art by thirty two artists and more than one hundred documents from the archive and library of the Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti (posters, leaflets, historic films, publications, photographs and correspondence), once again presented to the public after the only previous exhibition in 2002 at the Officina H in Ivrea, on the occasion of the '55 artisti del Novecento dalla raccolta Olivetti' exhibition, thus opening up a pathway of progressive knowledge and the full enjoyment of numerous parts of this considerable, extraordinary collection. The exhibition expresses the concept of culture and the 'means of culture', with a graduated view, through the organisation of a system called for by the company and its people (first of all the directors of the Biblioteca di Fabrica and Centro Culturale Olivetti, then under the responsibility of the Direzione Relazioni Culturali Disegno Industriale e Pubblicità and the Servizi Culturali Olivetti) to propagate and expand opportunities for knowledge of and contact with art. This very rich programme of events, exhibitions and publications is the result of voluntary action, of a systematic and effective internal organisation at the service of the community, and has gradually become an identifying element of the company, emblematic of its public recognition in Italy and throughout the world. From factory to region, from Ivrea to the world's great museums, by way of progressive studies on a time scale spanning the entire second half of the last century."-- Introduction (page 99 [volume 1]).

Contents

I. La Collezione Olivetti = The Olivetti Collection -- II. Olivetti e l'arte: Jean-Michel Folon (1934-2005) = Olivetti and art: Jean-Michel Folon (1934-2005) -- III. 12 libri per 12 mesi. Universo Olivetti, un caleidoscopio tra pagina stampata e opera d'arte = 12 books for 12 months. Olivetti Universe, a kaleidoscope of printed pages and works of art -- IV. I negozi Olivetti. Poter scegliere la bellezza = Olivetti stores. Being able to choose beauty -- V. Astrattismo e Informale nella Collezione Olivetti e nella Collezione Civica = Abstract art and Informalism in the Olivetti Collection and in the Civic Collection -- VI. L'arte raccontata da Giorgio Soavi per il centenario dalla nascita = Art told by Giorgio Soavi for the centenary of his birth.