On the occasion of Italian Design Day 2021 and as part of the international industrial fair INNOPROM, with Italy this year partner country and guest of honour, ‘Universo Olivetti: Comunità come utopia concreta’ (The Olivetti Universe: Community as an Actual Utopia), opens in Ekaterinburg. This original exhibition by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is curated by Pippo Ciorra (MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts), Francesca Limana and Matilde Trevisani (Fondazione Adriano Olivetti).

Within the setting of the biggest international fairs for technology and industrial production, the exhibition Universo Olivetti. Community as concrete utopia tells the story of one of the pivotal figures of twentieth century Italy, Adriano Olivetti, his unique business model that is still relevant today, social responsibility and care for the urban environment and Ivrea, a city which has recently been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The opening of the exhibition, open from 7 July to 8 August 2021 at the Ekaterinburg Museum of Architecture and Design, will be attended by the Italian Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Moscow, Daniela Rizzi. This is the first stop on a world tour in autumn 2021, which will include the Italian Cultural Institutes of Berlin, Madrid and Lisbon, offering the international public a wealth of archival material and striking graphics that rediscover the great relevance and strength of the Olivetti project.

For the launch of the exhibition Universo Olivetti and as part of Italian Design Day, the Italian Cultural Institute of Cologne is organizing an online conversation between Pippo Ciorra (Fondazione MAXXI), Beniamino de’ Liguori Carino (Fondazione Adriano Olivetti) and the German architect Thomas Schriefers. A three-way dialogue on the subject of the vision and legacy of Adriano Olivetti, the impact of his work and way of thinking on society and the world of Italian culture.

The meeting, freely available online with English subtitles here on italiana and on the Institute’s YouTube channel, is a valuable opportunity to get up close to ‘Universo Olivetti‘ and to find out about the original exhibition project, created by Emanuele Marcotullio, who will take part in the meeting.