Palazzo delle Esposizioni
Macro Testaccio La Pelanda
Rome, 31 May - 25 September 2011

Giovanni Alemanno
The Mayor of Roma Capitale
In 1954, the premio Compasso d’Oro prize was established in Italy: one of the most prestigious design awards in the world. In 2004, with an initiative that had no precedents in the field of international design, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities announced that the premio Compasso d’Oro - adi collection with its more than 300 projects was “of exceptional artistic and historical interest” and, as a result, would become part of the national heritage. Today the Italian Uniqueness. 1961/2011 The Making of a National Identity exhibition in Rome, which is part of the official programme of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Italian unity, will have as its protagonists the historical collection of the Compasso d’Oro, the 22nd edition of the prize, and the three young winners of a competition organised together with Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. We must thank the Fondazione Valore Italia for having promoted and advanced Italian products – design in particular – in two of the city’s most important exhibition centres. In the rooms of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, in fact, the public will be able to see the historical collection of the Compasso d’Oro prize and so follow the past fifty years of high quality Italian creativity. In the rooms of macro Testaccio and La Pelanda, recently converted into exhibition areas, some four hundred objects competing for the 22nd edition of the prize will be on view. So, for this cultural event offered by the City of Rome, an art venue has become complementary to a place that once manufactured industrial products. It is part of an ideal itinerary that starts from the city centre, passes by the Pyramid, and leads towards the Eur and the historic Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, the future headquarters of the Fondazione Valore Italia and of the Esposizione Permanente del Made in Italy e del Design Italiano. This is the most recent event in a series of exhibitions that began two years ago with a show in the Ara Pacis called Disegno e Design. Brevetti e creatività italiana. It is a journey that explores and highlights numerous examples of Italian creativity united with industrial production, of beauty united with function: a union the has generated a heritage of images that are by now part of our daily life, though we are often unaware of their origins.