MAUTO PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE CREATIVE GENIUS OF GIORGETTO GIUGIARO

From November 25th, 2016 to February 26th, 2017, a unique exhibition runs through the artistic and personal development of the ‘Car Designer of the Century’, featuring his most iconic cars, paintings, and sketches

Turin, November 30th, 2016

It would be unthinkable to discuss the history of the modern car industry without mentioning one of the men who, more than any other, influenced it thanks to his creative genius: Giorgetto Giugiaro, a car design icon who created over 200 automobiles – from the most spartan economy cars to breathtaking sports cars and concept cars – and successfully combined a strong artistic talent with a strict culture of engineering. The Avv. Giovanni Agnelli National Automobile Museum of Turin, in 40 Corso Unità d’Italia, will be paying tribute to this Piedmontese designer in its exhibition entitled Giugiaro and his Journey, from November 25th, 2016 to February 26th, 2017. The curators of this exhibition are three prominent figures from the automotive industry: the journalist Giosuè Boetto Cohen, the automotive historian Giuliano Molineri, and the museum’s director, Rodolfo Gaffino Rossi.

A great deal has already been said and written about the figure of Giugiaro: a designer of innate talent who is hard to pigeonhole and who is seen from a new light in MAUTO’s exhibition, with its focus on his family influences, entrepreneurial challenges and the way every single creation of his has been imbued with humanity, looking to the future with insight and courage. Innovation and uniqueness, art and pragmatism have guided Giorgetto’s hand for over 60 years, the first complete car designer and someone who is still an international benchmark in the industry. Seven honorary degrees, six Compasso d’Oro awards, three Car of the Year awards, and two Golden Steering Wheel awards are just some of the honors that have been bestowed on him during the course of an unstoppable career that led 120 journalists from all over the world to define him the most important car designer of the twentieth century in 1999, and that doesn’t count the hundreds of designs he has produced in the industrial, product, and visual design fields.

“This exhibition is the definitive tribute to Giugiaro’s unflagging, concrete, creative work, an extraordinary example of the ability to create that is typical of this region and of Italian brilliance in general,” says Benedetto Camerana, the President of MAUTO.

“We wanted to tell the story of a designer who has made the most of his personal assets – a wealth of encounters and partnerships – to develop the ability to tackle different languages and tools,” commented Rodolfo Gaffino Rossi is his dual role as curator and director of MAUTO. “Giugiaro is a ‘Renaissance’ man, able to translate the expectations of generations of users into graphite and concrete objects,” echoes Giuliano Molineri, while Giosuè Boetto Cohen adds that “this exhibition is dedicated to capable young people who always remember to use their heads when searching for new ideas, even in a hyper-connected world like ours.”

THE EXHIBITION While Giugiaro’s professional life has been intrinsically linked to the history and success of all the biggest names in the automotive industry, his personal life began in Garessio: a small town in the province of Cuneo near the border with the region of Liguria, where Giorgetto was born in 1938. The exhibition begins here, going over his childhood and his strong attachment to family, particularly his father, Mario, who handed down his passion for drawing and painting to his son, as well as the choice of pursuing an artistic education combined with the study of technical design. The exhibition goes on to cover his move to Turin and the experience he gained in the school for sketching run by “Golia” (a pseudonym for Eugenio Colmo). In this way, the first part of the exhibition is dominated by the young Giugiaro’s unpublished sketches, oil paintings, and caricatures of celebrities right up to his first car sketches. In the mid-1950s, these attracted the attention of Dante Giocosa, Fiat’s technical director, considered one of the masters of the Italian school of automotive design. The exhibition continues with the Ghiribizzi (“Whimsical fancies”) section that tells the story of his years working as an apprentice in the Centro Stile Fiat (Fiat’s design center) and the first models produced by the 21-year-old Giugiaro for the Bertone automobile company. It ends with the Italdesign company, founded by Giugiaro and his technologist friend Aldo Mantovani in 1968 and expanded in an increasingly symbiotic way with his son Fabrizio, who joined the company in 1990 and rose through the ranks to become the head of the Styling department. The Testudo concept car (built on a Chevrolet Corvair chassis) and his preparatory sketches for the Aztec lead to the “Gallery” where ten of Giugiaro’s most famous cars are on display: dream cars parked next to ingenious economy cars. The rest is history: from the VW Golf launched in 1974 to the Ferrari GG50, including the Panda and Alfa Brera, the Maserati Ghibli, and the super-luxurious Bugatti sedan, up to the Alfa 2600 and the Brivido, designed by Fabrizio Giugiaro at Italdesign, and finishing up with the DeLorean made famous by the movie Back to the Future.

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GIUGIARO AND HIS JOURNEY From November 25th, 2016 to February 26th, 2017

Avv. Giovanni Agnelli National Automobile Museum 40 Corso Unità d’Italia 10126 Turin

Opening times: Mondays: 10am – 2pm, closed in the afternoon Tuesdays: open in the afternoon from 2pm – 7pm Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays: 10am – 7pm Fridays and Saturdays: 10am – 9pm Last admission: one hour before closing time

Ticket prices: Adults: €12.00 Concessions: €8.00 (over 65s; children 6 – 14 years of age; people with disabilities; groups of over 15 people; college students with a student ID card) Schools: €2.50 Free admission: children under 6, journalists with an official press pass, Musei Torino Piemonte and Torino + Piemonte Card holders

For further details: National Automobile Museum Press Office Spin-To // Communication for Innovation T: 011 19712375 Elisa Barberis C: +39 340 1521525 E: barberis@spin-to.it

Press Office Director Stefano Fassone C: +39 347 4020062 E: fassone@spin-to.it

National Automobile Museum contact details National Automobile Museum Press Office and Communication manager Lorenza Macciò T: 011 677666 E: l.maccio@museoauto.it