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March, 7 marzo 2023 at 12.00 p.m.
University of Anahuac
Campus Nord
Mexico City
The exhibition curated by architect Pier Paolo Peruccio from the Polytechnic University of Turin and designed by architect Alessandro Colombo, with museographic assistance from Lilian Gonzalez, opens on Tuesday, March 7th
The exhibition illustrates the concrete dimension of Olivetti’s cultural and industrial policy in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia), with particular attention to the company’s role in spreading the culture of design in Mexico. n fact, the title of the exhibition evokes the action of “making” and “producing”, but also the pragmatic ability to “communicate” the aesthetic and technological qualities of Olivetti’s products, an Italian company founded over 110 years ago in Ivrea, which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018 as “Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century”.
The exhibition is divided into three sections:
- 110 years of Olivetti’s history, with particular attention to its industrial and social project: typewriters, calculators, computers, graphics, advertising and communication; but also social services for workers, magazines, editorials, cultural projects, and urban planning.
- The 1950s and 1960s, with the arrival of the first computers and the first reflections on environmental sustainability and the future of the planet (Peccei, Olivetti’s CEO from 1964 to 1967, was the founder of the Club of Rome). These are the years of ELEA 9000 and the first personal computer, Programma 101.
- The role of Olivetti in Mexico (present since 1949), where in the 1960s it opened three plants (Apizaco, Tepeaca, Toluca) and specialized in typewriter production. In 1968, on the occasion of the Olympics, Olivetti (drawing on the positive experiences of the 1960 and 1964 Olympics) was commissioned to set up the entire media system for the event, from the architectural design of the 19 press centers to the design of the furniture, promotional material, and advertising campaign for the event. Olivetti also provided all the technological equipment (typewriters, calculators, telephones, telegraphs, telex) and many graphic materials that were integrated into the global identity of the Mexican Olympics.
On Tuesday, March 7th, at 11:00 am, a round table entitled “Behavior, Sustainability, Social Well-being: Olivetti in Mexico and the 1968 Olympics” is also scheduled.
Speakers include Pier Paolo Peruccio, Ludovica Serafini, Lilian Gonzalez, and Alessandro Colombo.
The Olivetti Historical Archive Association contributed to the realization of the exhibition by providing historical materials included in the exhibition itinerary.
