Résumé:
The commercial network of Olivetti, which spanned worldwide in the years between the 1930s and the 1980s, remains largely unexplored and has not yet been the subject of a specific and systematic study. A relatively small number of shops, designed by the likes of Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini and Gae Aulenti, re-ceived deep critical attention, so that they have come to repre-sent a discreet and partial model of the articulated strategies that the Ivrea-based company put in place for its showrooms. The same goes for the multiplicity of ephemeral activities ai-med at promoting Olivetti image and products: technical exhi-bitions, fair stands, communication designs.
The unanimous acknowledgement of the exceptionality of Olivetti’s experience in these sectors, besides the widely studied fields of architecture and product design, does not go hand in hand with a consequent process of historicisation and dissemination. More specifically, the loss of documentation is most irreparable as commercial exhibition design and ephe-meral events did not leave a physical presence today due to their very nature, except of the Olivetti showroom in Venice by Carlo Scarpa.
This symposium, organised by Università degli Studi di Ferrara, ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne and Iuav University of Venice, aims at revise the Olivetti phenomenon as a whole, marking its characteristic features in relation with the entrepreneurial history and the multiple creative approa-ches coming from designers – both in-house and independent ones – such as Xanti Schawinsky, Correa y Milá, Ettore Sott-sass, Hans Von Klier, Franco Albini, Egidio Bonfante, Giovanni Anceschi, Walter Ballmer, Tomás Maldonado, King & Miranda, Carlo Scarpa.
The symposium adopts an interdisciplinary approach and involves scholars involved in new and recent research projects covering the time span between 1933 – the establish-ment of the Olivetti advertising office – to 1983, which marked the opening of the permanent Olivetti pavilion at the Hannover fair, selected as a conclusive date of an expressive effort and identity strategy both peculiar and particularly efficient. The symposium focuses on spaces (shops, commercial spaces and exhibitions) and languages (visual communication, interaction design, educational, cultural and commercial activities).
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