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“Italia Geniale” Design exhibition in Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China
by PDS Official on Aug 12, 2023
When the designers team from ProductDesignStore boarded their flight to Guangzhou, China, they were expecting an enriching experience.
Yet, what they found inside Art Museum, which was organised by Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, surpassed even the highest design anticipations. Team were greeted by a panorama of innovation and artistry that promised to redefine China and Italian design concepts.
“Italia Geniale”, an exhibition promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, intends to turn the spotlight on the invention, creativity, and product design behind Made in Italy.
In its role of the scientific curator (the Association of Industrial Design) was closely involved in the design of the exhibition, selecting both historical and contemporary patents and products, a number of which have won the prestigious ADI Compasso d’Oro Award.
In actual fact, the overall interpretive framework was “driven” by design, since this is a discipline that constantly aims to achieve innovation, linking function and beauty while always considering the user as the central focus of every creative activity. The exhibition thus suggests discarding the idea of the user as merely someone who employs objects and instead considering him or her as a “person” who expresses his or her talents, capabilities, and potentialities through the said objects.
This design philosophy of “person” is in fact the driving force behind the exhibition narration, in which the concept of enabling is expressed in the following five different categories.
“move-able”, moving freely and safely, or rather the possibility of having access to objects and systems designed for mobility;
“live-able”, looking after oneself and others, i.e. providing devices and services useful for maintaining health and wellbeing;
“imagine-able”, or enjoying the conditions in which it is possible to imagine, dream, desire and fantasize as a fundamental right of every human being;
“relation-able”, or the promotion of relationships with other living beings and artifacts while interpreting the Anthropocene era as the right time for adopting a sense of responsibility towards the planet and other living beings.
And finally “work-able”, or working with a sense of commitment in a context in which work is considered a way of creating one’s own personal and social identity as a vital component of life.
111 products in these five categories demonstrate the genius of Italian design and innovation in matching up to this idea of being “a person”.
The guide introduced, "The works showcased in the “Italia Geniale” section, ranging from the COVID-19 oxygen mask that focuses on personal health to the hiking poles that improve outdoor activities, embody the Italian design's pursuit of elegance, technological advancement, and innovative forms, while also emphasizing the attention to various daily life needs."
The “Italia Geniale” section covers the historical evolution of product design in relation to work since World War II, reflecting Italy's emphasis on comfort and safety in work tools product design.
One of the most notable legendary product design is the Olivetti typewriter, which is considered one of the greatest industrial design works before the advent of Apple products.
The exhibition, a melange of both modern product design and historic art, provided not only aesthetic pleasure but also a plethora of forward-thinking design insights.
For ProductDesignStore team's, it wasn't just a tour of an art museum; it was an enlightening journey into the future of design. These insights, laden with potential, now stand to greatly influence their upcoming selections of premium design commodities for their discerning clientele.
As global product design community waits in eager anticipation, it's clear that this design trip to Guangzhou wasn't just another corporate tour—it was a deep dive into the vanguard of global design inspiration.
