outfitting of the “Volare: the itlian icon on the global culture exhibition
Leopolda station FI (with G. Cavaglià, graphics I.Lupi)

Taking the name of the famous song of Modugno, Volare, the demonstration explores the reception of the Italian image abroad. In a 1500sqm space, at the first section of Leopolda station, Castiglioni, Cavaglià and Lupi develop the outfitting theme inside of a gray cocoon, constructed by mixed wall lines. The route is articulated in a U and divided in more parts. It starts on a small black entrance, covered in capitonnè and coccarde tricolored fabric that features uninterrupted projections on a grounded disk, passing by a large hall. Closed at the back by a tall 12m long display, the space is made very bright with 27 snappy backlit slides of Leslie Fratkin that represent many other displays of the Italian stores at the New Yorkers Fifth Avenue and Madison in Manhattan, in the territory denominated Italian Mile. From here, entering a cornered ambience where the automobiles and motorcycles, considered in the collective imagination as the essence of our design products, are exhibited. The space becomes a wide oblique corridor: on the left a bar and on the right a long wall, crammed by dozens of suspended photographs and large screen-printed drawings, emblematic of the “Italian landscape”. The bar, an integral part of the exhibition route and therefore absolute novelty, constitutes the very own exhibitor itself, where samples of Italian products that are immediately recognized replace the normal bottles on the shelves. 26 meters long, illuminated by Fucsia lamps (designed by Castiglioni in 1996) disposed in line, with two different heights and indicated by a big neon writing, the counter offers for free, during the entire exhibition, coffee, cappuccinos and canapés, underlining in that way the national sociality aspect. The Volare panorama is completed by its refined audiovisual, where are mounted clips of programs and foreign advertising that have Italy as subject.