Tuesday February 3rd, at 5:00 pm at Galleria Aiap in Via Ponchielli 3, Milan, there was the round table Editorial Graphic in XX century: excellence of made in Italy, organized by AIAP in order to present conservation and valorization projects.
Great interest aroused in the media by still underway exhibition dedicated to the collection Elia Barbiani-Giorgio Conti of Italian editorial graphic from 1945 to this day (“Dressing the book”, Gorgonzola, Biblioteca comunale, 17 gennaio-8 febbraio 2009) represents at last a signal of attention to an history that has to be still told and right to the end. About made in Italy we usually know design and fashion, but we ignore or underestimate the role of editorial graphic, which stands out instead like his third pillar that makes Italy and Milan the most advanced laboratory in this area.
From the forerunner initiative in 1988 of exhibition and catalogue “Design the book”, realized with several contributions and in collaboration of Aiap, we arrive today to the collection Barbiani-Conti, unique in Italy for completeness and dimension (more than 3.500 books). Once more private collecting which replaces unsuccessful or sporadic public intervention. The round table, promoted by Aiap, SBME and Assessorato alla Cultura del Comune di Gorgonzola, presented some of the most significant proposals reached in Milan about conservation and valorization of great works and documents of editorial graphic, from Albe e Lica Steiner‘s archivi to Aiap’s funds. Particularly important was the project presented by the antique bookseller Andrea Tomasetig, which spoke about first Book and reading Museum in Italy entirely dedicated to XX century and based on the collection Barbiani-Conti, on extraordinary editorial archive Bruno Munari collected by Giancarlo Baccoli and on the collection Gianni Manzo of masterpieces of futurist book and of other avant-gardes. The public meeting included also the conclusive intervention of Gillo Dorfles. The goal is to convert the book in a privileged instrument of cultural promotion of Made in Italy in view of Expo 2015.