Issue 9 of MD Journal intends analysing the multiple meanings of the concept of Made in Italy in relation to design creativity, including historical perspective, contemporary scenarios and possible immediate-future pre-representations. Made in Italy is a complex phenomenon which, since its inception, has merged localized and traditional aspects, rooted in circumscribed and constant national areas, with cosmopolitan and experimental characters, where local identities are projected towards international references which are open and variable over time. Its declinations are stratified in a long process of development which starts with the flowering of Renaissance art, passes through the fruitful cultural transfer of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is consolidated in universal exhibitions and in the formulations of Fascist identity, only to find its golden age in the demand for economic and cultural revival after the Second World War. In this context, one of the major features which distinguish Made in Italy is specific and fruitful integration between design culture and manufacturing, as demonstrated in promotional circumstances of great international success, such as the US travelling exhibition Italy at Work. Her Renaissance in design today (1950-1953), the exhibition Olivetti. Design in Industry at the MoMA in New York (1952) and the first Italian fashion shows in Florence designed by Giovan Battista Giorgini (1952). Subsequently, until the end of the eighties of last century, Made in Italy continued to establish itself as a range of integrated design events (not merely aesthetic, or manufacturing, or commercial), clearly based on extremely characterised creative, executive, communicative and consumer chains.
The decades of transition to the third millennium are, finally, marked by deeply critical aspects and, while only ten years ago law 135/2009 made the link between “design, planning, processing and packaging carried out exclusively within Italy” of paramount importance for Made in Italy, today this link does not always appear present, meaningful and valuable.On the one hand, many cases still exist in which Designed & Made in Italy is marked by the coexistence of particular national logics such as diversity and the sheer range of products on offer, the strong formal and material identity of products, attention to manufacturing quality, bonds with local communities and widespread know-how and the ability to transform consumption into imagination. On other fronts, however, with increasing frequency, the identities of Designed & Made in Italy dissolve into a galaxy of approaches positioned between the opposite poles of national concerns which relocate but continue to insist on a banal form of Italian branding, and foreign firms that manufacture in Italy to strengthen the quality of their proposals, with in between companies which merely interpret the idea of Italian concept as a marginal product refinement. Thus, under the global thrust of changing ownership, production and commercial structures, Made in Italy tends to detach itself in many cases from historical and territorial connotations which have been cornerstones of its success for many decades, and shift towards a transcultural status which risks transforming it from a driving identity of novelty and ambassador of quality to a mere proclamation of illusory self-evident characters, often perched only on high market segments. In the face of such scenarios, ideas of a contemporary discourse on Made in Italy suggest exploring diversified and integrated lines of critical and design thinking, problematic reflections aimed at absorbing historical events and enhancing their contents and narratives in a highly complex perspective. The Designed & Made in Italy bond which lies at the centre of the interests of this call for paper is in fact far from simplistic and stereotyped image branding, or from sterile definitions of “musealization”, inasmuch as marked by approaches and contents aimed at reaffirming/redefining/re-founding its characters, recalling the substance of its origins and the deep stratification of interconnected values which link design culture, production, sale and use in a relationship of mutual nourishment. Made in Italy seen in its long path of success up to the present day will therefore necessarily be investigated through trajectories of thought and sense centred on the possible declinations of the role of design. While it may be more straightforward to highlight the traits of a design which is ‘creator’ and ‘manufacturer’ of Italian products exported worldwide, it will also be appropriate to research and investigate the particular features of a design that is ‘explorer’ and ‘selector’ of new values upstream of the product, which through creative thinking and experimental challenge, always looks outside of the box. It will then be essential to define the potential and functions of a design which is ‘supporter’ and ‘amplifier’ of Made in Italy through revolutionary communication strategies and devices, as well as a design which is ‘facilitator’ of implementation processes resulting from planning and design choices. Finally, it will be of great interest to focus attention on the little studied role of a ‘peacemaker’ design which expands its function from manufacturing to the wider community and vice versa, expressing and spreading shared and participated dynamics of creativity, dedication and executive ability typical of an all-Italian socio-economic model.
The contributions to issue 9 of the MD Journal will, as has been said, seize the opportunities of a diachronic vision, between historical-critical reconstruction and delineation of contemporary practices and future trends, in a sequence of distinctive traits of Designed & Made in Italy which, like frames of a film, will ultimately substantiate the value chain of an ‘Italian lifestyle’ more than ever susceptible to being made known and relaunched. Topics to be related to the meanings of Made in Italy: Emblematic stories of designers, art directors and Design and Fashion entrepreneurs; Design and manufacturing excellence; Geographies and evolutions of handmade; Cutting edge productions; Technological innovation and adherent form; Local production systems and declinations of open/implicit design; Re-edition, variation, inspiration beyond the cultural fields of design; Industrial atmospheres (The places and the life of the facilities reflected in production); Land Branding (Value and communication of territories and landscape); Objects-fetish vs. objects-story (Aesthetics of everyday life and the idea of life the Italian way).