Olivetti and the International Labour Exhibition: Franco Albini and Egidio Bonfante's Kinetic Display for Italia 61 in Turin

In 1961 the Olivetti took part in the great International Labour Exhibition organised in Turin for the centenary of the unification of Italy. The Olivetti space was designed to illustrate the genesis and evolution of industrial organisation, productivity and the market in the modern era. Franco Albini and Egidio Bonfante, both of whom had already been involved in the design of the Olivetti stores and exhibitions, created an original thematic installation with illustrated panels and films mounted on a grid of metallic cables, in which the conveyor circuits alluding to the continual and constant rhythm of industrial production. This exhibition experience, as yet lacking in specific historical-critical studies, is explored through direct textual and visual sources conserved in the Archivio Storico Olivetti, the Fondazione Franco Albini and the Paolo Monti fond at the Civico Archivio Fotografico in Milan.