CULTURE

Inside the wild (archive)

26 July, 2018

"Happiness is only real when shared," said Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild. And we've thought of it by delving into the meanders of our archive... that's why we want to share it with you.

 

One of the things we love to do at the Museum is to read, which is why we often organize book presentations. What kind of book presentations? Books closely related to the history of cars, but not only that. With Oscar di Montigny, Niccolò Branca and Filomena Pucci we have, for example, discussed ethical marketing or, as we say around here, "heroic". But since the Museum is a place of culture, we like to welcome reading tips and exchange opinions.

In one of these recommended books, Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman, we found this phrase: "We live in an age of wealth and superabundance, but how sad it is! There is "neither art nor philosophy," says Fukuyama. All that remains is the "perpetual maintenance of the Museum of Human History". We were very impressed by this phrase for two reasons: on the one hand, the idea of the museum as something dusty and alienating, a sort of long antechamber that precedes oblivion. And secondly, we asked ourselves: what if art and philosophy reside in that "perpetual Maintenance"?

Those who have already visited the Museum(and if you have not yet done so, register now! ) could see the Cozzi.Lab, what we call "the brain of the Museum". Inside you can find precious information, from the documentation that accompanies every car on display and that, in addition to telling the mechanical details, tells the story of marketing and communication, to photos with the most famous "influencers" of the time. There are also over 180 posters, advertising, informative and artistic and the trophies of the greatest artists of the 20th century made for Alfa Romeo. Beautiful, isn't it? But happiness is only real when it is shared as Christopher McCandless said in Into The Wild and, we add, it also applies to beauty and knowledge. Let's face it, owning a beautiful Alfa Romeo, loving and pampering it but keeping it under a tarp and never showing it to anyone, is a huge waste. Don't you agree?
"We live in an age of wealth and superabundance, but how sad! There's no art or philosophy."

So, after all these premises, we can tell you that "we are taking the cloth off our Alfa" the archiving and digitization process is going on and is starting to produce interesting results, thanks to the work of two wonderful professionals: Marta Bianchi, a graduate in archiving and Francesco Morello, a photographer.

Marta was the first to enter the "wild archive" starting with the cataloguing of documents and now proceeding with their digitization. In these months she has also followed some students who have lived the experience of alternating school-work at the Museum and you can read in the page dedicated to schools, the story of their work.

 

Francesco Morello is a well known photographer in Legnano for the splendid images of the Palio and for the numerous institutional and private collaborations. He has been following the events at the Museum for some time now and is now working on an extraordinary job: the digitalization of the prints kept in the Cozzi.Lab: an authentic journey through history! This process is fundamental for us because it will allow a thorough knowledge of all the available material, the start of thematic in-depth studies and, of course, a greater sharing.

In short, we would certainly not want to contradict Fukuyama, but the notorious "perpetual Maintenance of the Museum", in these parts reveals pages of art and philosophy and, above all, a chapter, perhaps small but no less interesting, of humanity. And, we assure you, we don't feel like a gloomy gray museum, but a living page of Alpha red history!