An exhibition celebrating the evolution of radio from a Design perspective will take place from September 5th to 27th and October 4th to 31st. In fact, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the first public radio broadcast, ADI Design Museum in Milan and the Cirulli Foundation in Bologna will host “Radio Design: the aesthetic evolution of radio sets”.
More than 50 models from the private collection of Davide Vercelli, designer and curator of the exhibition, testify to the revolution that has affected the radio industry, from the first valve devices to the most modern devices, offering an unprecedented journey into the world of radio design and technology, exploring the changes and innovations that have characterized this fascinating sector.
The exhibition is guided by some major themes that have run through society and have also been interpreted by the world of radio.
Considerable space is devoted to the epic of major companies such as Braun, Ducati and Brionvega and to the contributions of influential designers such as the Castiglioni brothers, Zanuso and Sapper, Le Corbusier, Starck, Pantom and Loewy.
The technological changes that took place with the invention of transistors, the consequent miniaturization of products and the effect of technological innovation on design are then highlighted, but also those related to materials with the advent of plastics in mass-produced products, from Bakelite to the most modern technopolymers.
The exhibition then investigates the role of the radio medium on the sociocultural level: from an instrument of propaganda and national unity, to the modernist radio that arose from the competition launched by Gio Ponti to the Space Age of the 1970s.
The event is thus intended as a critical in-depth study with a special focus on how the design of radio sets influenced and was influenced by social and cultural changes.
