Italy

The Italian pavilion takes the visitor on a journey through the Arcipelago Italia. The aim is to communicate the spirit of territories that are far from the metropolitan imagination, territories that are the custodians of an inestimable cultural heritage, which show Italy to be in contrast with Europe’s urban structure, a chink in the armour. In projection in the first tesa (pavilion) at the start of the tour, a docufilm produced by Rai Cinema describes these territories. Eight large books, metaphors for a printed guide, make it possible to explore them, charting as many itineraries along which visitors can discover possible links among a sampling of contemporary architecture, historical villages, excursions, and other initiatives. The second tesa is the result of a polyphonic design process, multi-disciplinary and wide-ranging, coordinated by the curator and his staff and conducted by a Collective embracing six emerging architectural firms in collaboration with the local universities and various professional offices of excellence in the study of the locations. In this space, left completely free and available for use, a large table reproduces Arcipelago Italia and the five prototype designs.