Bicycle and motorbike between graphics and design

The exhibition is part of the multi-year in-depth study that the m.a.x. museum has cyclically dedicated to means of transport, which began with the automobile (remember the exhibition Auto che passione, in 2018) and then the means of locomotion of the railways (with the exhibition Treni fra arte, grafica e design, in 2021).

The beginning of the 20th century brought with it a whole series of discoveries and changes that still affect our way of life today. The industrial revolution, firstly, and then the advent of new technologies created the premises for a world dominated by movement and speed.

Through the exhibition of graphic materials and models that have made the history of the two-wheelers, the exhibition explores the meanings of bicycle and motorcycle with their historical, aesthetic, symbolic and sociological implications. More than a hundred works of graphic design are on display in the exhibition and published in the catalogue. Among these, the wonderful chromolithographic posters designed by the masters of graphics, from Leopoldo Metlicovitz to Marcello Dudovich, Aleardo Villa, Plinio Codognato, Achille Luciano Mauzan, Gino Boccasile, Erberto Carboni and Armando Testa. Then follow placards, advertising graphics, sketches, postcards, vintage photographs, brochures and various designer objects related to bicycles and motorcycles. Alongside the original models of vintage bicycles and motorcycles. Some twenty in all (from the beginnings with the velocipede, then the bicycle and the transition from the moto-cycle to the motorcycle), they are examples of the brands that have played the largest part in the evolution of two-wheelers, including rare specimens produced in Switzerland, in particular in the Canton of Ticino and Chiasso.

A singular study in depth is devoted to contemporary designers: Costantino Sana for the bicycle and Rodolfo Frascoli for the motorcycle. The latter emerges from the museum with the “forest of posters”.

The exhibition boasts the moral patronage of the Consulate of Italy in Lugano and loans from: the Museo Nazionale Collezione Salce in Treviso, the Museo del Falegname “Tino Sana” in Almenno San Bartolomeo, the Museo Privato – Collezioni Alfredo e Carlo Azzini in Soresina, the Museo Piaggio in Pontedera, and important loans from some valuable collections, many of which are in Ticino.

Exhibition curated by Stefano Pivato, Giorgio Sarti and Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini.