An exhibition of pictures accompanied by small narratives of their childhood memories illustrates the masters of design in the age of their childhood.

On the occasion of the fourth edition of the Brera Design Days, Fondazione Corriere della Sera will host a project curated by Chiara Alessi and Elisa Testori, produced by StudioLabo. Twenty or so images will cover a thirty-year period of history from the 1920s to the 1940s, with as many episodes aimed at highlighting that moment which is not considered to be very important, but which is certainly crucial for the identification of the “codes of the soul” of our great Masters of Italian design: childhood.

The photographs, mostly unpublished, have been found with the collaboration of the families, archives and publishers of reference of the Masters. The quotations that accompany the Masters’ photographs as children come from private conversations, publications, diaries and letters, or from unpublished material specially prepared for the exhibition.

The subtitle “Stories of children who were children like you” alludes to the extraordinary nature of these events, each special and unique in its own way, and at the same time to the absolute normality of the Masters’ childhoods, their games, their desires and fears, framed by the years of the Wars.
The names range from the great masters who have passed away, such as the Castiglioni brothers, Richard Sapper, Alessandro Mendini, Aldo Rossi, Joe Colombo, Marco Zanuso, Anna Castelli Ferrieri, to the illustrious names of the golden age of Italian design: Enzo Mari, Cini Boeri, Michele De Lucchi, Andrea Branzi, Ugo La Pietra.

The layout and graphics, by Paolo Giacomazzi, follow the inspiration of the carousel, with an ideal roundabout in which the spectator is at the centre and the little masters hold hands.