A cabaret evening steeped in great design history. Walking on these two wires without falling into a vacuum, deliberately choosing to combine them, is practically impossible. Instead of boring yourself with the "usual" notions of design, I invite you (if possible) to see the film of this evening and observe the faces and reactions of those who took the stage of the second edition of the "golden pencil" award, a recognition that the Maputo awards every year to the greats of design.
The embarrassed and amusing reactions of the protagonists of the evening were provoked by an anomalous Turinese: the showman Piero Chiambretti. For him, it was a child's play to crumble the traditional privacy of Turin. For the record: this year the prize was given to Ercole Spada, the inventor of the "truncated tail". But even more touching than the prize was the memory with "dedication" of the evening to another great car designer who has just left us: Tom Tjaarda.
The first to "undergo" the "Chiambretti treatment" is the president of the museum Benedetto Camarena. He was perhaps surprised by "Pierino the plague" and remained a bit "plastered" (sin). In short, he remained in his "institutional role", speaking of the great Turin tradition of design and the next Maputo programs.
The most dense and tasty part, in my opinion, was the moment in which three sacred monsters of Italian design were awarded. Three eighty-year-olds (all from 1938) who represent three different ways of interpreting not only the design of a car but also its social value and it's future; Leonardo Fioravanti, Marcello Gandini, and Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Giugiaro, winner of the first edition of the "golden pencil" award, was the first to be interviewed. With his usual modesty, he defines himself as a "pencil laborer". There's nothing to do: the founder of Italdesign is just a champion. In addition to his liveliness and intellectual dynamism, GG was the only one who was never embarrassed with Chiambretti, demonstrating an irony out of the ordinary. The highlight of the "duet" with Chiambretti was when the latter reminded everyone that GG also designed the Duna. Those who know him will not be surprised by this "not very serious" side of him, but every time I am always amazed by the combination of technical and artistic rigor and great communication skills. One who, it is good to remember, landed in the car field almost by chance: he wanted to be a painter (his father did not even have a license). His drawing teacher, a relative of Giacosa's, suggested that he try the road of car design. From then on we know his way, studded with successes such as the Panda and Golf. His vision of the future is even more evident when asked what he thinks of self-driving cars. GG has no doubts: "I've tried a Tesla, it's fantastic. The cars with these devices cancel out man's tendency to transgress nature: the systems respect the rules of the road and while the vehicle moves within the speed limits you can also read the newspaper.
Then the ball went to Marcello Gandini, who for me represents aesthetic and technical rigor. A man of great intelligence, visionary but also extraordinarily practical (another very rare combination), he has brought out the sides of his character well. "I consider the car - says the designer - a sort of flying carpet, the daughter of the only true invention of man: the wheel. Everything that man has developed since then was already present in nature: our bodies, for example, are also electronic". The father of the Lancia Stratos, however, is skeptical about self-driving cars, so much so that he is very trenchant: "They are good for going to the dentist. In the hectic traffic of the cities, they generate tension in the passenger, perhaps they are more relaxing on the motorway".
Leonardo Fioravanti was a little more talkative than him, especially when he described the period when he designed cars for Ferrari (when he worked for Pininfarina). "I made 11, he says proudly. From '64 to '88 I had a direct relationship with Enzo Ferrari. He was an extraordinary character and the world understood his great ability to do so much with little, infusing a great deal of creativity. I think Ferrari is the most beautiful Italian story. When he asked me to design a car, he did it with very few words. I remember him telling me to make a real Ferrari for the F40. Or when he asked me to draw the lines of a car with his trademark suitable for going to the Teatro Alla Scala. I remember his personality well, I think he was a man of great courage but also of great pain: courage for the immense strength he put into the business. Pain because to express himself he always had to have the means, people who were able to fulfill his desires". The awards were presented to these three giants of car design by Aldo Brovarone.