Made in Italy and made for America: craft in Italy at work
Rossi, Cat (2023) Made in Italy and made for America: craft in Italy at work. In: L'Italia al lavoro: un lifestyle da esportazione. Bologna University Press, Bologna, pp. 59-66. ISBN 9791254772959
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This chapter considers concepts of authenticity and italianità in the seminal exhibition Italy at Work, which toured the USA between 1950 and 1953. While all exhibits were made in Italy, they were created for different audiences and by different authors with competing and often contrasting visions for post-WWII Italy, and the place of craft and design in this. Implicated with Italy’s post war ricostruzione and Marshall Plan politics, these included creating objects for American consumers through the exhibition’s retail campaigns in American department stores such as Macy’s, as well as the intervention of individuals such as Gio Ponti and organisations who sought to modernise Italy’s craft traditions. These processes expose the uneven power relationships between craft and design in Italy, and between Italy and the USA, in the immediate post-war period.
This chapter also explores how certain makers were praised for their “sincerity of craftsmanship” and singled out for their Italian-ness. Building on archival research, this paper seeks to move on the debate around Italy at Work by mobilising contemporary craft and decolonial theories to problematise concepts of italianità and authenticity in the exhibition and consider how these informed craft and design’s trajectory from the 1950s onwards.
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