Nel Paese della Pubblicità. In the Realm of Advertising

This book accompanies the exhibition launching the activities of the Museo della Pubblicità (Publicity and Marketing Department of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea), the first true museum devoted to advertising in Italy. The museum has a permanent collection which is in the process of evolution and which will be flanked by thematic temporary shows. In the Manica Lunga, a selection of more than 300 television ads from all over the world are shown; these date from the 1950s to the present day and many of them are prize-winners from the international festivals of Cannes and Venice.
There are sixteen areas in the exhibition, each based on a theme representative of every-day traditions and the collective imagination, created by the set-designer Leila Fteita. The following spaces and places will be presented: those which have become emblematic of domestic intimacy, such as the kitchen, bathroom and the bedroom; others which are now representative of socialisation, such as the garden, the bar, the table, the service station, the school, and sporting areas; spaces such as the countryside, the beach and the mountain, the street or New York, the urban myth par excellence; and epic places such as the Far West.
Advertising's imaginary spaces is the theme of the exhibition writes the curator Ugo Volli those spaces surrounding brands in advertisements and film clips: it is an entire world that covers natural and urban space, the interior of the home and public places, real spaces that we encounter every day and the imaginary spaces of science fiction or the Far West. This world however, does not simply illustrate our reality; rather it is a projection, a constructed image, the oneiric background of collective dreams put forward by advertising.
The catalogue comprises critical texts by Ugo Volli, Alberto Abruzzese, Federico Andreotti, Rossana Bonadei, Franco Farinelli, Anna Maria Testa, Cristina D'Addato and Davide Jabes.