Tra la terra e il cielo. Costume e cultura ai tempi di Nuvolari

A multimedia project by Fabrica
With the scientific support of Stefano Bartezzaghi, Marco Belpoliti, Fiammetta Bonazzi, Enrico Morteo and Elena Volpato

Because of a series of different events there are men who overcome the barriers of their private lives and come to represent the essence of a particular historical era, and yet at the same time they transcend it. Beyond a doubt Nuvolari is one such man. This is not only because his myth lives on today no mere chance that Ferdinand Porsche described him as the greatest driver of the past, present and future but especially because Nuvolari evokes a prototype of modern man in dealing with one of the traditional human aspirations: greater and greater speed.
Devised and created by Fabrica, Tra la terra e il cielo. Costume e cultura ai tempi di Nuvolari is a multimedia and multisensorial journey that is both articualte and evokative. Starting from Nouvolari as a symbol of his times, through sound, music, odours, images and interaction, the changes of an epoch are narrated.
The history of a changing Italy: cinema and the arrival of talking movies, the birth of the Italian film industry and neo-realism, new perceptions of space and form meaning urban and living space, distance and closeness, the relationship between full and empty, definite and indefinite influence life just as much as the art of speed, and smell too, because it is through these aspects that the history of Italy can be traced (Nuvolari died from an illness of the respiratory system caused by inhaling exhaust fumes) and the changes in the sense and value of time which changed like the gears of a new racing car.

This volume, from the exhibition held in Mantua, takes its inspiration from Nuvolari and his image so as to depict the transformations of an epoch in a sensorial and emotional journey, an epoch that was crucial to the creation of contemporary Italian culture, and moreover to convey what Nuvolari stood for, beyond his sporting achievements, both socially and culturally.