Just outside Turin, one can visit the Pininfarina Collection, an exhibition project devoted to the Pininfarina marque, a veritable ambassador of Italian design in the world. The most outstanding cars of the company’s history from 1936 to the 2000s are on display in an attractive, intimate exhibition space: from the Cisitalia, the first automobile to be included in the MoMA collection in New York, to the Giulietta Spider – the first car owned by my father, Giovanni Mazzoleni – which was every young guy’s dream in the late 1950s.

In May 1930, Battista Farina, nicknamed ‘Pinin’, opened the Pinin Farina workshop outside Turin, specializing in luxury and ultra-luxury coachbuilding. Pinin’s name and reputation spread rapidly in the industry, leading to historic collaborations with prestigious brands such as Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Cisitalia. The cars produced are not only aesthetically pleasing and at the forefront of design, but also attach importance to aspects such as aerodynamics, unique production runs and the driving experience.

The lines and shapes of Pininfarina’s coachwork have gone down in the history of international design, innovating and redefining industrial design and performance. Today, a visit to the collection is a chance to retrace pivotal moments in Italian history and to have a broader picture of artistic production and avant-garde design trends spanning almost a century of our history. An industrial history that showcases Italian craftsmanship and excellence, which we are happy to explore further in our collaboration with Artissima and MadeIN, an artistic residency project that allows four young artists to train in four local companies, with the ultimate aim of producing an original work of art, which will be presented at the Artissima art fair.