Curated by Gemma De Angelis Testa and Gianfranco Maraniello

The Chiablese rooms of the Royal Museums of Turin will host the overwhelming imagination of Armando Testa , a brilliant interpreter of his time and a forerunner of fundamental contemporary issues, whose lesson is still today as relevant as ever.

The curators Gemma De Angelis Testa and Gianfranco Maraniello pay homage to the inspiration of the most important Italian communicator with an exhibition, created in collaboration with Mart - Museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto , which represents a dip into the imagination of a great experimenter.

The Chiablese Rooms will welcome some of the most famous characters from the worlds of Testa, unmistakable icons that generations of Italians look at with nostalgic smiles and which are a fun discovery for the youngest. From the "modern man" that stands out in the cheerful Facis posters, to the timeless logo of Carpano Punt and Mes vermouth, passing through the hippopotamus Pippo protagonist of the Lines advertisements, up to the amusing carousels inhabited by Carmencita and Caballero for the Paulista coffee by Lavazza or by the spherical extraterrestrials of the planet Papalla for Philco, the exhibition is an immersion in our cultural landscape. And again: Pirelli elephant, Esso rhino, black and white carousels and more recent advertisements. In these surreal worlds, as well as in the other materials present in the exhibition, the distinctive features of communication and contemporary art of the last decades are immediately recognizable.

Born in Turin in 1917, Testa helped build the Italian visual culture of which we are heirs today. In 2015 the city dedicated a public sculpture to him, Sintesi '59, located in front of the Porta Susa station, an eye open to the world in dialogue with the urban space that surrounds it. In the Turin exhibition there is a nucleus of works that illustrate the artistic production of Armando Testa, focusing with particular attention on the iconographic passions repeated and reinterpreted during his long career.