Displaying design, past and future

Written at the invitation of the ADI Compasso d'Oro Museum, the essay offers a historical and critical reflection on design mediation and exhibition in Italy. Leaning on the author's previous research and recent historical and scholarly literature, which have contributed to the in-depth study of various exhibition, museological and museographic events related to Italian design, the essay aims to offer a critical chronology by identifying some transitional phases (the promotion of industrial design; the controversial construction of Italian design identity; the centrality of exhibition design; the exhibitionist/exhibitionist drift; the question of the design museum in Italy). Illuminating the centrality of mediating activities in the historical and cultural elaboration of design, the essay is also an invitation to rethink the formats of such activities today.