The Home of Italian Identity - The Strength of Future

The Home of Italian Identity was not an exhibition but a sensory and emotional project designed to make young Italians aware and

proud of the many wonders of their country. We therefore chose to adopt a contemporary language, devoid of any filters or museum conventions; a language based on a range of different perspectives and straightforward concepts, presented in an amusing and enjoyable way.

In order to recreate the Italian identity Marco Balich, Artistic Director of the Italian Pavilion, toured Italy together with sociologists Giuseppe De Rita and Marco Bonomi, to show what Italy is like today.

Each region presented a worthwhile tale of expertise, one of beauty, and one concerning the future. The Home expressed this potential through technological and provocative displays, and the vital energy of the nursery – Italy’s driving force.

In this section visitors explore the metaphor of the nursery. Here the two meanings of the word (a place where plants are grown, and a space in which to raise and educate children) manifest themselves through an itinerary that combines areas devoted to markable biodiversity of Italy, and others devoted to a joint project with Italian schools.

Italy Pavilion’s ‘Vivaio Scuola’ (School Nursery) offered young people a series of educational and entertainment activities inspired by the Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life theme. During the 184 days of the event, it hosted activities for children and teenagers, focused on the topics of sustainability and access to food. Furthermore, the best projects by educational institution involved with the School Project were presented in the Vivaio Scuola. The School Project is an Expo Milano 2015 project which involved both Italian and foreign schools, together with class work and visits to the Exhibition Site -- with the idea that Expo Milano 2015’s legacy will be continued through new generations.

Bruno Munari (1907-1998), who was born in Milan, was one of the first Futurists and one of the leading artists and

designers of the 20th century. Munari, a lover of Japanese culture, liked to make a play on words using two Chinese and Japanese terms contained in his last name. In the Zen tradition, MU indicates the empty mind that fosters creativity, while NARI means willpower and doing in Japanese. Munari can thus be read as doing from emptiness – the way real artists do, but also trees and nature! This is why Mu-Nari is in EXPO-2015 which, with the Tree of Life as its symbol, references the creativity of nature, which feeds the world and its inhabitants. The Associazione Bruno Munari (ABM), founded in 2001 by the artist’s heir and his former assistants, promotes his work, philosophy, and educational methods, which it also teaches. ABM has offered to collaborate with EXPO-2015 free of charge to design an interactive game based on the children’s game "Metti le foglie" (Munari, 1973, ed. Danese): drawings of typical plants from Italian regions are completed with stamps reproducing the plant’s leaves.