Communications

Genoa, 18 June 2008
 
The first photo is of a ship launching - very appropriate for an exhibition that will weigh anchor from Genoa for a long series of stops, in Italy and elsewhere. Thus opens A Legacy for the Future, the travelling photographic exhibition organized by Finmeccanica to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary. The launching in question was that of the Garibaldi, which took place at Sestri Ponente, Genoa in 1899.

In fact, the story of Finmeccanica, as explained in the notes that accompany the images, began well before Finmeccanica itself.
 
This apparent paradox is explained by the fact that many companies that came to be part of the Group existed from the early 1900s and some even from the previous century.

The venue for the vernissage on June 18, which was no less historical than the photos shown, was the main hall (Sala delle Grida) of Genoa's ex-stock exchange. It is a fascinating circular room whose name and spaciousness suggest the agitated bargaining activity that once took place there. There are many numbered rooms around its walls that held, as a sign still says, "telephones and telegraph machines".

The main hall - where history meets history - hosts the modular panels bearing the large format photographs marking the five stages of the human and industrial history that began before 1948 (the section is entitled Remembering) and continues on from 1948 when Finmeccanica was founded through the 1950s (Rebuilding) passing on to the 1960s and 70s (Re-designing) and then from the 1980s up until 2001 (Competing) before following the path, begun in 2002, that has led the Group to the present day (Changing in Order to Grow).
 
However, this journey would not be complete without declaring that "the present" (the word "changing" is there for a purpose) should not be understood as a point of arrival but one of transit, a continually mobile bridge between the roots and the future, the habitat par excellence of those who built their success on skill, innovation and technology.

This was reaffirmed by the co-general manager of Finmeccanica, Remo Pertica, who was present at the inauguration and is also a native of Genoa. In addition to remembering how the men and machines shown in the images on display contributed to the development of industry in Italy, he emphasized the need to look to the future in ample terms as well as in reference to the local situation, where Finmeccanica is a deeply-rooted protagonist of the advanced technology that, together with the port and tourism today, constitutes one of the principal references of Genoa's economy.

At the inauguration ceremony, demonstrating the important territorial synergy, there were speeches by Paolo Odone, president of the Genoa Chamber of Commerce (who joined Finmeccanica in organizing the exhibition), and also the councillor for Research and Innovation of the Municipality of Genoa, Andrea Ranieri, the councillor for Economic Development of the Province of Genoa, Paolo Perfigli and the councillor for Economic Development, Industry and Commerce of the Liguria Region, Renzo Guccinelli.
 
After a number of brief introductory addresses, the prefect of Genoa, Anna Maria Cancellieri, cut the ribbon that officially opened the exhibition of 170 photographs mostly from the archives of the Ansaldo Foundation. The foundation also selected the images which in some cases came from firms and even the albums of individual employees.

The exhibition shows the ships and automobiles, planes and helicopters, heavy vehicles and control centres, optical surfaces and laboratories, electrical installations and trains, buses and radar - but especially the men and women who made all this possible. It shows how their history intertwined at many points with history as a whole. This was made clear by a video that completed the exhibition, which combined Finmeccanica at work with a kind of visual diary of what occurred in Italy and the world during these past sixty years.
 
This was also eloquently demonstrated by several images in the show: the long-ago launching of the transatlantic liner Rex; the victories of Nuvolari and Fangio with Alfa Romeo; Pope John Paul II looking at satellite images from his Wadowice, to mention just a few.
Obviously, it is something that is better seen than talked about. That will not be difficult since A Legacy for the Future will be open in Genoa until the 25th and then move on to Milan, Turin, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Lecce and Catania, as well as to London, Edinburgh, Paris, Toulouse, Nice, Brussels, Moscow, Bucharest, Ankara and Washington.

The tour will transport around the world these images of work that clearly show how its international dimension, which constitutes one of the most significant "photographs" of Finmeccanica, can be seen as a major result, and certainly not the only one, of all the work depicted in this exhibition.