In the 60s Milan was in the midst of tree economic with an irrepressible cultural ferment and with an unprecedented design strength.
It was 1958 that the great season of music in Milan was inaugurated with the Billie Holiday concert at the Emerald. All the greats of Jazz followed from Duke Ellington to Thelonius Monk to Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan. But pop music also experienced a golden age with the Beatles concert at Vigorelli in 1965 and the Rolling Stones at Palalido in 1967. Milan soon became a city and ready to welcome the greatest protagonists of pop and rock music from all over the world.
In art we cannot forget: Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, of milestones of Italian design such as Marco Zanuso, Bruno Munari, Vico Magistretti, Achille Castiglioni, Bob Noorda. In the photograph: Roberto Polillo, Carlo Orsi, Uliano Lucas, Gianni Greguoli, Fedele Toscani, Fabrizio Garghetti, Giorgio Lotti, Emilio Frisia, Cesare Colombo, Ernesto Fantozzi, Paolo Monti, Silvestre Loconsolo, Piero Raffaelli, and finally that intense nightlife of the clubs of jazz with Giorgio Gaber and Enzo Jannacci.
It was a brilliant period, a dream which however was interrupted on 12 December 1969, with the attack on the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana.
The exhibition itinerary, divided into sections, opens with images of the new Milan, whose face changes thanks to the new buildings, such as the Pirellone, the Velasca Tower, the Municipal Technical Services Tower, the Management Centre, the Galfa Tower but also the birth of the peripheral districts, among which Quarto Oggiaro, Olmi, Gallaratese, Gratosoglio, Comasina stand out, the latter begun in 1953 and completed in 1960, the most important building intervention in those years in Italy with its 11.000 rooms and 83 palaces.
Photographs and magazines of the time document the tree economic, with the construction of the Milan ring roads, of the Milan-Piacenza section of the A1 motorway, infrastructures that led to a faster circulation of goods with greater growth of companies. The advertising graphics are present with the names of Franco Albini and Bob Noorda for the Milanese Metro.
There are several objects on display oObjects that evoke the design season, with Bruno Munari, Marco Zanuso, Vico Magistretti, Enzo Mari, Achille Castiglioni, Sambonet, Joe Colombo, Gio Ponti. The story of the Milanese companies involved in this sensational season is told. Between all Brionvega, Cassina, Zanotta, Kartell, Tecno, Fontana Arte, Artemide, Flos, Arflex and Danese.
Art galleries are increasingly places for meeting and discussion, but also cabaret, music, especially jazz.
And who does not remember memorable concerts, such as those of Billie Holiday at the Smeraldo, the Beatles at the Vigorelli, the Rolling Stones at the Palalido, Jimi Hendrix at the Piper. Milan was also the stage that saw artists such as Enzo Jannacci, Giorgio Gaber, Adriano Celentano, Patty Pravo establish themselves.
The end of the 60s then marked the birth of the protest, here were the student revolts with occupations of the Statale and Cattolica, or pickets in factories and strikes.
The exhibition closes with the section dedicated to Piazza Fontana and the end of the dream, with photographs of the massacre and funerals, accompanied by documents and some objects related to this tragic event whose research and selection, in the archives of the State Police and alone, the Milan Police Headquarters collaborated.
Curated by Stefano Galli, created in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan | Culture, Historical Museums Directorate and with the Milan Police Headquarters, organized by MilanoinMostra with the patronage of the State Police and the Lombardy Region, the exhibition presents photographs, posters, magazines, furnishings, design objects and much more, which will revive the of that era.
Cover image: Bar Jamaica © Archive Garghetti
